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Celebrating Diversity
April is Celebrate Diversity Month. It started in 2004 to honor the diversity around us with the hope that people will have a deeper understanding and appreciation for the different cultures that make our communities beautiful. Seventeen years later, while some progress have been made, the recent news events are reminders that we still have a long way to go until everyone is accepted and can be safe in this country. We hope you will take time this month to learn about a culture and recognize the positive impact a diverse community has on society.
Partners in Diversity curated some resources for the Asian and Pacific Islander communities following the series of attacks on members of the API community, as well as racial trauma resources after the murder of George Floyd. Please feel free to share this with anyone who needs support during this time.
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Resources & Opportunities
College to County Mentorship | Program to provide college students in underrepresented communities with internships at Multnomah County | Deadline to apply: April 4 | Learn more
NW Equity Summit | Learn from top business and DEI advocates from around the world at Partners in Diversity's inaugural Summit | May 4 and 5 | Register now
Urban League of Portland Career Connections Job Fair | May 4, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. | Register now
Celebrate 2021 – IRCO Gala | Virtual event to celebrate IRCO’s 45th anniversary | May 20, 5:30 p.m. | Learn more
For community events, volunteer or board opportunities, please visit our Community page.
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Partners in Diversity team members, Tracey Lam (left) and Mari Watanabe (right), attended the community candle vigil on March 20, 2021, in downtown Portland to honor the victims of the Atlanta-area spa shootings that killed eight people, including six Asian women.
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News and updates
Refer an Honoree If you know a person of color who recently moved to Oregon or southwest Washington, please invite them to be introduced at the May Say Hey! event. It’s a perfect chance to meet our communities of color and start building a network. Ask them to complete this form by May 1.
Follow us on LinkedIn If you haven’t been seeing our updates on your LinkedIn feed, it’s probably because you were connected to us on our individual profile page and not on our official company profile page. It’s a long story. Bottom line: follow us here to receive the latest news and updates from Partners in Diversity.
Online community board Partners in Diversity offers a free online community page for area organizations to engage with communities of color and ensure that diverse voices are at the table. The community page features events, board/commission openings and volunteer opportunities. Partners in Diversity does not necessarily endorse these events. To view or post, go to the community section of the webpage and select community events, board positions or volunteering.
In case you missed it During the first three months of 2021, Partners in Diversity hosted seven events for members and for communities-at-large. Topics discussed included: intergenerational trauma, power and privilege, cultural appropriation vs. appreciation, diversity in leadership and targeted universalism.
Upcoming programs
- April 20 – Breakfast for Champions: Bystander intervention (for members only)
- April 16 – Equity Conversations: All the feels. Finding emotional balance during stressful times (for members only)
- May 25 – Say Hey!~Virtual (open to the community). Register now. If you know a professional of color who recently relocated to our area and would like to be introduced as a Say Hey! Honoree, please ask them to complete this form.
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Welcome our new members
As of March 31, 2021, we have 386 member organizations. Please join us in welcoming the following new members who joined us in March or upgraded their membership.
Platinum
- AT&T Oregon
- Oregon Department of Transportation
- Owen Jones
- Morrison Child & Family Services
- Multnomah County
- Washington County
Gold
- barre3
- Oregon Youth Authority
Silver
- First American Title
- Livelihood NW
- Luna Jimenez Institute for Social Transformation
- Marie Lamfrom Charitable Foundation
- Northwest Pilot Project
- Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
- OTRADI and Oregon Bioscience Incubator
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Mari's memo
Between the steady stream of news about elderly Asians violently attacked while walking down the street and the start of the trial against former police officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, it has been an emotional couple-weeks.
The Minneapolis firefighter who testified in Chauvin’s trial who repeatedly tried to get the officers to let her provide medical assistant said that she was “desperate” to help Floyd. In one way or another, we are all desperate to help people like Floyd and the eight people who died last month in the Atlanta-area spa shootings: Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Delania Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, Paul Andre Michaels, Xiaojie Tan and Daoyou Feng.
The fact is, we can help by changing the system. Lily Zheng, one of the speakers in our upcoming NW Equity Summit, said in a recent LinkedIn post, “Racism lives in systems and does its dirty work through people… Not a bad apple, but a bad tree growing on bad soil.”
Another of our NW Equity Summit speakers, Ian Haney Lopez, proposes a provocative strategy for addressing racism by shifting thinking among progressive leaders and by building a cross-racial, cross-class movement focused on economic justice.
Lily and Ian are two of greatest minds in diversity, equity and inclusion work. I am looking forward to learning from them and others at the NW Equity Summit on May 4 and 5. Because there is a lot more that needs to be done. Together, we can end racism.
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