06/09/2020
To Our Artist Babysitting Family-
For those of you who do not know me personally, my name is Shannon Darin. I am the Founder and CEO of Artist Babysitting Agency.
I am a white woman.
I am the wife of a black man
I am the mother of a biracial child
I am the wife of a police officer
I am a deeply layered individual
I am so proud to have founded Artist Babysitting Agency in a city of deep diversity, culture, opinion and orientation.
One of the top reasons Artist Babysitting was founded was to create a better and more transparent way to connect and give our children the ability to grow and learn from educated, trained and diverse individuals.
We have been shattered by the events that have unfolded over the past few weeks. We have been taking important time to listen, learn and reflect while actively looking for clarity on how to navigate our path to change. We are opening ourselves and trying to place ourselves in the shoes of others. We have seen that this is a massive task and one that we will have to work on daily. We are seeing that although we are growing in our ability to be more aware, we still may never fully understand the walk of others. We have also seen that with continued education, listening and non stop love for each other we can take important steps on a daily basis to make needed change and support each other and our beautiful communities.
We will not tolerate racism. Period. We will continue to follow our path and passion with connection. As we do this, we will continue to make sure that our community is inclusive. We are an agency accepting people for who they are and celebrate our differences. We believe that Black Lives Matter. We as an organization, stand by this and will stand by you as we fight for racial justice.
We believe that there are amazing law enforcement officials that are passionate about their communities and will continue to dedicate their lives to the safety of their entire community. We see that they are devastated by the actions of fellow officers and will use this devastation as more fuel to continue their fight for change within their department while also continuing to keep our communities safe and our children protected.
We believe in kindness. We will not always see eye to eye and we understand that with certain issues, topics and passions, that can be a very tough reality to navigate. We believe that even in the toughest of circumstances, treating each other with kindness, will promote peaceful relationships and allow for more opportunity to be heard.
We believe that we need to do more learning, more understanding and more communicating with you, our families, our sitters and our communities to make sure that our support for each other is transparent, honest and something that can be counted on.
Warmly,
Shannon Darin
Artist Babysitting Agency, Founder & CEO
