A Year-Round Focus on Diversity and Inclusion

Year after year, the month of June continues to be a time to celebrate the progress made by the LGBTQ+ community. Pride Month is celebrated around the world every year to honor the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan, which were a critical moment for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. Pride Month also serves as an opportunity to shed light on LGBTQ+ issues which continue to require improvement and to come together as a community regardless of our differences and to celebrate diversity as one. 
 
Together, Chief People Officer of Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN), John Stockwell and iProspect Canada CEO, Dan Kalinski and have a vision of becoming a safe, barrier-free employer and believe the key to progress lies in pushing for a workplace that is inclusive and accepting of diverse backgrounds throughout twelve months of the year – not just the month of June. This means respect is put at the forefront to foster a culture where everyone feels welcome and everyone feels comfortable being themselves without any fear that doing so could impact their work. 

iProspect and DAN are also a proud partner of Pride Advertising & Marketing (Pride AM) an organization whose goal is to promote, among other things, the fair and accurate representation of LGBTQ+ people in advertising and marketing communication. As an agency, we not only have the power to communicate the message of diversity and inclusion across our organization but our work also has the power to promote and affect change in how the LGBTQ+ is portrayed in media. This in and of itself is very powerful.

In addition to Pride AM, DAN is a national partner of Pride at Work, an organization which through dialogue, education and thought leadership aims to empower employers to build workplaces that celebrate all employees regardless of gender expression, gender identity, and sexual orientation.

“We’re proud to partner with organizations such as PrideAM and Pride at Work to show our continued support for the LGBTQ+ community and the overall message of inclusion,” says John Stockwell, "however, the press for LGBTQ+ progress is not only a human resources initiative, but an initiative that must be supported by our people from the ground up, for the greater good of all."

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