LAUNCH PROJECT 365

MAY 2021 Last year, Launch ignited a new initiative known as Launch Project 365. This initiative sought to encourage our organization and our delegates to complete 365 actionable steps towards combating hatred, racism, and discrimination. Today, we are excited to announce that we not only met our goal, but we exceeded our goal by reaching 386 actions. The number 365 not only stood as our goal, but also as a symbol of the need for year-round attention and dedication to the racism that plagues our society. Launch Project 365 officially concluded on May 25th; the most unfortunate one year anniversary of the George Floyd murder. However, we are dedicated to constantly making our communities, schools, and homes more inclusive and equitable for all.

STOP ASIAN HATE

MARCH 2021 Launch Leadership stands firmly against racism, hatred, and acts of violence. We stand with the members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community across the state of Nebraska and throughout our nation. We recognize that this particular community has endured an especially difficult barrage of hate, racism, and insensitivity this year. Our Launch family mourns with you for the eight individuals whose lives were taken in a targeted act of hate in Georgia this week.

Launch’s mission statement includes a goal to positively impact our community and make the world a better place. What does that mean in times like these? While our social media posts focus largely on Launch services as a haven of positivity, much of our curriculum is focused on exploring tough topics and having hard conversations. At our services, we practice having these difficult conversations in small circles, talking through all kinds of important issues with open-mindedness and bravery. This exchange always includes an offering of transparency and vulnerability from the volunteers who make up our Staff. Our co-op leaders are community members on their own paths of personal development who are passionate about the growth and impact that comes from learning together. Launch’s Volunteer Staff believes deeply in students’ capacity to participate in constructive conversations that center around important issues like racism, and young leaders’ ability to make real, positive change in their own communities as a result of those discussions. Our curriculum will continue to reflect that time-tested framework. The things we learn and skills we pick up from Launch activities can transcend the magic of the Launch environment, so long as we all put them to work.

Our organization has been on a collaborative, educational path towards anti-racism this year in an ongoing effort to create a space of belonging that is truly safe for all. We consider ourselves to be at just the beginning of this important anti-racism journey, and are continually learning as we go. We invite you to sit in this circle with us and offer your own vulnerability and open-mindedness as we seek to not only make Launch a safer space for AAPI individuals and all BIPOC, but to work toward making the world a safer place for these communities as well. There is still so much work to do.

Feeling overwhelmed, emotionally exhausted, or frozen in deciding what to do next? If so, we’d like to remind you of Launch’s ongoing initiative - Launch Project 365. Our Volunteer Staff and students have been logging acts to combat racism, hatred, discrimination, and injustice over the past year. So far, we have logged 335 acts, and you are invited to submit your own to take tangible action alongside members of the Launch community. Check out our Instagram stories for resources on how to get started.

RACIAL INJUSTICE + LEADERSHIP

JUNE 2020 The ultimate measure of any organization is not where it stands in moments of comfort, but how it acts in times of turbulence. Launch Leadership stands firmly against any and all forms of racism and discrimination.

For nearly 60 years, Launch has worked directly with future leaders, including BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) young adults. We teach inclusion, celebrate differences, and challenge students to understand how to work with people who are different from them in identity, beliefs, and experiences. Our curriculum is predicated on leading students into challenging conversations to help them grow. Our mission calls on us to develop young leaders who are then empowered to change their communities and their world for the better. We’ve watched in awe as former Launch service attendees have shown true leadership this week in the forms of activism, educating themselves about Black experiences, and participating in uncomfortable conversations. We see your leadership and are so proud.

AND YET

There is still so much we, as an organization, need to learn and do to ensure BIPOC folks feel safe, heard, and supported at Launch events and in our greater community. We recognize our public silence on the issue of racism has been problematic. There are systemic issues that we have overlooked as a predominantly white organization. Now, we’re committing ourselves to action. We have work to do in ensuring our Staff (both Volunteer Staff and paid employees) is reflective of the diversity we value. We have an incredible amount of learning and, in many cases, uncomfortable reflecting to do here at Launch.

We’re elevating the individual voices within our Volunteer Staff who are experts in the area of systemic racism. In the last week, we’ve worked with them internally to ensure that we are walking our talk. We listened, we’ve felt uncomfortable about the mistakes we’ve made, and though the instinct to become defensive has at times reared up, we kept listening. (Students, we cannot emphasize enough that leadership starts with simply listening. Take your time, settle into feeling uncomfortable, and then listen and learn some more.)

Our Diversity and Inclusion Chairs have been sharing their perspectives, resources, and experiences with us, and many BIPOC Staffers offered their feedback to our director team and Staff at large. With their guidance, our Volunteer Staff created spaces to encourage each other to unpack our own internal biases, have impactful and vulnerable conversations, and learn about all the ways we can do more.

On a student-level, we’re reworking our curriculum for this summer and beyond to embrace more diversity and inclusion awareness. We’ll provide resources on how to lead tough conversations and hold yourself/others accountable to commitments of combating racial injustice (Nudge: We’d love for you to hold us accountable, too!). Additionally, we are reaffirming our commitment to reach more and different groups of students with our services. We seek to bring people from all backgrounds — including varied races, gender expressions, sexual orientations, and socioeconomic statuses — together to help young people realize their innate leadership potential and put it to work building a better future.

Just as each person has work to do in order to dismantle their own thinking surrounding systemic racism, each organization has a responsibility to do so as well. This is not a one-week experience for our nonprofit; it’s an issue we are increasingly devoted to and a conversation from which we, as leaders, will not shy away. Keep the Fire.

Onward in vulnerability,
Launch Leadership