News & Stories
It Takes a Community to Advance Inclusion and Belonging
Photo credit: The Children's House | Image description: Students from The Children's House sitting together on a lawn with partners holding colorful flags
The Children’s House Montessori School in Traverse City is serving increasing numbers of children from the LGBTQ+ community, and staff are devoted to ensuring that both students and families feel safe and welcome. As a recipient of one of our diversity, equity, and inclusion grants, The Children’s House plans to use its grant for gender diversity and inclusion trainings for families within the school community, as well as cultivating more inclusive library resources.
Previous gender equity training for school staff, a Gender 101 workshop led by local facilitator Beth Bauman, focused on respecting children’s ever-evolving understandings of their own genders.
“We all needed to learn how to support students making transitions in their gender identities, and how to help children understand pronoun changes in developmentally-appropriate ways,” said Michele Shane, Head of School for The Children’s House. “It’s our responsibility to make sure staff are trained to make community families feel welcomed and included.”
With our diversity, equity, inclusion grant, Shane plans to bring Beth back for another gender diversity training specifically for Children’s House families. The workshop will focus on understanding gender identity and key terms, using preferred pronouns, and fostering a gender-inclusive learning environment. It will also be an opportunity for families to practice the skills they’ve learned.
“The research is very clear that gender equity is important,” explained Beth, whose two children are enrolled in The Children’s House. “When people feel seen as the self that they know themselves to be, they have better mental health outcomes and can contribute to their communities in more meaningful ways.”
Beth offered her Gender 101 workshop for staff on a volunteer basis and was happily surprised by the eager embrace of the material and desire to learn more. “The Children’s House decided to make a financial investment in future gender equity work, and that was only possible with Community Foundation funding,” Beth said.
Molly and John Stanifer are members of The Children’s House community, with a five-year-old attending the school and an eight-year-old former student. They’re also dedicated annual Diversity Equity and Inclusion Fund donors whose contributions have been involved in making gender equity trainings possible at The Children’s House. The Stanifers—who founded the northern Michigan nonprofit, Kidney Companions to provide transportation for patients awaiting kidney transplantation—donate to organizations that support marginalized people, promote social equity, and shape the future.
“As busy professionals we haven’t always been able to give time, so we decided to offer financial support,” explained Molly. “With the Community Foundation, we can trust that our donations will be handled in an intentional and thoughtful way.”
John believes that increasing diversity in literature is a vital part of strengthening diversity, equity, and inclusion within society, with the power to open children’s minds to new perspectives. He’s looking forward to engaging with other parents and The Children’s House during the upcoming gender diversity trainings.
“As a parent, I appreciate being involved and educated on these topics,” John said. “If we are to expose our children to diverse perspectives, then starting with parents is critical.”
Shane plans to bring in more diverse perspectives by updating the school’s library. Staff will curate book collections on the topics of gender equity, race, ability and ableness, socioeconomic status, and family structures. Each grade will read age-appropriate selections on these topics to foster discussions on how diverse people live their lives. Shane hopes these discussions will spill over into students’ homes and involve Children’s House families in generative conversations.
“We want to make sure that children learn, in a really intentional way, about people who are different than them, and how to interact with people in ways that make them feel like everybody belongs,” Michele said. “We’re aware there’s no destination here—this is a lifetime journey for all of us. But we’re very grateful that the Community Foundation is supporting our efforts to maintain the goal of utmost civility in our community.”
Writer: Jennifer DeMoss