Source: Lilly / Lilly
Eli Lilly and Company and the Lilly Foundation announced today a pledge of $25 million and 25,000 volunteer hours over five years to decrease the burden of racial injustice and its effects on local and national communities of color. The commitments were made in conjunction with the Indy Day of Solidarity – We Stand Together event, today, from 12-12:30 p.m. EDT. The event is sponsored by Lilly in partnership with the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper, Indianapolis’ oldest African American newspaper; Radio One, Indianapolis’ largest urban radio station; and WISH-TV, the city’s largest minority-owned television station.
Tune in to the event here at 12PM:
“Lilly and the Lilly Foundation have a long history of standing beside our neighbors and communities,” said Tiffany Benjamin, president of the Lilly Foundation. “We are committed to action in addressing the systemic injustices in America that disadvantage people of color every day, with a special responsibility to Indianapolis, home of our headquarters for 144 years. As with our ongoing response to COVID-19, we’re confronting these injustices with the full force of our capabilities.”
Lilly is committing 25,000 employee volunteer service hours to help fight racial injustices. This commitment builds on Lilly’s ongoing efforts to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive culture within the company and in communities where it operates, and across the world.
Examples include:
- Employee Journeys: a series of research projects to understand the experience of women and minorities in our company. These Journeys have led to several initiatives to build in greater equality and cultural understanding across our company.
- Make it Safe to Thrive: the need for psychological safety was identified in our Journeys, and we have built an initiative around cultural literacy and building bridges among employees from different backgrounds.
- Significant progress in improving the numbers of women globally and minorities in the U.S. in management.
- Internal Lilly Day of Solidarity, which served as the genesis for the community-wide Indy Day of Solidarity occurring today.
“This is personal for me and for the whole company,” said David Ricks, Lilly chairman and CEO. “We commit to bringing people and organizations together to acknowledge the trauma of racial injustice in its many forms and create a call to action for lasting change. Lilly will continue to stand together in solidarity until all our communities, both here in the U.S. and globally, meet the standard we have set for our own company. The time for platitudes is behind us – the time for urgent action is now.”
As part of Indy Day of Solidarity – We Stand Together, Eli Lilly encourages people to:
- Wear black to symbolize the dark time we’re living in – with a pandemic that is affecting minorities disproportionately and recent acts of deadly violence against African Americans.
- Take time to read, think and reflect on the kind of community you want – and what you can learn or change to help us get there.
- Reach out to someone different from you. Ask questions about each other’s journey through life: how are you similar, and how have your experiences been different?
- Speak out. Promote Indy Day of Solidarity – We Stand Together by sharing Lilly’s social media posts on your social media accounts.
Indy Day of Solidarity – We Stand Together was originally published on hot963.com
