Our Responsibility
As an organization, we pride ourselves on using our community’s feedback to shape and inform our decision-making. From the programs we facilitate to the services we offer, the voices of our community members are at the heart and centre of our work.
On June 2, 2020, BITS made the following post on our social channels:
“It is our privilege at Business in the Streets to support and amplify Black creativity, Black ingenuity, and Black enterprise. Today, tomorrow, and ongoing, we stand in solidarity with our Black community members, volunteers, and partners in the fight against racial injustice. Racism has no place in our community and we will continue to do our part in its erasure.”
Over the last several weeks, we’ve been listening to the Black voices in our community and have been reflecting on what we can do to better support and uplift them. Here’s what we’ve learned so far:
- Business in the Streets has a platform to influence the conversation around issues facing our community. Access to leaders and decision-makers is not equally distributed and so the narrative we tell and the stories we share have a unique impact. That’s why BITS is committing to using our platform to create visibility and celebrate the amazing work our BIPOC participants and alumni are doing to better themselves and their communities. To start, you can now check out our shop black-owned page.
- Not having our community members represented within the organization has made it challenging to be effective allies. To combat this, BITS is committed to increasing BIPOC representation within our board, team, and volunteers to align more closely with the communities we serve. Although we don’t have any positions open at the moment, we are accepting resumes for when that time comes.
Diversity and inclusion is an ongoing and iterative process and we are committed to creating an approach that reflects this. Together, our goal is to create and foster an organization that our entire community can be proud of.
Sincerely,
-the BITS team