Our Commitment to Racial Equality

Reflecting on the events of the past month has made one thing abundantly clear to me and to the leaders within Storyblocks - whatever we have done thus far to ensure racial equality for the Black community is not enough. There is no question as to where we stand today. We stand firmly with our Black community in solidarity. And as a community, we have to evolve our own perspective and skills. We need to listen more. We need to think critically about the bias and prejudice in our own experiences. Black Lives Matter, and we all have an active role to play. Below are the actions Storyblocks is taking to support the Black community and the fight for racial equality.

Building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment Our executive and leadership team is committing to educating all employees on how to create a truly inclusive work environment. This means continuing to examine our recruiting and retention practices, providing employee bias and leadership training, sharing resources collected for self-education such as books, articles, podcasts, films, and collaborating closely with our Black Employee Resource Group. We are encouraging team members at all levels to engage in the uncomfortable, yet productive conversations that lead to growth.

Amplify the voices of Black Creatives At the heart of our mission, we believe every story deserves a chance to be told in its most impactful form. Access to resources, skill-level, or assets should not dictate whose stories are told or limit the audiences they tell them to. We are committed to uplifting the stories of Black creatives through direct partnerships and organic opportunities. A key issue is increasing diversity and inclusion in the content we provide, and the artists who create that content. We've partnered with a group of individual artists to produce a series of video collections that will authentically represent diverse people and communities.

Contributing to the community Finally, we are donating $25,000 to Black Student Fund - a non-profit organization that provides financial assistance and support to Black students and their families in the Washington, DC Metro area. We realize that this is just scratching the surface of what we can give back to the community, and we are actively exploring more ways that we can contribute locally.

This is the start. The past few weeks have been an awakening for many, and this includes me. I firmly believe it is our responsibility to use our platform to raise the voices of the oppressed and marginalized, now and going forward. We will not be silently complicit. We're committed to listening and learning how we can do better.

LINK:	https://blog.storyblocks.com/news/our-commitment-to-racial-equality/...
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