[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Homefirst Interfaith Housing & Family Services stands with the African American community and condemns the unjust killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers. We mourn the loss of Mr. Floyd’s life and the lives of so many others who came before him – named and unnamed. Sadly, the history of our country is filled with incidents like this that shake us to our core and threaten the ideals we hold most sacred as Americans.
We deeply sympathize with the grief of Mr. Floyd’s family. And we are in solidarity with the protesters who took to the streets in all 50 states and throughout the world. We identify with their raw and palpable pain.
As Executive Director of an organization that serves some of the most vulnerable in our community, I see everyday the depth of the pain caused by centuries of systemic racism and oppression. I see far too many families suffer and struggle.
Homefirst was founded in 1986 as a partnership between several religious congregations that were dedicated to solving the problems of homelessness and poverty. Their work centered on providing homeless women and families with shelter, food and services to help them raise their families with dignity and to thrive. Today, more than 35 years later, we continue to fight for the human rights of people who have been disregarded by a society that has blinded itself to their needs.
Homefirst remains deeply committed to address issues of social injustice and to make meaningful change for African Americans and all marginalized members of our community. We cannot stay silent in the face of racial injustice anywhere it exists.
Respectfully and in Camaraderie,
Karla Spivey
Executive Director[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]