The Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Yellowstone County host JEDI panel discussion
Travia Forte KULR 8 Reporter | Sep 28, 2022
BILLINGS, Mont. - The Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Yellowstone County, held a panel discussion in Billings.
Work to bring volunteers together with children for positive role models within the community is now creating a new group called the JEDI Committee to take a closer look at diversity equity and inclusion.
JEDI, or the Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee discussed the importance of making sure that the organization is a place where everyone feels welcomed regardless of how they look or what background they come from.
In June, the Big Brother Big Sister organization held a national conference with workshops that focused on how to make sure each agency is JEDI-friendly.
I spoke with Mariah Fredrickson of the organization and she says, she wants to introduce JEDI to Billings because she wants to make the Yellowstone agency more inclusive.
Mariah says right now there are many children who would benefit from a mentor who either looks like them, relates to them, or feels comfortable enough to open up to them.
"A majority of our volunteers, our bigs are white females, which is totally fine. We value all of our volunteers, but we have a wait-list of kids who are of color and in the LGBTQ community and I just feel like they would benefit from having a mentor who looks like them and has the same cultural background as them." Says Mariah.
I also spoke with another panel speaker, Harvey Singh who says that as Billings continues to grow it becomes more diverse and conversations like tonight are needed.
"There is a pretty big vast difference between where different parts of the country have already gone through the is and how we are just barely dealing with it, so it's very important. We all wish that it could have happened sooner, but it's one of those things that are kind of inevitable. this is a discussion on a topic that's not going to go away and it has to be dealt with."
Both Harvey and Mariah say as time progresses, we as a community need to be open and welcoming different perspectives and backgrounds in order to stand together.