Honoring Hadiyah Miller, A Champion for Justice
The SVP community was deeply saddened to hear that Community Partner Threads of Justice Collective (TOJC) founder and Board member Hadiyah Miller passed away on September 11, 2022. A touching tribute on Threads of Justice Collective’s social media read: “Hadiyah was one of our founding members. Our collective heart is broken with this loss of our sister-leader, friend, and comrade in the struggle. Our world is less in her absence and more for the love we honor her with. She has gone to live and dance with the ancestors…at last in a place where her beauty and wisdom is never questioned, never diminished.”
Hadiyah spent 50 years making a difference in the field of Early Childhood Education for college-level students, community providers, parents, and children in a variety of early-learning settings. She was focused on advocating for anti-bias practice, equity, and access to quality early childhood education for all children and families. SVP Portland Executive Director Lauren Johnson said fondly, “Hadiyah was a remarkable leader, deeply committed to advancing social and racial justice, eradicating oppression, and supporting early childhood development. We were honored to partner with her in advancing TOJC’s mission.”
TOJC is a unique collective organization that works hard to practice shared (non-hierarchical) leadership to address power dynamics that threaten equity and inclusion. We started our partnership with them in 2019, supporting the launch of their new Justice and Inclusion Toolkits on a new website that enables the delivery of the toolkits and training modules. The toolkits include activities for Early Childhood Education classrooms, home visit programs, and in-home care settings and for families. The curricula are based on the six core social identity categories: race/skin color, gender, family structure, culture/language, socio-economic status, and able-ness. SVP strongly believes these program offerings are important and needed in the early learning space.
We honor Hadiyah’s legacy by continuing our steadfast commitment to advancing social justice and racial equity in early learning.