In Support of Black Lives

June 17, 2020

To Our Community;

Rayshard Brooks (1993-2020), George Floyd (1973-2020), Tony McDade (1982-2020), Breonna Taylor (1993-2020), Ahmaud Arbery (1994-2020), Atatiana Jefferson (1990-2019), Botham Jean (1991-2018), Stephon Clark (1995-2018), Philando Castile (1983-2016), Sandra Bland (1987-2015), Freddie Gray (1989-2015), Walter Scott (1964-2015), Tamir Rice (2002-2014), Michael Brown (1996-2014), Eric Garner (1990-2014), Trayvon Martin (1995-2012), and countless others...

Their lives mattered.

The Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery stands with the Black Community! For 400 years, police and vigilante violence against our African American communities have been tolerated in these United States of America. Furthermore, the relentless violence of systemic racism have been endured by African Americans throughout our nation’s history. As fundamentally a human rights organization, we will continue to promote programs, policies, and practices that acknowledge that racism is unacceptable.  We believe, the ethics and values of the racial justice movement need to be embraced by the peer-run wellness and recovery movement. The Copeland Center for Wellness & Recovery pledges to review and look at our policies and procedures to ensure they are non-racist, to constantly educate ourselves on systemic racism, to work harder to be more inclusive of people from all ethnic, racial, and cultural communities. In particular, we will take intentional steps to include more leadership and involvement of Black people, we will convene spaces and hold conversations to continue to learn and grow together and to fight for a world that is free from racism.