In partnership with BAMSI and its DEIJA team, the Council will now be sharing a monthly DEIJA celebrations calendar with its members!
This calendar marks multi-cultural celebrations, holidays, days of remembrance and days of awareness, along with monthly and multi-week celebrations. In addition to the calendar, the BAMSI team has created a short description of the holiday and curated additional resources for people to further educate themselves on the celebrations. The BAMSI team recently wrote an article for The Provider newspaper in which they explained the purpose of creating such a calendar. Sonia D’Alarcao, vice president of diversity, equity & inclusion of BAMSI writes:
“The work of ensuring diversity, equity, inclusion, justice and accessibility (DEIJA) within organizations is a serious endeavor. It is critical to the creation and maintenance of workplaces where employees, people receiving services and visitors can feel a sense of belonging and can expect equitable treatment. These DEIJA efforts can include things like dismantling unjust systems by revamping policies and procedures, ensuring inclusive recruitment and hiring practices and supporting employees who experience discrimination. This is deep, and sometimes heavy work.
But not all DEIJA work is heavy. Alongside these efforts to dismantle unjust systems, DEIJA work should also include shifting organizational culture and creating welcoming environments. For some employees, the first step in their DEIJA journey is to learn and understand a bit about a culture or group that they are not a part of…Engaging and coalescing the workforce through cultural appreciation can be both an important first step towards a just and equitable future and a much-needed relief through engaging in communal joy.”
Thank you so much to the DEIJA team at BAMSI for sharing their celebrations calendar with the Council and its members. The calendar will be updated each month. Please click here for the full calendar.
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