It is with great sadness that we share the passing of Michael Carter. A relentless advocate for representation and diversity in the workplace and beyond, Michael dedicated himself to standing up for his community.
It was an honour for us to have worked with Michael, and to have immortalised his words and wisdom in the time we had together.
Rest in power.
In our Spotlight series, we'll be featuring people and organisations who are doing incredible work to make ripples in their community.
By sharing these amazing efforts, we hope to encourage people to support their work, and inspire others to make their own ripples.
In this feature, we look at the Children's Breakfast Club, which has provided healthy meals and educational, cultural, and recreational activities to children and youth across Southern Ontario for over 30 years.
👉 @childrensbreakfastclub
make ripples (verb):
the collective act of addressing inequality by each taking practical and conscious actions in our daily lives, workplaces, and communities.
Workplace bias takes so many forms, and hair type is one of them.
As the 2019 CROWN Research Study said, "hair discrimination has real, measurable social and economic impact on Black women."
One of the main conclusions from the study was that Black women "are more policed in the workplace", and it's exactly this kind of bias and discrimination that has to be challenged.
To hear more about bias in hair and beauty, you can watch our conversation with Lucky Bromhead and Solange Ashoori at the link in our bio.
Michael continues: "Create an atmosphere where people feel at home. They feel 'I belong here. I'm listened to.' And I think organisations will be stunned by the greatness that comes out of it."
Full video with Michael Carter in our bio - @letsmakeripples
"I make ripples by advocating for visibility behind the scenes in film and TV."
Lucky Bromhead is all about using her profession to push for representation in the beauty industry.
How can you make ripples?
Hear more of Lucky's thoughts from the video in our bio.
Change happens when we each make ripples where we are.
make ripples (verb):
the collective act of addressing inequality by each taking practical and conscious actions in our daily lives, workplaces, and communities.
Solange Ashoori is making ripples by educating the beauty industry.
You can hear more about how Solange wants to diversify her industry from the video link in our bio.
The BCG survey continues: "Leadership commitment cannot just be at the C-Suite level. When mid-level and front-line managers don’t embody D&I values, messaging from the top rings hollow."
"For change to stick, D&I policies, behaviors and goals must be practiced from the corner office, through the middle-manager level all the way through to the front-line."
To see change in companies and corporations, leaders at all levels need to commit.
Through a study in partnership with the BDC, Christelle Francois and the Black Chamber of Commerce found that access to capital and loans is more challenging for Black entrepreneurs in Canada. And this is just one of mutiple aspects of starting a company that is harder.
As Christelle went on to say, this is unacceptable. Better support is needed, not only from financial institutions but from the government too.
This is what making ripples means to Christelle Francois of the Black Chamber of Commerce.
Watch her speak on equality and representation in the corporate world in our full conversation from the link in our bio @letsmakeripples
make ripples (verb):
the collective act of addressing inequality by each taking practical and conscious actions in our daily lives, workplaces, and communities.
