Center, club help schools challenge discrimination

In partnership with HP, Inc., The Wassmuth Center for Human Rights awarded Boise High School’s Humanitarian Club, a student group committed to giving back to the community and helping others, a unique set of educational tools designed to confront injustice in the classroom and the community.

The Nov. 14 event marked the launch of the Center’s Human Dignity Project, an educational project unlike anything being offered in the state that promotes respect and dignity for all people. A five-piece poster series printed by HP is part of the Center’s Human Dignity Project. More than 650 schools statewide will have access to tools and resources that promote respect for human dignity and diversity.

The Human Dignity Project designed to promote the ideal that our lives are inextricably linked to others; allows students to explore contemporary events and the manifestations of inequality and the escalation of discrimination through a sequence of behavior and action; and help them to identify ways that they can challenge discrimination, and confront injustice wherever it occurs. The first installation will occur on Monday, when Boise High School students present these materials to classrooms throughout the school. The poster series is available through the Wassmuth Center for Human Rights.

“Central to the center’s mission is the promotion of dignity for all people and encouraging people to become upstanders in their own communities,” said Dan Prinzing, executive director of the Wassmuth Center. “But, in order to dismantle discrimination, we must first understand that it exists and identify what forces work in conjunction to keep people marginalized. Through education, we can promote a level of engagement that creates change in our own community. How we think determines the ways that we live, interact and understand discrimination and equality.”

“Inclusion and respect of diversity are a wellspring for thriving communities and businesses alike,” said Lesley Slaton Brown, chief diversity officer at HP and Boise State University alumna. “Since our founding, HP has recognized that the more points of view we can draw on, the better our products and company as a whole will be. The same is true for the communities in which we live and work where diversity and inclusion foster creativity and innovation, helping to attract and retain the best employees and the best companies.”