​At Kids Creative, our top priority is the physical and emotional wellbeing of our students. Earlier this year, I wrote about how we create an environment that is both physically safe and emotionally welcoming for students from all backgrounds. We recognize that when parents send their children to our programs, they are placing their ultimate trust in Kids Creative, and we take that responsibility extremely seriously.  With that commitment in mind, I want to elaborate on the many ways we protect the safety and wellbeing of our kids.
First and foremost, Kids Creative has a rigorous screening process to find the most qualified staff for our programs and to ensure all employees share our creative and educational mission and commitment to the safety of our students.

• Our hiring process includes multiple interviews, a reference check and background checks from the NYC Department of Health, including utilizing the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services Sex Offender Registry, prior to hiring anyone to work at Kids Creative.
• During the vetting process, each employee is made fully aware of Kids Creative’s policies and procedures, as well as the high standard of safety, supervision and instruction that is expected of Kids Creative employees.
• Faculty and staff receive initial and ongoing training on preventing sexual harassment and assault and on respecting and honoring appropriate boundaries with students. To ensure that we are following best practices, those procedures are reviewed regularly by outside experts.
• For long-term employees, background checks are regularly renewed to ensure ongoing compliance with Kids Creative’s high employment standards.

We also have policies in place for all our sites to ensure that each and every one is a fun, welcoming and safe place for our students.

• Every site has at least one staff member who is certified in CPR and First Aid.
• We communicate our emergency plans to students and parents, and, as staff members, we routinely practice fire, lockdown and other emergency drills.
• We maintain an appropriate student to teacher ratio that ensures adequate supervision of students at all times and prohibits teachers from being alone in a one-on-one setting with a student.
• We enforce a student buddy system to supplement the above.
• Our staff is trained to recognize and report potential cases of abuse.

We also seek to provide parents with additional tools to protect their kids and ensure the learning continues at home. Learning never stops, and parents play a critical role in their children’s development.

• Speaking with your kids about their day and their experiences is an important step to help your child feel safe and to spot any problems they might be having.
• We recognize that sometimes those conversations aren’t easy, which is why we’ve provided a number of resources here on the Kids Creative website that can help you navigate difficult subjects. Below are some suggested resources to help guide you in difficult conversations that might arise.

1. Your school’s counselor
2. This list of articles on handling a variety of child development topics  from NYU Langone Medical Center’s Child Study Center
3. Difficult Conversations with Kids from Care.com
4. Talking to Your Child about Sexual Abuse from U.S. Department of Justice

Kids Creative was founded 17 years ago as an outlet for kids to share ideas and have their voices heard. From the beginning, women have played a major part in our leadership and growth as an organization, as they have in many nonprofit and educational settings. We have worked hard to lift up the voices of each of our participants and leaders, but 17 years later, there is still a struggle for women’s voices and needs to take priority in greater society. This year, International Women’s Day on March 8th, has taken on new significance, offering a poignant call to highlight just how integral a role women play in society. The Women's March has called for International Women's Day on March 8th to be "A Day Without a Woman" to raise these issues and to truly drive home the significant contribution that over 50% of the population have on society. 
 
The Women’s March is asking businesses to participate in A Day Without a Woman to show solidarity with women, potentially even striking that day. Kids Creative runs daily programming for children ages 4-18, providing essential services to majority women-led households, including single mother households, grandmothers raising grandchildren, lesbian and trans parents and two-income households. Women make up over 70% of our staff, our schools are 50% led by women and our Board of Directors is 50% women as well. This is especially acute when considering the impact of women of color and immigrant women, who make up a large proportion of our families and staff and who traditionally face greater challenges in society.  We also want to  recognize our role in contributing to and breaking the pay gap between men and women. Women get paid 77¢ to a dollar for a man...if they are white. For black women that drops to just, 64 cents and Hispanic women make 56 cents to every dollar. According to the Institute of Women’s Policy Research, the gap is changing but it is changing very slowly. “If change continues at the same slow pace as it has done for the past fifty years, it will take 44 years—or until 2059—for [White] women to finally reach pay parity. Hispanic women will have to wait until 2248 and Black women will wait until 2124 for equal pay.”[1]

If each of these people did not contribute to Kids Creative on a daily basis, we would not be able to function. If all women at Kids Creative took the day to strike, we would not be able to operate programs safely and effectively. We would have to inform families that we would not be able to provide a space for their children after school, and close programs for the day. The fact that we cannot close our programs for one day because of women shows the impact women have on our organization!

So practically, how can we show solidarity, celebrate the women and girls in our organization and still support our families?

The Women's March suggests a few ways to do so:
1. Take the day away from our jobs to show our impact. 
2. Don't spend money.
3. Wear red. 

We are determined to support the International Women's Day and here's how:
-On Wednesday, March 8th, we will review all staff contracts and hiring procedures to ensure that we are truly equitable in our staffing. 
-On Wednesday, March 8th, we will do our best to not spend money (both personally and as a company).
-On Wednesday, March 8th, we will request that all staff who report to programs wear red in solidarity.
-On Wednesday, March 8th, all programs will create positive rally signs and hold rallies or conduct lessons where we will learn about the contributions of women and people from marginalized communities, and provide lesson plans for community building, peace building and structural violence.
-On Wednesday, March 8th, we will invite families to join us at the school to engage in conversations around gender equity.
-On Wednesday, March 8th, we will explore ways to be upstanders, for our families to feel safe and to protect their communities, both their immediate community and the community at large.
 
March 8th offers a peaceful way for us to celebrate, rise up and be heard. This is not a political or partisan issue. If we truly value everyone's voice, it is our obligation to honor them not only with words but also action. We hope you will join us to celebrate International Women’s Day. 


[1] https://iwpr.org/issue/employment-education-economic-change/pay-equity-discrimination/