We are the Ladera Ranch Social Justice Committee

(guest post from Shereen Rahming and the LRSJC)

Hello to you all.  I am a mom and children’s book author.  In the summer of 2015, my husband and I moved our family to the quaint town of Ladera Ranch, California.  We arrived with all the hope and excitement of enthusiastic new residents.  But we soon became unsettled by the homogeneity of the community.  You see, we are a family of color who moved to a place where there are few people or images of people of color.  My daughter went from rarely seeing representation of herself in school books and materials to never seeing it.  I struggled with this.  We weren’t sure how to proceed.  We even pondered leaving.

Then through the power of social media, I became aware of another Ladera Ranch mom who was looking to start a social group with individuals who wanted to discuss social and racial justice, equity, and diversity.  Naturally, I contacted her right away and was pleased to find out that there were other parents who wanted to engage in such conversations.  We gathered for our first meeting in October 2016 and so was born the Ladera Ranch Social Justice Committee.

Our goal is to include and advocate for culturally and socio-economically diverse families within and beyond Ladera Ranch, including multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and LGBT families.  We would also like to support schools, teachers, and libraries in developing curriculum and policies that include and engage all students, promote critical thinking, and prepare children to interact effectively in our diverse global world.

We hope to open up the doors of communication within families and communities so that we can have meaningful and constructive conversations regarding diversity, social, racial, and environmental justice, community activism, and even bullying and self-esteem.  Such conversations can empower people to find the strength and beauty in their own voices and uniqueness and also allow them to appreciate and respect those of others.  We believe that having and utilizing multi-cultural literature in classrooms and libraries is a great way to do this.

Books are one of the best ways to engage children in discussions.  Therefore, we have created a book club.  Each month we plan on choosing a multi-cultural children’s book.  For each book, a reading event will be held where discussions and activities that center around the theme of the book will take place.  Activities may include art and various crafts or even participating in occasional field trips or volunteering events. Through the themes of these books we will explore and activate age-appropriate conversations with the children about social, racial, and environmental topics, self-esteem, and community activism. Our aim is to teach these children to value and advocate for themselves and others in the face of social pressure, unfair treatment, or bullying.

Our current book pick is A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon.

This is a wonderful story to discuss the importance of staying true to one’s self and valuing your uniqueness. We look forward to having a successful meeting with productive conversations about these themes with the participating individuals and families.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank the organization of the Multicultural Children’s Book Day for giving us the opportunity to work with them by writing this post and for sending us several multi-cultural children’s books that we can’t wait to share with our members.  We look forward to sharing more books and ideas that can help us further our goal of teaching and engaging with children, families, and all individuals who want to participate in meaningful and constructive conversations about diversity and social justice.

Connect with the Ladera Ranch Social Justice Committee via our website,  Facebook Group or email us at  LaderaRanchSJC@gmail.com