The workforce employment rate for the visually impaired has historically been exceptionally low, but that is slowly changing with companies beginning to finally realize that the visually impaired are natural problem solvers, and are creative, resilient, and innovative out of necessity. Kamille Richardson, founder of iSee Technologies spoke more on this topic.

Businesses across the country are working diligently to create a work culture that is truly inclusive - especially for the hairstyles of black women. That’s why we held a Courageous Conversation on the topic, where we heard from one of the co-founders of the CROWN Act, Adjoa B. Asamoah, as well as from several local leaders in the space.

The Raleigh Chamber and The Triangle Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity Alliance are proud partners in this movement to address systemic racism in our community. On Feb. 17, we hosted a Community Success Forum to provide more information about our community-wide initiative, “A Better Wake.”

Everyone has altered certain aspects of their personality to fit in at some point in their career. For historically underrepresented employees, changing one’s appearance, behavior, or speech can become an everyday survival tool to fit in and advance at work. It’s called code-switching.

The conference theme for this year was ‘Speak Up, Take Action’ and our speakers took this to heart in their sessions by delivering powerful strategies and insights that we can bring to our personal lives and to our organizations.

Over the past year, there has been a resurgence in anti-Asian hate crimes. To help our members and the business community know how to support local Asian-run businesses, we featured this topic during one of our Courageous Conversation events.

The Pew Research Center asserts that the youngest generation in the U.S. is entering adulthood as the country’s most racially and ethnically diverse generation and is on its way to becoming the best-educated generation yet. And this generation is now entering the workforce.

“Understanding the nation’s racial history is essential to dismantling systemic racism – the problem is history is poorly understood, hence systemic racism persists.” – Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad

Activating the Triangle. That was this year’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity Conference’s theme, and the Raleigh Chamber and Triangle DEI Alliance certainly delivered it.

It has been a time of sadness and heavy feelings as we reflect on what has occurred in our country. We address the question everyone is thinking of now: What can I do?