Enroot’s Interim Executive Director

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Dear Enroot Family, As I wrap up my final days as Executive Director at Enroot I wanted to say thanks one last time for all your support over the years and to share the excellent news that Rose Francois, our Senior Director of Program, will become Interim Executive Director on October 19th. Please read our official announcement below. The organization is in great hands with Rose at the helm and I have no doubt it will emerge from this leadership transition stronger than ever. Thank you for your steadfast support of Enroot students, past, current and future! With deep gratitude, Ben Clark   A Message from Enroot's Board of Directors We are thrilled to share that Rose Francois, Enroot’s Senior Director of Program, will serve as Interim Executive Director beginning on October 19th. During her years as Senior Director of Program, Rose has had a significant positive impact throughout the organization and won the admiration and respect of students, staff, Board, volunteers, partners and funders alike. Rose understands many aspects of our students’ journeys from her own experience immigrating to the US from Haiti as a young person. Rose’s strong leadership abilities and many years of experience working alongside students from all over the world position her well to lead the organization through the transition to a new Executive Director. We are incredibly grateful for all that Rose has already contributed to Enroot and for providing steady leadership during this period. Thank you for your ongoing support of Enroot students and our efforts to help them prepare for bright futures in this country. Allyson Allen                                                                  Tri Ho Co-Chair, Enroot Board of Directors                             Co-Chair, Enroot Board of Directors     A Message from Rose Francois It is with great pleasure that I have accepted the role of Interim Executive Director of Enroot. I am excited to continue working with our extraordinary students, staff, volunteers, donors, and stakeholders, all who believe in our mission of empowering immigrant youth. One of the main reasons that I joined Enroot as Senior Director of Program, was the immediate connection I felt to a community that welcomes and celebrates the immigrant identity and experience, in all forms. I often say that Enroot is an organization I would have loved to have been a part of when I immigrated from Haiti! I am honored to be trusted with stewarding Enroot in this interim capacity by the board and would like to express my gratitude to Ben Clark for his amazing leadership these eight years.  Working alongside the amazing Enroot team, I am looking forward to continuing to ground our work in our core values and mission. With Gratitude, Rose Francois Interim Executive Director

Enroot’s Transition to a New Executive Director

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Dear Enroot Family, After almost 8 years as Executive Director and deep reflection about where Enroot is in its evolution, I have determined this is the ideal time for me to transition out of my role. I am thrilled  for Enroot to welcome a fantastic new leader, especially someone who shares lived experiences and core aspects of their identity with our students. Enroot’s Board of Directors has established a goal of welcoming our new Executive Director in January, 2022. I will be working closely with the Board, staff, students, and our larger community to ensure a smooth transition. It has been a profound honor to be a part of a mission as important as Enroot’s, and to work shoulder to shoulder with such an incredible community of students, staff, Board, volunteers, funders and community partners since 2013. I’m proud of how far we’ve come together and of the strong foundation we’ve laid for Enroot’s best chapter ever, which is coming up next. More than anything, I’m grateful that the hard work we all invested together meant that so many more immigrant students had the opportunity to develop an unshakable sense of belonging, an exciting vision for their future, and many of the skills they will need to pursue it. Thank you to each and every one of you, for making this possible for each and every one of them. With great appreciation, love and excitement for Enroot’s future, Ben Clark Executive Director Dear Enroot Community, We would like to thank Ben for his many years of service to Enroot, not only as Executive Director but also as a Board member and volunteer mentor. His leadership of the Enroot team and the relationships he has cultivated with students and their families, partner organizations, funders, and city government in the communities we serve has greatly strengthened our organization and has positioned Enroot for continued success. We wish him the best in his future endeavors.  Allyson Allen and Tri Ho Co-Chairs of Enroot's Board of Directors

Enroot Stands with Our Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities

Dear Enroot Community,

I write to you again with a heavy heart in the wake of yet another unthinkable act of racist and sexist violence. The brutal murders of 8 people, including 6 Asian-American women, in Atlanta are just the latest example of a horrific rise in acts of racist anti-Asian violence over the last year.

Racist violence perpetrated by white people toward people of Asian descent is not new in this country. It goes back at least 180 years and is visible in daily life from coast to coast. But the xenophobic rhetoric of our former President and many other public figures, especially over the last year, has led to a national crisis that is not being properly addressed. As reported in the New York Times, the group Stop AAPI Hate found that nearly 3,800 hate incidents against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders were reported nationwide over the last year. This crisis is rooted in white supremacy and has had a tremendous impact on the well-being and safety of the Asian-American community. And it is getting worse. Tuesday’s killings only exacerbate feelings of not belonging, of not being seen as equals, and of not even being safe in one’s own community.

In addition to targeting individuals of Asian descent, the killer targeted women. It’s important to note that of the 3,800 hate incidents documented last year by Stop AAPI Hate, 68% targeted women. This country, and societies all around the world, have a well documented history of treating violence against women of color less seriously than similar violence perpetrated against white women and men. Often violence against women of color, even fatal violence, is rendered nearly invisible by our collective responses in the immediate aftermath and months following such incidents. Also well documented is the way women of Asian descent are objectified and hypersexualized in this country. Our routine collective failure to respond appropriately to such situations reinforces the dehumanization of women of color and makes incidents like this more likely to reoccur. If Tuesday’s killer had not been socialized to perceive women, and especially women of Asian descent, as less human, he would not have targeted them, and would not have been capable of committing such unthinkable acts of violence. If white supremacy, misogyny, and toxic masculinity were actively challenged by most individuals in our society, instead of mostly left unchecked, acts of violence against women of color would be less common. 

Changing this pattern is all of our work. It will require everything from subtle changes in our everyday conversations and media consumption, to major structural reforms that address the systemic underpinnings of the racism and sexism manifested in these killings. It will require that each of us take an honest look in the mirror, locate ourselves in this crisis, and consider what specific changes we will make in our lives. It is especially incumbent upon white people, men, and especially white men, to devote focused effort to combating anti-Asian hate, and violence toward women of color. 

Enroot is deeply proud of, and grateful for, the incredible contributions that our students, alumni, volunteers, and board members of Asian descent have made to strengthen our community over the last few decades. We are especially proud of the students currently in our program who are of Asian descent, who courageously continue pursuing their dreams despite facing constant acts of racism, white supremacy, and violence.

Enroot stands in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in our own community and across the country who are of Asian descent. We remain resolved to work as a community to dismantle racism, sexism, and oppression of all forms through our daily actions at school, work and home.

In solidarity,

Ben Clark

A Letter from the Enroot Team on Why We Celebrate Black History Month

Dear Enroot Family,

We, the Enroot staff team, invite you to join us in observing and honoring Black History Month alongside our students, alumni, volunteers, Board members, and our entire community. The last year has been a reminder of the continued struggles of Black people in this country and our resilience to continue to fight. We have seen the power of the Black Lives Matter movement spark global solidarity and the push towards greater visibility about the ongoing issues affecting the Black community. At the forefront, we celebrate Black History Month by uplifting the monumental contributions of Black people in building and improving our communities, improving this country, and countries around the world. In February, and throughout the year:

We celebrate Black joy, Black beauty, and Black art.

We celebrate Black courage, Black leadership, Black strength, and Black wisdom.

We celebrate Black brilliance, Black ingenuity, Black intellect, and Black invention.

We honor the fact that Black people are integral to the foundation of our country – from its inception, in defense of our values of freedom, liberty and democracy, and the continued commitment to holding us accountable to those values each day – without the appropriate recognition and compensation.

We celebrate that Black people have been at the forefront of resistance in this country, as Nikole Hannah-Jones captures so well in the seminal 1619 Project:

We celebrate the many Enroot students, alumni, families, volunteers, staff and Board members who identify as Black and their contributions to building the organization that we all appreciate so much today.

Alongside our students, we celebrate the contributions of Black people to so many of the countries our students hail from, from Toussaint L’Ouverture in Haiti and Haile Sellasie in Ethiopia, to lesser known figures like Carmen Pereira in Guinea-Bissau.

We celebrate the essential contributions of Black immigrants in science, technology, medicine, the arts, education, and across all fields.

We reaffirm each day in our words and actions that BLACK LIVES MATTER, and are sacred.

Most importantly, we hold ourselves accountable, through our work and in our personal lives, for taking concrete anti-racist action daily to advance racial equity in our community and beyond.

Thank you for joining us in celebrating Black History Month, and in celebrating Black people all 12 months of the year.

In celebration and in solidarity,

The Enroot Team

Letter to Our Community - January 2021

Dear Enroot Family,

I write once again with a heavy heart, all at once infuriated, ashamed, and deeply concerned. I never imagined I’d witness what took place in Washington D.C. yesterday.

Watching law enforcement permit and even encourage the actions of a violent mostly white mob as they stormed the US Capitol Building without arrest, while hundreds of lawmakers inside tried to vote to certify the presidential election, was not only concerning, it was deeply painful. It was painful to all who appreciate the sacred nature of a peaceful transfer of power, and understand the alternative. It was painful to all of us who have marched in Black Lives Matter protests and experienced enormous police and national guard response. It was perhaps most painful for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who for generations have endured brutal violence at the hands of police simply for walking down a street to peacefully protest blatant inequality. Although the double standards implicit in white privilege are omnipresent in this country, they have never been on greater display than they were yesterday.

Yesterday’s events were both an act of, and a manifestation of, white supremacy. They were only possible in a country which formally and informally treats its white residents as if they are superior, and therefore worthy of superior power, superior voice, superior protections. President Trump and the mob who stormed the Capitol are responsible for the specific events of yesterday, but we must all reflect on our own participation in a society that made this possible. We must ask ourselves, what is MY role in addressing the white supremacy so deeply embedded in our society that was laid bare at the Capitol? This moment should deepen our resolve to identify white supremacy in our daily lives and take daily action to dismantle it.

I’ve written before about how important it is that those of us committed to fighting for racial equity not be intimidated or even discouraged by those who seek to stop our progress. The Enroot community remains resolved in our fight for racial and educational equity, and steadfast in our support for the amazing immigrant students we work alongside. With truth firmly on our side, I know our peaceful pursuit of justice will prevail.

Thank you for your ongoing support of Enroot students and for intensifying your courageous participation in the fight for racial equity in the United States.

Ben Clark
Executive Director