Rev. Starsky Wilson is the President and CEO of the Children’s Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization focused on strengthening child and family well-being. He’ll be speaking at Union Baptist Church in Winston-Salem Wednesday at 7 p.m. to talk about educational equity and the organization’s efforts in North Carolina.
WFDD’s Amy Diaz spoke with Wilson about his work.
Interview highlights
On the history of the Children's Defense Fund:
"The Children's Defense Fund is just over 50 years old, founded out of an expression of the Civil Rights Movement by Marian Wright Edelman, who was the policy director for Martin Luther King Jr.'s Poor People's Campaign.
So much of the kind of public policy agenda of pursuing well-being of all people, but specifically looking at children and being thoughtful about racial justice, informed our beginnings. And evolved, especially in the 1990s to much more of a movement-building organization, where we began to express and establish new ways of connecting with community, including the Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools model.”
On what makes Freedom Schools effective:
“First and foremost, a real commitment to young people developing a lifelong love of reading. Providing them with examples of servant leadership. The college students who lead each classroom are committed themselves to summers of service and a lifetime of commitment.
And, of course, a culturally relevant pedagogy, where our integrated reading curriculum allows for the young people to see themselves, their stories, their culture and their communities in the books that they read, so they connect with that in a really powerful way. The other is the affirmation of identity, not just through the books, but through the shaping of the program and culture.
So every day begins with the Harambee, where young people get to sing, dance, chant, engage and see models of leadership and read aloud guests who come and share with them important to them each day. So CDF Freedom Schools bring together both literacy and leadership development in a culturally relevant way.”
On expanding efforts in North Carolina:
“North Carolina is very important to Children's Defense Fund as we think about our direct service work and CDF Freedom Schools. We have 32 Freedom Schools sites in North Carolina. It's more than we have in any other state. We're excited to have partnership networks there in Winston-Salem, also in Charlotte. And we have partners, I should say, in some of our student organizing work. Also we have a Black Student Leadership Network where we have students there and youth policy consultants there in North Carolina A&T.
So we have a robust network of supports in North Carolina, and we're glad to kind of grow. I think part of our hope and our work for the future is to be able to build on what we're learning in the freedom schools, in order to have a more robust engagement and voice around public policy in the state.”
On the impact of political attacks on DEI initiatives:
“Children under the age of 18 are the most diverse segment of the American population. That's just the reality. Meeting them where they are, based upon what we learn about how they learn, what their hopes are for themselves, and what the concerns are, the barriers that keep them from getting to those hopes, is how we address the work. So that means culturally relevant pedagogy. That means intentionality about the images that we put in front of young people, making sure that their stories are reflected.
And it means that when there are disparities in data that says that they have educational outcomes that are different from others, or that they are less likely to have health care, then we're going to lean into where those gaps are and make sure that they get what they need. And so it impacts us, because the environment around us invites us to somehow be shy about that, but we refuse to be. We lean into the realities of where young people are. We're going to meet them where they are, we're going to meet their needs, and we're going to be unashamed about that.”