Kyrene de las Manitas Club Receives Tempe MLK Diversity Award

Posted January 2023

On Monday, January 9, the Tempe Human Relations Commission presented Kyrene de las Manitas’ No Place for Hate club with the MLK Diversity Award for an Education Organization.

For 25 years, the City of Tempe and the Human Relations Commission have identified community members and organizations who demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion, and who exemplify the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This is the second time in the last 10 years that a Kyrene student club has been awarded this recognition. Kyrene del Norte’s Equity Team won the award in 2016.

This year, the No Place for Hate club at Kyrene de las Manitas Innovation Academy was recognized for their initiative to ensure books in their classrooms represented their identities. A poll of their fellow classmates showed that nearly half did not believe the books in their classrooms represented them. The club held a book drive to collect books that fulfilled student requests and secured grant funding that paid for a complete diversity library for each classroom at Manitas.

The club’s movement for change on their campus inspired diversity libraries at Kyrene’s other nationally recognized No Place for Hate schools.