Our Mission

Our mission is to create inclusive communities by lifting the voices of underrepresented and marginalized communities, recognizing diverse cultures and intersectional experiences, and supporting healthy racial identity development and ongoing anti-racist learning through education, community events, programming, and resources.

Read our annual report here.

Want to join us? Email info@beinclusivema.org

Want to support our work with a financial gift? Donate here.

Our Story

Be Inclusive was created out of the vision of Shantae Holmes and Kristen Kohlmeyer. Shantae moved from Dorchester to Walpole in 2018 with her husband and four children, and she started to question if she could keep her family safe in their new town. After the murder of Mr. George Floyd in June 2020, Shantae resolved to become more engaged with anti-racism work and making positive change in her community. She felt that education and community engagement, particularly with youth, were the key to combating racism and bias.

Shantae believes that educating children of all races in a way that supports healthy racial identity development is critical for developing a community that is accepting and welcoming to all.

Shantae began this work by organizing Walpole’s first Juneteenth event in June 2020. The event’s success led to a surplus of donations, which Shantae used to purchase anti-racist books for the Walpole Public Library and Walpole’s elementary school libraries. Shantae realized that books are an excellent tool to teach children about differences and affirm racial identity. For kids of color and other marginalized groups, seeing themselves reflected in books by and about people who look and feel like them can make an enormous impact.

Around this time, Shantae met Kristen Kohlmeyer, a licensed social worker and community organizer, at a standout in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Kristen is the founder of a local action-oriented social justice organization that she started in 2016 to combat a rise in hate speech and discrimination. She sought to bring people together to focus on social justice-related issues and create action plans to support those who face injustice due to their race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, etc.

Shantae and Kristen connected over an interest in helping kids learn about diversity, inclusion, biases and racism. As a mother of two, Kristen had been working to provide more diverse books and stories to her own children and wondered if a similar focus could be put on the school libraries. That’s when the Multicultural Books Initiative (MBI) was born!

Shantae organized a second, expanded Juneteenth event in June 2021 that attracted more than 200 celebrants. Soon after, Shantae and Kristen established Be Inclusive to formalize, build on, and expand their vision for the Walpole community and beyond.