A Message From Alegeus: Our Commitment to Racial Justice and Equality

Dear Alegeus community,

Over the past several weeks, we have been grappling with a range of emotions as we process the senseless killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others. These events have deeply affected us all, and have sparked a long-overdue national conversation around the systemic racial injustice that plagues our country.

Alegeus unequivocally believes that Black lives matter. We stand in solidarity with the Black community and with all of those who fight for racial and social justice. But we know that solidarity is not enough. We must do more.

While we struggle and grieve, we also see these events as a turning point – as an opportunity to do the hard work that brings about real change, together. We feel a strong responsibility to be consistent and diligent allies for our Alegeus family. As a company, we will:

• Reflect. We will look at ourselves with a critical eye to see how unconscious bias impacts our individual perspectives, our company and our community overall.
• Converse. We will embrace discussion around sensitive topics in order to create a more welcoming, inclusive and diverse Alegeus family.
• Donate. We will match donations made by employees to three carefully chosen charities (Campaign Zero, Color of Change and Equal Justice Initiative). We are proud to say we’ve already seen extreme generosity from our employee base.
• Support. We will offer paid time off to employees who would like to peacefully protest, restore damaged communities and/or volunteer for local events like voting days.
• Amplify. We will use our platforms to amplify the voices of our employees making racial justice impacts – as well as the voices of community members from traditionally underrepresented groups – to facilitate continued conversation.
• Diversify. We will strengthen our internal hiring practices to ensure that we are even more intentional and proactive in seeking out staff and leaders from underrepresented groups.
• Empower. We will give our staff an early release on Juneteenth (June 19th) so they can use the time off to listen, learn and find ways to commit to concrete next steps to become better allies and advocates.

This is just the beginning. We are committed to continuing this work, so that we can collectively create an organization and a community that is more equitable and inclusive. We ask that you, our community, join us in that effort by giving money, giving time and giving a voice to underrepresented groups.

Sincerely,

Steve Auerbach