National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS)
People of Color Conference (PoCC)

NAIS addresses two important needs at PoCC and SDLC: the need for people of color to come together for networking and support, and the need for schools to find ways to build and sustain inclusive communities. Both PoCC and SDLC serve as energizing, revitalizing gatherings for people who experience independent schools differently.

Teachers, students, and administrators of color from across the nation and from foreign countries, along with Caucasian/White allies and participants, gather to celebrate, nurture, and activate representative diversity, multiculturalism, and equity and justice for independent schools. PoCC brings together a diverse group of people from independent schools: Asian/Asian Americans, Black/African Americans, First Nation/Indigenous/Native Americans, International Participants, Latino/Hispanic Americans, White/Caucasian/European Americans. Together, they share the challenges and rewards central to their experiences in independent schools.

Robert Witt, executive director of the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools (HAIS), said it best when he reflected on his experience at the PoCC 2002 (Chicago): "We learned that the People of Color Conference is a community with a sense of belongingness. We learned that it is a community which is a safe place to express one's own self among dear friends and colleagues. There is a goodness and a caring, a breathing in and a breathing out which creates a harmony and a sense of something very nurturing and very healing."

In a recent survey of heads of school, 90 percent indicated that PoCC and SDLC energize and revitalize people of color in independent schools. A majority of heads report that PoCC and SDLC participants have implemented new programs, activities, and services at their school as a result of attending the conferences.

..................................................................................- NAIS Website

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