Family Diversity Projects

CONTACT:

PO Box 1246
Amherst, MA 01004
413-256-0502
www.familydiv.org

Peggy Gillespie, Co-Executive Director

DESCRIPTION:

This is philanthropy cubed—“love of humanity” producing “private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of life”, to promote respect for everyone. FDP began in 1993 (incorporated 1996) when Peggy Gillespie (writer, social worker, adoptive mother of a multiracial child) and Gigi Kaeser (photographer, early childhood educator) observed the prejudice and bullying of unusual children in nursery school. They created family portraits with words and images, to help transcend the stereotypes. “Of Many Colors: Portraits of Multiracial Families” was featured in the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and disseminated rapidly from there. Other exhibitions followed: “Love Makes a Family: Portraits of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Families” (1995); “Nothing to Hide: Mental Illness in the Family” (1999); and “In Our Family: Portraits of All Kinds of Families” (2002). In 10 years FDP exhibits have traveled to over 1,000 communities nationwide and abroad—Canada, Germany, China, and Japan. FDP receives 100 inquiries monthly from civic organizations, schools, colleges, museums, libraries, major corporations, conferences, and houses of worship. Their newest project, "The Road to Freedom," a collaboration with public school students, focuses on teenagers and young adults with physical, mental, and learning disabilities. Would you like to be a co-sponsor?

(2006: CULTURE: Education: Informal: General)