The following excerpt was submitted by Jeermal Sylvester, a member of EmployIndy's DEIB Affinity Group.

I have been impacted in a great way by being a proud member of the Affinity Group. In the beginning I really didn’t have a clue of what it was or what I would be expected to do. In a very short time I learned the purpose as well as why I was selected to be a part of this amazing group of people. Over the last few months we have had tough conversations and intentionally challenged the status quo as pertains to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. One thing for sure and two things for certain, the members of the Affinity Group care deeply about the EI culture and have demonstrated that we are determined to help the organization, as a whole, get to the place where we can become an Anti-racist organization.

…the members of the Affinity Group care deeply about the EI culture and have demonstrated that we are determined to help the organization, as a whole, get to the place where we can become an Anti-racist organization.

When we first started, I posed a question to the group and that was, “are we working for change or conformity”? I can say that we are moving the needle and creating CHANGE both organizationally and individually.