CENTRIC BRANDS CELEBRATES PRIDE THROUGH EXPANDED PARTNERSHIPS AND COMMUNITY BUILDING

June 30, 2022

Celebrating and honoring our LGBTQIA+ associates and their allies around the world is a fundamental role to creating a safe, inclusive and equitable workplace at Centric Brands. Pride is an important celebration for our community to rally around, and to strengthen our year-round commitment to creating educational and community engagement opportunities and safe spaces for associates to listen and learn from one another.

Check out key highlights below:

We announced our partnership with the It Gets Better Project to provide educational resources, workshops and trainings for our associates all year around. Topics span from discussing language to how to create safe and inclusive spaces for employees and clients. The It Gets Better Project is a nonprofit organization with a mission to uplift, empower, and connect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth around the globe.

The Centric Brands Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee hosted a Pride Panel, called: “Brick by Brick: Bridging Pride & Intersectionality.” The panel featured Jimmy Ancheta-Tilley, Associate Director of Development at the It Gets Better Project, Rebecca Lopez-Howes, Design Director for the Kids Division, Mac Smith, Senior Copywriter/Creative for Robert Graham, and Bree Williams, Designer for Entertainment Licensing.

This month’s Centric Cares Creators for a Cause resident artist, Jeremy Kalteux, created a beautiful tote bag inspired by the Say Gay Movement, created to protect LGBTQIA+ students. Available for purchase exclusively by Centric Brands colleagues, all process were donated to the It Gets Better Project. Learn more here.

Our Greensboro office partnered with the local Greensboro chapter of PFLAG to run a lunch & learn for 35 associates. The workshop dived into allyship, language, how to find resources and personal stories. Nafeesah Tate, Data Management Coordinator for Supply Chain Operations shared, “I learned and now understand the importance of using the correct pronoun. The dynamics of coming out affects not only the individual but the family. The 2 stories that were told during this PFLAG lunch expressed the courage that it takes to Accept, Understand and to Advocate. Being a girls basketball coach has allowed me to engage with young ladies in discussion of gender identity and acceptance. After the lunch I now know that the use of the correct pronoun has been missed in some situations.”

NYC associates volunteered with the NYC Pride Organization to help staff two of their main Pride events: family movie night and the Pride kick-off rally. Heritage of Pride is a nonprofit that works toward a future without discrimination by producing LGBTQIA+ Pride events that inspire, educate, commemorate and celebrate our diverse community.

Our LA office invited Covenant House California to run a workshop on LGBTQIA+ youth. Directly proceeding the workshop, associates participated in a Pride bingo event, where all proceeds raised were donated directly to Covenant House California.

Across our offices, associates celebrated Pride through a variety of fun events including a mason jar decorating event, a Pride bagel making class, and celebrating National Donut Day with Bite Box, a queer-owned bakery in Brooklyn.