Racism, discrimination and injustice have no place in our world. Enterprise Holdings President and CEO Chrissy Taylor shared the below statement regarding some of the initial steps we’re taking to fight for real, lasting change – both inside and outside our organization.
The senseless deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, as well as other instances of racial injustice affecting our communities — mostly, members of Black communities – have left us feeling angry, frustrated and sad.
And while we’ve put meaningful focus into equality and diversity at Enterprise Holdings through community support, training and development, mentorship programs, forums and volunteerism, this moment is only elevating our desire to work toward real and lasting change.
Over the last several weeks, we’ve done a lot of listening and opened a much-needed dialogue with colleagues from across our company.
The discussions have been raw, candid and impactful.
In one of my conversations with a Black colleague, he expressed his fear. Fear that George Floyd could have been him. Or his son.
I can’t begin to comprehend the pain, fear and exhaustion that he and many others feel as a result of the way the Black community is too often treated in our society.
I want Black colleagues, customers and community members to know – you matter. Your life matters. Black lives matter. Racism, discrimination and injustice have no place in our society and cannot be tolerated in any form. And now is the time for action.
Action is an area where we must do more as a company as well. And I commit that at Enterprise Holdings we will do just that.
As a start, last week our Foundation allocated nearly $1 million for our colleagues to distribute to non-profits supporting social and racial equity efforts to help create positive change in the communities where we live and work. And we have plans to announce additional funding in the weeks to come to support other local organizations committed to fighting injustice.
We’ve launched a new global program — My purpose. My time. — that will provide our employees with paid time off so they can personally volunteer and serve local community causes that are most important to them.
We’re also enhancing our Open Minds | Open Doors diversity and inclusion curriculum that is incorporated into every step of career development at Enterprise Holdings. We’re creating more focus on topics impacting our colleagues, and more tangible solutions and training on how best to address critical conversations, inclusive leadership and unconscious bias.
This is just a very early start to the development of specific actions that follow our commitments. As a society, we have a lot of work to do … a lot of listening to do … a lot of learning to do. And as a company, we know we need to do the same.
We’ll continue to have the tough conversations and to do the hard work, investing the time and resources in the weeks, months and years to come.
It won’t be quick. It won’t be easy. But it’s how we can begin to bring positive, real and lasting change – both inside and outside our own organization.
