iPride announced its FUSION Summer Program 2010, July 26th through August 6th, at Redwood Day School in Oakland, California. A day camp for mixed-heritage and trans-racially adopted youth, this program is in line with iPride’s mission of supporting and inculcating pride in those who come from the multicultural backgrounds of mixed heritage.
One of the first multi-racial family organizations in the US, iPride has put in over 30 years of service in multi-racial communities. Founded in 1979 in Berkeley, California, iPride was established by a number of multi-racial families as a consequence of the Berkeley school system not allowing their children to claim multi-racial identities either on official forms or in classroom projects.
The creation of iPride (originally called Interracial and Intercultural Pride) brought together multi-racial parents who, as a group, could and did pressure the Berkeley Public School system into rethinking and revising the system of racial classification. iPride was actively involved in changing the 2000 Census forms to allow multiethnic Americans the option to check more than one racial box and continues to advocate at the state level for the same rights.
iPride went on to create a toddler playgroup and a number of other family events including camping trips, picnics and multiple holiday celebrations. A teen group eventually evolved as the babies and young children grew up, with Generation Pride being founded and run by iPride youth members.
A sea change in the organization took place in 2004-2005 when it was reorganized and revitalized with a new board of directors being put in place and collaborations set up with other local associations and community groups. 2006 saw the evolution of a new and dynamic iPride when it merged with the Education Program (ME Program) and the FUSION organization. This merger brought into the iPride ambit Fusion’s day camp for mixed heritage natural born and adopted children, as well as its Family Activity Meetings (FAM) program. The ME Program gave iPride access to an extensive archive of films and educator guides – material especially designed to train the educational community about best practices in serving multi-racial youth.
Today, iPride (http://ipride.org/) is responsible for the FUSION Camp, FAM, and the ME Programs as well as the Young Childrens Playgroup. Programs that have played key roles in bringing together young people of diverse, multi-racial backgrounds and protecting their rights and cultural interests.