Black Lives Matter

Dear Neighbors,

We at Newmind Group want to publicly express our support for the following statement: Black Lives Matter! What’s more, we recognize the long history of subjugation in this country which has been perpetrated on native and immigrant communities, though none has been so pronounced as the systematic transport, enslavement, and dehumanizing of African people. We find this despicable. We also want to acknowledge that we are ignorant in so many ways, due to our upbringing, lack of exposure, but most of all… for those of us who are white… because we have had the choice to live in our bubbles of ignorance.

Therefore, we want to state that we choose the hard road as an organization. Since relationships are the foundation of all of our values and how we deliver our services, we choose to invest in relationships that cross the boundaries of race, creed, identity and religion. We choose to approach our ignorance with humility and self-reflection, and to listen and learn from those not like us. We choose to help where we are needed and ask for help when we need it. We choose to listen to those who are angry, heartbroken and hurting to find our common ground and the ways in which we can soothe, heal and bring peace. 

We ask that you, our neighbors, friends, customers, and vendors, support this cause with us. 

Black lives matter to all of us! We are robbed of the richness of our culture when black men and women are demeaned, passed over, dominated, hurt and murdered. We are robbed of their creativity, care, friendship, love, hard work, children and joy.

We commit to the following actions, some of which have been in progress for some time:

1. 1. We will support the following local organizations through matching donations from our employees, starting with a $250 donation to each organization to seed the giving:
      • • ERACCE – Eliminating Racism & Creating/Celebrating Equity
        • TRHT Kalamazoo – Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation Kalamazoo
        • BACC – Black Arts and Cultural Center
        • Urban Alliance
   2. Over the last two years, we’ve been working with a number of business and non-profit partners to create and implement an IT training program that creates a more robust and diverse IT community.  We commit to continuing to support and lead this initiative forward.
   3. We will aggressively pursue recruiting from diverse communities, with the goal of representing our community’s diversity. IT has been an almost exclusively white male profession for some time now and we aim to change that.
   4. We will continue to search out and participate in ongoing inclusion training that helps our team and leadership understand and better lead diverse groups with the goal of a more inclusive workplace. We wish to not only make all people feel welcome, but provide leadership and growth opportunities for those that have been so long held down.

Black lives matter! Speak it out because our neighbors need to hear it.