Meet Your Staff: Vanessa Julye

Vanessa Julye is the Ministry on Racism Program Coordinator and the Youth Ministries Program Coordinator at FGC. She first worked with FGC as a volunteer in 1994, she has been an FGC staff member for eleven years. In her time working for FGC she has been excited to see how the instigation of a Pre-Gathering People of Color retreat has built support for People of Color at Gathering. She has been deeply encouraged by the work FGC has taken up with the White Privilege Conference (WPC) supporting Quakers in their attendance to this important event.

Vanessa Julye is the Ministry on Racism Program Coordinator and the Youth Ministries Program Coordinator at FGC. She first worked with FGC as a volunteer in 1994, she has been an FGC staff member for eleven years. In her time working for FGC she has been excited to see how the instigation of a Pre-Gathering People of Color retreat has built support for People of Color at Gathering. She has been deeply encouraged by the work FGC has taken up with the White Privilege Conference (WPC) supporting Quakers in their attendance to this important event.

Vanessa is called to racial justice work, and has served FGC and the Religious Society of Friends greatly in her dedication and support: attending yearly meetings, and monthly meetings, helping Quakers across the U.S. and Canada struggle with racism and white supremacy. When not working with Quakers, Vanessa enjoys knitting and always wishes for more time to quilt. She’s a grateful and loving mother, grandmother, and wife. She is always happy when she has the chance to visit Hawaii, her home away from home.

Vanessa first attended WPC in 2010 and was clear that the conference was providing a wonderful experience for conversations regarding race, as well as providing attenders with skills to get involved in anti-racist work. She spearheaded FGC’s partnership with WPC, allowing for a Quaker discount and local hospitality for Quaker WPC attendees through local meetings in the vicinity of the conference each year. The numbers of Quakers attending the conference have grown from 11 in 2010 to more than 500 in 2016 when FGC organized the host team for the White Privilege Conference in Philadelphia.

Growing up, Vanessa went to the School in Rose Valley which had many Quakers involved. One of her friends from school invited her to Camp Dark Waters where she first experienced Quaker worship. In junior high and high school she attended Westtown School first as a day student and then as a boarding student attended mandatory worship there. Vanessa circled back to Friends as an adult when she started working with Friends World Committee for Consultation, Section of the Americas. She had been looking for a religious community in Philadelphia, mostly exploring black churches, but found Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting after applying for a job with FWCC. Vanessa is now a member of Central Philadelphia Monthly Meeting.

From FWCC Vanessa learned about the FGC Gathering, and she attended it that year with more than 2000 other Quakers gathered together in Amherst Massachusetts. Vanessa says that Gathering changed her life. All the workshops she’d hoped to take were full so Vanessa joined Anita Mendes-Lope’s workshop on internalized oppression. In this workshop she met several people who have since supported FGC in work on issues of racism. The workshop gave its members assurance that there would be other Person of Color to support them in community within the wider, whiter Gathering, and it gave workshop participants a place to work through their experiences of racism over the course of the week. Members of this workshop, including Vanessa met with the then Advancement & Outreach committee to talk about FGC governance and structure. Learning that there was only one member of color on Central Committee, Vanessa accepted the call to join FGC’s governing body as a representative on Long Range Conference Planning Committee.

Vanessa’s role as Youth Ministries Coordinator allows her to work on another area of much needed diversity at FGC. In her work, she assists in the facilitation of a film and discussion night at the FGC Gathering with the high school participants, and she helped create a People of Color caucus as part of the High School program. Vanessa works with Long Range Conference Planning to facilitate Young Clerk Trainings of the clerks nominated by the High School program and the Adult Young Friends program to nurture the gifts that have been recognized by their community and so that the High School and AYF clerks can be prepared for and supported in their service.

Vanessa wrote Fit for Freedom not for Friendship:  Quakers, African Americans, and the Myth of Racial Justice with her co-author Donna McDaniel. She greatly appreciated the response and openness of Friends to the book which presents challenging truths. The process of writing the book was a seven year commitment and two years of publicity on the book circuit, a deep investment of time and passion from both authors to this important work.

Vanessa looks forward to visiting Hill House Friends Meeting in Ghana with the Fellowship of Friends of African Descent next summer. Hill House Friends Meeting is a small unprogrammed meeting in a continent of many programmed Friends. Vanessa is eager to reconnect with friends she made on her first visit in 2015 and hopes their trip will help bring visibility to the meeting. On her last trip she was interviewed on Ghana national radio speaking about Quakers.

Vanessa works part time in the FGC offices on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, so she may not be able to respond to your emails or inquiries immediately, particularly if they’re on a day she’s out of the office.

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