Social Equality and Corporate Volunteering

How WeHero is activating employees to promote social equality with corporate volunteering.

Black Lives Matter - a statement racing through every media channel and for good reason. What we need now is for everyone to join in this marathon. To encourage and empower individuals and companies to make their voices heard and to be part of the change that is so desperately needed. Oftentimes with movements around social justice and equality, we look to companies to apply extra leverage and empower their employees and community to make a massive impact. WeHero is not only doing that, but helping companies to do the same. Working with the best non-profits, we are designing corporate volunteering programs to activate employees around the cause. This creates awareness and momentum for companies to focus their social response.

About the cause

The details around this movement date back hundreds of years to the beginning of slavery in the US. While the cause at times appears to be focused on black lives only, it’s actually much bigger. This is a movement around social equality for all. A movement that is fiercely fighting for equal opportunity and respect for everyone regardless of the color of skin, the accent of voice, or the gender that we’re born with. The history and the data run deep. What we’ve noticed that symbolizes the statement above is that when we look to the streets and see the protests, we see people of all color, ages, and gender. The support is universal and that is exactly what we want to see.For more information and data about the cause, we recommend listening to Shellye Archambeau, former CEO of MetricStream, now a board member at Verizon, Nordstrom, and more here.

So how can corporate volunteering play a role and how can employees participate while working remotely?

Working with our non-profit partners, WeHero has created remote corporate volunteer events that are shipped to employees' homes and virtual corporate volunteer events that are done fully online. WeHero has two core areas focused on social equality for our corporate volunteer programs:

• Short term - Empowering activism
• Long term - Creating an equal opportunity for access to education

In the short term, we’re working to activate employees to make their voices heard, their companies heard, and to be part of the movement. One of the most powerful aspects of the Black Lives Matters movement has been something incredibly simple: Art. WeHero is hosting remote social art experiences, shipping the needed art supplies to participants’ homes, and holding a live class with a keynote speaker explaining the movement and how to create an impact. Participants then partake in a social art class learning how to convey meaning and messages through artwork. The art promotes awareness and can also be used by Black Lives Matter.

In the long run, WeHero is focusing on creating equal opportunities for education. We are hosting remote volunteer events that give students access to school supplies so that they can succeed in the classroom. We’re supporting National CARES in the creation of authentic educational content to support 20,000 students per corporate volunteer event to scale our educational impact. We need as many employees and companies to join this marathon to ensure our future is socially equal and that starts with education. To learn more about WeHero's stance on racial and social equality check out our previous blog post in response to the movement.We appreciate each and every one of our partners who are standing up and using their voice in support of social equality!