ACCES Employment
Nominator Comments:
The murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in the US in the summer of 2020 sparked a new awakening and a deeper awareness about the severity and impact of anti-Blackracism in our communities. The global response, and that of the Black Lives Matter movement, became a renewed call to action. Junior recognized the need for Black employees to connect and act together for positive change. He articulated a vision of a safe space for Black ACCES employees to share and reflect on their lived experiences, support each other, and collaborate on initiatives that have instigated meaningful change within ACCES and within the communities that we serve. Within weeks Junior mobilized support from the CEO and Leadership Team and inspired Black colleagues to join him in creating the Black Action Coalition for Change (BACC), ACCES’s first Employee Resource Group. BACC is a network of twenty Black ACCES employees who provide leadership and insight in addressing anti-black racism. They work collaboratively with ACCES leadership to implement Equity and Inclusion initiatives across the organization with a focus on driving positive change related to racism and anti-black racism. The impact of BACC in two short years has been tremendous including successfully building a pipeline of Black talent at ACCES. Since 2020 four Black staff have applied for and received promotions and he was also instrumental in developing the inhouse mentoring program for black employees and is a mentor himself. Junior has influenced the leadership team at ACCES, the Board, and the staff to engage with the hard subjects of anti-black racism. He has motivated the members of BACC to continue to work for change
