Read our June 2020 employee-owned company statement on Black Lives Matter.

The tragedies of the summer of 2020 made us all question deeply as a company what actions we will take to create change. In addition to condemning police violence and racial injustice, what are we doing to address those issues? What could we be doing? What should we be doing?

Our first step on a long journey was to create a Black Lives Matter Working Group internal to Community IT, tasked with helping the company identify and move forward with specific long-term commitments: 

Addressing racism and bias at Community IT

Ending police violence against Black people 

Working to end racism in American society

We periodically post Black Lives Matter progress report updates here on the aspirations Community IT Innovators is committed to, and the outcomes of the changes we have taken and are taking.

Aspirations

  • Working with DEI consultants, review of our policies and procedures.
  • Align our policies with our goals of racial equity.
  • Evaluate and transform the structure and activities of the company to further social and racial justice.
  • Seek opportunities to celebrate and elevate under-represented voices in our company and incorporate them more broadly in our internal and external communications.
  • Seek opportunities to work with our nonprofit technology community and more widely with the technology sector to combat racism, elevate under-represented leaders, and promote equity.

In Progress

  • Continuing engagement with partners and consultants for Racial Justice, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion work internal to Community IT.
  • Prioritizing ongoing employee workshops on race, diversity, equity, justice, and inclusion, focused on learning how we can talk to one another about difficult topics.
  • Creating inclusive spaces in our internal processes and structures such as meetings and scheduling.
  • Exploring external partnerships with organizations promoting racial equity and justice and decreasing police violence.

Actions Taken

  • Formed an internal BLM working group which reports to our employee-owners on progress to increase transparency of our process, timeline, and goals.
  • Began with internal conversation, reflection, and learning.
  • Created Commitment to DEI statement.
  • Added observing Juneteenth as an official company holiday.
  • Intentional internal community building, including creating more inclusive meeting formats, times, and ability to include remote and in-person staff together.
  • Hold all-staff workshops and learning activities.
  • Created “Community IT Voices” to highlight and promote employee experiences and give examples of diverse career paths to under-represented communities.

We know the next steps we will take, as an employee owned company, to address grave social problems in a meaningful way will be challenging.

We are grateful for the work of our employees to center this challenge company wide and we have committed ourselves to work hard to rise to this opportunity to transform our company into a more meaningful place to work and a better agent of broader social change.

We strive to live our values throughout our work; with our clients, with our colleagues, and with our internal structures.

We look forward to where we might go next, and we will keep our community informed of our Black Lives Matter progress.

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