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Black History Month at Support, Inc.

by Information & Resources

In celebrating Black History Month, our DEI Council wanted to share some of our perspective into what this Black History Month means for us. As we know, the past several years has created an intense focus human right. Our organization has focused on created a positive impact on the experiences of our Black stakeholders through inclusivity, diversity, equity, accessibility efforts. This work is impactful for me, Dr. Nicholas Manning, (head of the DEI Council) as a bi-racial person, this work connects to my soul.

I think of the struggles and triumphs of my family. From my grandfather, Lt. Colonel George Lane II, flying his P-39 fighter as a part of the Tuskegee Airmen to my cousin Danielle who challenged voting rights throughout the United States, my chest is full of pride thinking of my family. However, times have not always been easy for us. We have been challenged by racism and bias yet believe that there is so much positive work to be done in bringing our country together.

Black history month is a time to help reframe narratives that can be shaped by a person’s agenda. From Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou to Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King Jr., there is so much beauty and remarkable characteristics of the Black community. This sentiment is not only true for our employees and caregivers, but especially each Black person with disabilities (in and out of services). We have an opportunity to help our entire community better understand themselves by celebrating Black history.

Could you tell me a little about your current role? I’m the Director of People Operations at Support, Inc. My role primarily consists of supporting the experience of our in the execution of our Production Management responsibilities.

 

What do you enjoy most about it? There’s a new and unique challenge of helping our organization’s attunement to our stakeholders. We must be dynamic in managing our risk, increase our connection, and create a caring culture of accountability.

 

What’s the most important part of Black History Month to you? There are two important aspects to Black History Month that are important to me: firstly, teaching (and learning) my history in its truest form and secondly, recognizing the achievements of our Black community.

 

What will you be reflecting on and discussing with your network this year? As a proud advocate for IDEA, I love connecting with other professionals about their efforts.

 

How will you be celebrating Black History Month with your colleagues? I plan on participating in an IDEA webinar this week and advocate for the voices of our stakeholders.

 

Who is an inspirational Black historical figure who inspires you and why? My grandfather. He was and will always be my hero.

 

https://www.famousauthors.org/10-influential-black-authors-you-should-read

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A Note From Our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council

by Information & Resources

To: All Support, Inc. Staff, Families, and Providers

From: CEO Bentley SmithIn light of recent events over this past week including another incident of social injustice, I want to acknowledge the impact that this has on our entire Support, Inc. network, and especially our Black community. With these types of events, compounded by the pandemic, wildfires, and even hurricanes, it makes for a trying time. But through these trying times I am encouraged by the growing support from key communities, along with the efforts of our own Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council that was created in July. Having a group of dedicated Support, Inc. staff focused on navigating these times gives me comfort and encouragement. Below, I would like to share a communication from this group:

To our Support Inc. Community,

We are saddened by the continued display of social injustice in our communities. In our current social climate, our company has committed ourselves to answering the call for creating change. Supported and encouraged by Founder Dennis Kirkman and CEO Bentley Smith, our company wants to dedicate resources in time, presence, education, and financial support to variety of social justice issues. Our first step was to create a committee of Support Inc. employees ranging from Directors to DSP’s and across our various departments.

Support Inc. has chosen to create a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council. Effective 7/1/2020, Support Inc. embarked on a mission to address, explore, educate, learn about, and respond to the diversity of the human experience. To do so, we have created a DEI Council and Committee to identify ways to impact our community and improve equality both inside our organization and outside of it.

Guided by a set of ideals, this council strives to encourage and support our company’s full understanding of diverse cultural perspectives and backgrounds by listening to personal experiences and calling on the use of critical thinking, empathy, and a deeper appreciation of others. Additionally, we will work to create an inclusive, equitable, culturally competent, and supportive environment where employees model behavior that enriches our community.

Our objective is to lead and hold the organization accountable in the incorporation of diversity, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of the work at Support Inc.

Our DEI Initiative is Guided by several ideals:

  • Be present and respect the space
  • Share your experiences, use “I” statements
  • Assess your safety and use your discernment
  • he stories of others are theirs to share, maintain confidentially and trust among the group
  • Step up, step back
  • If you experience yourself making judgements, ask yourself where those feelings came from
  • Consider and address the impact of actions rather than focusing on your intentions
  • Consider your privilege
  • Acknowledge pain or offense in the moment using “ouch” and have the option to discuss it or not at that time
  • Confront, critique, and challenge your discomfort

We have defined Diversity our Core Principles:

Definitions

Diversity: The range of human differences, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socioeconomic status, physical ability or attributes, religious or ethical values systems, national origin, political beliefs, and cultures.

  • Diversity means more than just acknowledging and/or tolerating difference. It’s a set of conscious practices that seek to understand and appreciate the interdependence of humanity, cultures, and the natural environment.

Equity: Ensuring that everyone has support and access to the resources needed to be successful and identifying and eliminating barriers that have prevented the full participation of communities most impacted by systemic oppression.

  • Improving equity involves increasing justice and fairness within the procedures and processes of institutions and systems, as well as in the distribution of resources. Tackling equity issues requires an understanding of the root causes of outcome disparities within our society and institution.
  • Equity differs from equality. Equality refers to treating everyone the same but does not necessarily lead to equitable outcomes because diverse communities have diverse needs and have faced varying obstacles and inequities.

Inclusion: Ensuring that people of all backgrounds, identifies, abilities, perspectives, and beliefs have an equal opportunity to belong, achieve, and contribute to their communities. An inclusive organization and community promote and sustains a sense of belonging; it values and practices respect where all people are recognized for their inherent worth and dignity, talents, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of living.

Cultural Competence: An understanding of how organizations and individuals can respond respectfully and effectively to people from all cultures, economic statuses, language backgrounds, races, ethnic backgrounds, disabilities, religions, genders, gender identifications, sexual orientations, veteran statuses and other characteristics in a manner that recognizes, affirms and values the worth, and preserves the dignity, of individuals, families and communities.

Meeting weekly, our objective is to create change amongst a wide scope of issues experienced in our community. That scope is vast and encompasses a lot of aspects, which can be a large weight to carry and one we are excited to do so.

Our Scope

The committee will guide the work of diversity, equity, and inclusion at our institution through the following:

  1. Assessing the implementation of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan
  2. Monitoring the development, implementation, and evaluation of standards for cultural competence for employees and care givers
  3. Providing input on organizational policies and procedures to address diversity, equity, and inclusion issues
  4. Focus on organizational policies and procedures to address diversity, equity, and inclusion issues and make recommendations when appropriate
  5. Evaluating and recommending solutions where organizational inequities exist
  6. Informing and consulting with clients, caregivers, contractors, employees, and leadership regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
  7. Ensuring the maintenance and dissemination of best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion in institutional policies, teaching, training, hiring, and retention of employees and contractors
  8. Serving as a resource for guidance and consultation regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion issues for employees, clients, caregivers and contractors
  9. Disseminating information about ongoing professional development training around diversity, equity, and inclusion for employees and contractors
  10. Seeking regular feedback from contractors, caregivers, clients and employees to inform decision-making and understand opportunities for improvement
  11. Sharing the work of the committee with the Support Inc. community

To date; our group has created a DEI Charter to guide our efforts, we have created a questionaries’ that will be available to our community for feedback in the creation of initiatives, reviewed our implemented Discrimination Policy, and created a Further Education List for DEI initiatives to be distributed soon. Additionally, we are developing a strategic plan to address trainings and internal/external initiatives.

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Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Council

by Information & Resources

To All Support Inc. Staff,

Recently our Founder Dennis Kirkman and our CEO Bentley Smith sent out a strong and clear statement regarding Support Inc.’s desire to advocate for the rights of disenfranchised people throughout this country. To impact change within our company and to our community, we are forming a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Council. I (Nick Manning) will be supporting a group of volunteers to help steer organizational decision-making regarding equality in several areas, which will include:

Legal

  • Ensure Support Inc. is following up to date federal, state, and local guidelines.

Respectful and Inclusive Internal Environment

  • Taking inventory of who we are and how we are made up. Then identifying how we want it to look so that our vision of a diverse workforce is reflected in our community.

Cultural and Global Adaptability

  • We deal with a global provider network and must embrace it. Support Inc. must take action to educate ourselves on the community around us and find ways to impact change.

This Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council will be charged with the following:

  • Inclusive leadership group
  • Provide diversity and multicultural training
  • Leverage diversity to enhance cultural adaptability and overall performance
  • Embrace local identity while providing a broad global connection
  • Enhance employee participation
  • Refocus from a company centered view to community focused view

Lastly, the responsibilities of the DEI Council may include:

  • Assist the organizational leadership in the creation and implementation of the DEI strategy and key milestones
  • Embed the diversity and inclusion function across the organization with strong connections to business units and operational divisions
  • Delineate diversity roles and responsibilities and provide for ongoing assessment to ensure effectiveness
  • Broadly build and share knowledge on DEI successes and impact – build the case for DEI!
  • Work with the human resource department to identify specific DEI education content to be included in employee training and professional development
  • Identify DEI barriers that impact recruitment, retention and advancement, recruitment, training, and key assignments
  • Create content and custom DEI messaging for this council to communicate to leadership, management, and the general employee population
  • Act as change agents for the organization – challenge the status quo – champion DEI and promote the company as an employer of choice
  • Identify support for external organizations that fit our DEI mission with time and/or donations

This group will be made up of diverse set of employees from all walks of life and we are soliciting membership for our initial DEI council. Please reach out to me directly if you are interested in participating in this council (my information is below my signature on this document).

Important notes:

  • Individuals interested and chosen for this initial phase of Support Inc.’s DEI initiative will be subject a specified term length, ensuring a continuation of fresh diverse views and perspectives.
  • A secondary phase will call on a larger group of individuals interested in supporting our DEI initiatives as our scope grows.

Together we can make a significant impact on our community and continue to be leaders in our industry.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about the Council, please email Nick at Nicholas.Manning@supportinc.com