The Altitude Youth Ultimate board is appalled at the oppression by police of black and brown people that — while a long-standing issue in this country — has been most recently brought to light by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McCain and many others. We are also heartened by the world’s response, rising up with words and deeds to try to put a stop to unfair policing and to promote social justice. And while we find that the actions and conversations happening within the Ultimate community are particularly important and necessary, we know that words or a moment of action are not enough.
We recognize that we as individuals, as an organization, and as a community have much work to do. Diversity, equity and inclusion work was a stated priority for 2020 for the Board, a decision we made last fall. We had several initiatives planned for this spring, which we had to put on hold when pandemic logistics took over as our most urgent priority. While health and safety concerns around Covid-19 have occupied much of our bandwidth in recent months, we are also currently making space to have important conversations internally around racial equity. When the pandemic allows, we will return to our ongoing efforts to engage the whole community, including providing an equity training by an external facilitator which will be available to all the disc organizations we support.
Spring and summer are typically the busiest time of year for Altitude’s Ultimate activities. We will continue to address the challenges of the COVID shutdown and to facilitate safe play for our summer camps, youth and adults yearning to chase plastic, as we know that it is communities of color who will be most impacted if we are not responsible.
We recognize that our community contains a broad range of personal and political viewpoints. We hope that ALL players and families will feel welcome and represented in the community and that we can have open, productive conversations to confront racism and better understand each other.
Ongoing, we commit to continuing to prioritize work around anti-racism and inclusivity. We want to serve in transforming ourselves and our sport into a positive agent for change. We welcome the energy, input and support of our entire Colorado ultimate community.
Please get in touch with us if you have comments, concerns, or want to be a part of that effort as we go.
Thank you for your patience and support!
- Fin, Hannah, Jeff, Jimmy, Justin, Phil and Pogo