Tag: 3BL

Originally published on DICK’S Sporting Goods Sideline Report

At a recent hockey clinic in Nashville, Tennessee, a young girl named Zebobegim Shamsieva was allowed to share some special news with her fellow Play Like a Girl members as she read a note from The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation. The girls all started hooting and hollering when they heard that Play Like a Girl was being given $75,000 as part of the 75for75 Sports Matter Grant Program.

Zebobegim came to the US in 2020 from Uzbekistan, and she was unable to speak much English and was in search of a group that could help her assimilate into a new country. She found that home with Play Like a Girl.

“She has overcome so much and is now one of the most stellar students in the program. She finished this year as the top student in her school, which is just remarkable when you look at where she was just three years ago,” said Dr. Kimberly Clay, the Founder & CEO of Play Like a Girl. “It was extra special to have her be the one to actually read the news to the other girls because she has such joy and enthusiasm and was just so happy to be involved.”

Started in 2004 while Dr. Kim was pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Play Like a Girl has made a difference in the lives of thousands of middle school girls while seeking to level the playing field for girls everywhere.

“The intention of the program was to really get girls in the game, keep them active and playing in the game because we recognize that girls dropped out of sport at twice the rate of boys going into high school,” said Dr. Kim.

The program’s focus shifted after a 2016 study by Ernst & Young and ESPNW showed that 94% of women executives have a background in sports.

“We decided to introduce STEM as an outcome, recognizing that our support could be a catalyst for good health and behavior,” said Dr. Kim. “It also could be a catalyst for really changing the trajectory of girls’ lives by getting them into these competitive male-dominated careers in the STEM space.”

Darla Enoch, Senior Community Marketing Manager at DICK’S Sporting Goods, was part of the group that presented Play Like a Girl with the Sports Matter grant, and the all-encompassing impact that the organization was having blew her away.

“It’s not just sports. It’s education; it is mentorship. This is the whole package for these girls,” said Enoch. “They really leverage the skills that girls gain from sports, that confidence, teamwork, and camaraderie to give them an edge in the classroom.”

The grant money will help Play Like a Girl underwrite its sports programs so that every girl can participate in any sport, mentoring, or educational program they want at no cost to her or her family. As they look to grow their impact Play Like a Girl will launch new volunteer-led clubs in communities nationwide this October as part of a yearlong countdown to its 20th anniversary.

This grant’s impact was evident as the girls celebrated the announcement.

“This was an impactful moment for the girls in our program because they understand the power of money,” said Dr. Kim. “They reacted strongly because they understand what $75,000 can do for our program. That can help get computers, that can help get them hockey sticks and uniforms, it can help open doors for them.”

The 75for75 Sports Matter Grant Program was launched in March in support of DICK’S Sports Change Lives campaign and in honor of the company’s 75th anniversary. The program was developed to provide 75 grants worth $75,000 each to under-resourced youth sports programs across the country.

To learn more and support the 75for75 Sports Matter Grant Program and The DICK’S Sporting Goods Foundation, visit www.sportsmatter.org.

For media inquiries related to this story, contact press@dcsg.com.

Over 50 percent of the nation’s drinking water originates from forests and timberland owners play an important role in protecting water quality. The role of water quality BMPs is to conserve and protect water quality by minimizing sediment through the filtering ability of natural vegetation and erosion control measures adjacent to water bodies. BMPs include practices such as leaving streamside management zones (SMZs) during harvest, properly designing and constructing logging roads, and using logging methods and equipment that protect water quality.

SMZs are unharvested or lightly harvested buffers that run along the length of streams and are designed to capture runoff and sediment. The SMZs provide significant other benefits, including stabilizing the banks of streams and acting as a source of food for aquatic organisms. By retaining trees alongside the streams, SMZs also shade the water’s surface from direct sunlight and significantly reduce radiative heating, keeping streams cool and clear, a particularly important objective in northern regions where cold-water fisheries are present. Riparian areas are important habitats for wildlife species and SMZs can provide wildlife with favorable habitat and travel corridors.

“Our foresters and logging contractors install SMZs along streams during harvesting and maintain them throughout the forest growth cycle. Our operational monitoring and third-party forest certification audits verify our SMZ implementation and compliance, and we are proud of the water quality protection we achieve.”

Kit Hart
Director Forest Planning and Environment,
PotlatchDeltic

The digital revolution opened a world of possibilities for women and girls, offering more access to the digital economy, education, political representation, and careers in STEM fields than ever before. However, a stark global gender gap remains largely unaddressed and is widening.

According to The World Economic Forum 2023 Global Gender Gap Report, it will take 162 years to close the gender gap related to political empowerment, 169 years to close gender gaps related to economic participation and opportunity, and 16 years to appropriately address the educational attainment gap. The time it might take to close the gap related to health and survival remains undefined. Furthermore, according to the United Nations Global Compact, if women and men participated equally in the economy, it could add an additional $28 trillion to the global annual gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025.

To help advance gender equality and change these global trends for the better, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is joining forces with Laboratoria for the September goIT Monthly Challenge. Focused on United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #5: Gender Equality, the challenge invites students aged 6-18 to use their voices and creativity to ignite change by creating a concept for a digital innovation —such as a website or an app — that could help close the global gender divide.

Learn more about the September goIT Monthly Challenge at: on.tcs.com/goIT-ENG.

About Laboratoria 
Laboratoria offers young women from low-income backgrounds a career in tech that transforms their future. With locations in Peru, Mexico and Chile, and expansion plans across the region, Laboratoria is quickly becoming a leading source of female tech talent from Latin America to the world. Over 200 companies in Latin America and the U.S. are already hiring from Laboratoria, and global tech companies such as Google are backing the program. World leaders like Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg have recognized its impact on changing how low-income youth can be prepared for the jobs of the future, and its potential to bring in the talent and diversity the tech sector needs to grow.

About TCS’ goIT Monthly Challenge 
TCS’s Go Innovate Together program (goIT) is TCS’ flagship STEM education program. Focusing on digital innovation and career readiness, goIT engages students from diverse backgrounds to bridge the learning curve between Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) subjects and computer science, design thinking and digital innovation. The program offers an industry-developed, customizable curriculum that teaches students the 21st century skills necessary for a career in technology. Lessons cover topics including the innovation lifecycle, rapid prototyping, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and more.

Since the launch of the goIT Monthly Challenge in 2020, thousands of students across the globe have used key principles from goIT to design tech-based solutions and submit pitch videos based on a monthly Challenge theme. Each month, TCS co-hosts the event with a Sustainable Development Goal ambassador, globally minded nonprofit or a TCS client. The Challenge has engaged a growing number of teachers and students every month, exploring topics ranging from gender equality and systemic racism to protecting life under water.

Visit the goIT Monthly Challenge competition website to learn how to involve students in upcoming challenges at: http://on.tcs.com/goIT-ENG 

We broke new ground when we first began publicly reporting our sustainability performance in the mid-1990s. Twenty-eight years later, the Report on Sustainability and its companion publication, the Climate Report, continue the practice of disclosing our progress in more than a dozen areas of environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance.

Read more about our sustainability journey here.

“We’re proud to continue our long history of openly disclosing our performance in key areas for sustainability. That transparency is important because the amount of interest has continued to increase both for communities, governments and investors,” says Jon Mitchell, Vice President, Sustainability. “More and more people value these reports because it shows what we’ve done to deliver on areas that are crucial to ensuring we have a sustainable business now and in the future.”

Highlights of this year’s reports include:

1 million tree and shrub seedlings planted in our reclamation areas94% water recycle rate in our operations in 2022$3.1 billion spent with Indigenous-owned companies in 2022, accounting for about 20 per cent of our total spending with suppliers.$40 million donated to community, charitable and non-profit groups in 2022105,000 hours volunteered by our employees in their local communities through the SunCares program, which supported 1,700 community organizations and contributed almost $6.2 million to communities.Became 4th largest electricity producer in Alberta in 2022 by generating low-carbon power through our cogeneration fleet.

“I hope all of our employees, some of whom are featured in these reports, will read them,” Jon says. “These reports reflect the accomplishments based on the hard work they put in every day and every shift.”

Read this year’s Report on Sustainability and Climate Report by visiting here.

By Kim Borges

During National Black Business Month, Regions Bank is highlighting Black entrepreneurs and organizations like Inner City Capital Connections (ICCC) helping entrepreneurs build long-term success. Here, we spotlight basketball legend Tamika Catchings’ unexpected path in discovering that small business is indeed her cup of tea.

Tamika Catchings has transformed many of her dreams into reality.

WNBA Champion and league MVP, NCAA Champion and nonprofit founder – check, check, check and check.

And now, tea shop owner.

“Every single night it came up in my dream,” recalled Catchings of the two-week period before she purchased Indianapolis small business Tea’s Me Café in 2017. Catchings had initially explored other investor options with the former owners after learning the couple planned to move and close the quaint spot she frequented. But that nightly dream kept leading her back to the idea of taking her first shot at being an entrepreneur.

“We grew up drinking tea; it’s always been part of our family,” Catchings said. “I just loved the intimacy of the space, the ambience of this place. This is my own little oasis. To this day, I still lose track of time here.”

And these days, you’re just as likely to find Catchings behind the counter at Tea’s Me as in front of it.

“I will mop, I will sweep, clean the counters, whatever I can do,” she said. “I’m not going to ask my team to do anything I’m not doing as an owner.”

Small-business owner – Catchings’ newest title – offered the opportunity to take advantage of Inner City Capital Connections in Indianapolis. Regions Bank brought the tuition-free, “mini-MBA on steroids” business training program to the Circle City for the first time in 2022 to empower entrepreneurs whose businesses are in or near urban or economically under-resourced neighborhoods. Topics ranging from business strategy, to marketing, employee retention, access to capital and more are covered. Mentorships are formed. Coaching continues as long as the business owner wants it.

The next city where Regions is taking ICCC? Nashville, Tennessee, this September.

For Catchings, the ICCC workshop was a business day well spent.

“Being able to meet and see people in your own field was really beneficial,” she said. “It was a chance to discuss dealing with the same things I’m going through – good and bad. I also loved the marketing and finance sessions and the speakers.”

But, true to Catchings’ athletic roots, it’s ICCC’s post-workshop one-on-one coaching that’s made the greatest impact.

“Having someone to bounce ideas off of has been so valuable,” she said about her coach, who’s based in New York. “And the ICCC team regularly checks in to see how alumni are doing. They want to make sure the program is working and that you have the right mentor.”

ICCC is part of the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC), which was founded by Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter to sow seeds of investment in America’s cities. CEO Steve Grossman said training programs like the one Regions is taking to Nashville intentionally match entrepreneurs with coaches who can provide the most meaningful insights.

Being able to meet and see people in your own field was really beneficial. It was a chance to discuss dealing with the same things I’m going through – good and bad. 
Tamika Catchings

“Soon after the program’s opening seminar, we interview participants to learn about their unique pain points and how a mentor can help address the roadblocks they’re facing,” said Grossman. “Whether it’s the need for a marketing plan, an internet strategy or help with employee relations, we’re able to foster valuable relationships that help accelerate the business owner’s profitable growth.”

Catchings will be the first to tell you that to be successful, the coaching relationship is a two-way street.

“If you’re going to do it, 60 percent is you,” she said. “The coaches are there to help, advise and guide, but it’s really up to you. Those relationships will go as you go. Everything is only going to go as far as you allow it to go.”

Catchings applies that same all-in approach in coaching Tea’s Me’s team members.

“Coming in, what I learned from basketball is what I’ve tried to implement here,” she explained. “It’s like locker room management and really being able to lead. It’s ensuring we have a system set up for success by doing the little things that go a long way like showing up on time. We’ve already set you up if you follow the system. We are preparing our team members for the rest of their lives.”

Another aspect Catchings has promoted among Tea’s Me team members? A positive atmosphere.

“I think our culture is one of a servant mindset in everything we do,” she said. “It involves teamwork, passion, fun and being inclusive. Similar to sports, you can’t allow one person to bring your whole team down. My expectation is that our team is excellent.”

That inclusive spirit is something customers feel each time they walk in Tea’s Me’s doors.

“My motto is that everybody belongs here,” said Catchings.

Anything worth having, you have to work for. But it’s a blessing. I just love what we do. 
Tamika Catchings

Despite the challenges many small businesses have faced since 2020, Tea’s Me recently expanded to three locations. It’s also established a shipping model to distribute products nationwide and began bottling their Tea’s in-house. Tea’s Me’s five flavored varieties are making their Indiana State Fair debut this month.

It’s proof Catchings’ latest dream is coming true.

But don’t think it’s all come easily.

“Anything worth having, you have to work for,” she said. “But it’s a blessing. I just love what we do.”

And Catchings has some advice for her fellow entrepreneurs following her experience the past six years.

“Scale your business according to what you really can do,” she said.

And for anyone considering applying for the Nashville ICCC program?

“The question is why wouldn’t you do it rather than asking why should you?” she said.

You can nominate an entrepreneur or apply for your small business to participate in the ICCC Nashville cohort.

Originally published on Nielsen Insights

When CODA won the best picture Oscar in 2022, many people with disabilities hoped it would lead to more inclusion of their stories in media. But aside from the awareness and accolades, little progress to further advance disability inclusion on screen has followed.

And the trend isn’t limited to feature films. Video Descriptor Data from Gracenote highlights that the number of new disability-inclusive TV and movie titles has been declining since peaking at 365 in 2019.

With limited inclusive options across TV and film, it’s not surprising that the disability community has found more of what it’s looking for across social media channels, where content creators with disabilities are actively filling the inclusivity void across traditional media channels. It’s important to note that while disabled creatives are finding success in social media, this is not a replacement for the decline in representation in TV and films.

Indeed, traditional media channels could learn from the success of disabled social media influencers and the brands they represent. Creatives with disabilities are providing brands with an authentic way to connect with an audience that’s actively seeking inclusivity. And importantly, branded posts from influencers with disabilities often outperform those from influencers without disabilities.

In a recent analysis of branded Instagram posts between May 2021 and May 2023, Nielsen InfluenceScope assessed the performance of 24 creators with disabilities to determine their effectiveness and ROI when compared against posts from creators without disabilities. Across eight industries, 278 branded posts from disabled creators generated a total of $474,000 in media value. Among the industries, the posts in the fashion industry generated the highest media value in absolute terms (40% of the total), but the posts in the electronics industry generated the highest value per post ($2,400 per post, well above the average of $1,700).

In aggregate, the posts from creators with disabilities scored 21.4% better in average media value than posts from creators without disabilities and drove 20.5% more interactions.

Across the industries, the branded posts from disabled creators outperformed posts from creators without disabilities in media value and engagement actions five times out of eight.

Case study: Tommy Hilfiger is reshaping fashion and beauty

Within the fashion industry, which accounted for 32% of the branded content in the InfluenceScope study, the #TommyAdaptive campaign for Tommy Hilfiger’s Adaptive collection has benefitted from the support of 26 different influencers, including three with disabilities: Jillian Mercado (@jillianmercado), Tiffany Yu (@imtiffanyyu) and Lauren “Lolo” Spencer (@itslololove). Over the past two years, the campaign has generated 257,000 interactions and $106,000 in media value.

On average, the campaign has achieved an engagement rate of 2.6% per post, collected an average of 6,000 interactions per post (more than 40% higher than the fashion industry average) and generated an average media value of $2,500 per post (also more than 40% higher than the fashion industry average).

The brand’s focus on designing for the needs of all people and the effectiveness of the digital campaign have resulted in an array of positive comments to the 47 branded posts, with 38% highlighting the brand’s focus on inclusivity and 31% expressing an appreciation for clothing that fits people with specific needs.

The brand’s focus on designing for the needs of all people and the effectiveness of the digital campaign have resulted in an array of positive comments to the 47 branded posts, with 38% highlighting the brand’s focus on inclusivity and 31% expressing an appreciation for clothing that fits people with specific needs.

While the TV screen remains the dominant media option for Americans, accounting for just under 5 hours per day1, disability representation across broadcast, cable and streaming programming remains remarkably low.

This, in turn, limits the opportunity for brands to be present in disability-inclusive content. In fact, Nielsen’s latest Attitudes on Representation study2 found that 34% of respondents said they don’t believe there’s enough content that represents them on TV.

The upside of digital connectivity and new media channels

Comparatively, Americans spend an average of 3 hours and 23 minutes with their computers, smartphones and tablets per day3, which provide access to an even greater variety of media choice, including content that they believe better represents them. Newer media options, including social media, offer greater inclusivity, which provide brands with more opportunities to embrace and show support for the disabled community by being present in the inclusive content that isn’t available in traditional media channels.

Sources:

Q4 2022 National TV panel; time spent includes live TV, time-shifted TV, TV connected device usage.Nielsen Attitudes on Representation on TV Study, April 2022Q4 2022 National TV panel

 

Originally published by Progressive Grocer 
By Bridget Goldschmidt

In her appearance at Progressive Grocer’s Grocery Impact event in Orlando, Fla., this November, Albertsons Cos. Chief Sustainability and Transformation Officer Suzanne Long will discuss the ambitious goals the grocer has set when it comes to its environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities, as well as how the supermarket chain aims to tackle those goals, the challenges it sees ahead, and what investors and consumers can expect in terms of transparency in regard to the company’s sustainability progress.

Learn more about the event from Progressive Grocer. Read about Albertsons Companies’ Recipe for Change in their 2023 ESG Report.

During the summer of 2023, the Avantor Foundation supported the Next Gen High School Internship Program at the Department of Human Genetics at Emory University. The Avantor Foundation is the charitable foundation associated with Avantor.

According to an article from the Emory News Center, 21 high school students from the Atlanta, Ga. area were awarded paid internships. They received hands-on lab experience in microbiology, chemical biology, and biomedical engineering as part of the program.

“Students said they gained valuable perspectives on both future career paths and laboratory research specifically,” the article said. “Interns heard from several speakers who shared details about their own career paths, ranging from roles in the laboratory or hospital to a patent lawyer or medical science liaison.” The interns also received resume-building tips and job interview coaching from Avantor employees.

Next Gen is just one program through which the Avantor Foundation – whose mission is to create a better world by advancing science education and providing healthcare to those in need – supports STEM education.

Read more about Avantor’s recent Community Engagement activities in its 2023 Sustainability Report.

Read more about the Avantor Foundation.

About Avantor:

Avantor®, a Fortune 500 company, is a leading global provider of mission-critical products and services to customers in the biopharma, healthcare, education & government, and advanced technologies & applied materials industries. Our portfolio is used in virtually every stage of the most important research, development, and production activities in the industries we serve. Our global footprint enables us to serve more than 300,000 customer locations and gives us extensive access to research laboratories and scientists in more than 180 countries. We set science in motion to create a better world. For more information, visit avantorsciences.com and find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Help us congratulate our 2023 Intern Class! Webster Bank hosted 25 students from 23 universities supporting 21 departments across Webster offices and HSA Bank, a division of Webster Bank, N.A. Their 10-week internship included orientation, teambuilding, Learning Wednesdays, and volunteering at three organizations – Junior Achievement of New York, Wellmore Behavioral Health and Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin. We thank them for an incredible summer and wish them continued success as they embark on their academic journey!

Webster Bank’s Internship Program allows students to work
side by side with professional bankers, getting hands-on experience, broad exposure to its business and to discover the rewards of a career in banking.

Learn more about internship opportunities at Webster Bank.

We’re honored Comcast NBCUniversal ranked 12th on PEOPLE Magazine’s 100 Companies that Care list for 2023. Partnering with Great Place to Work, this annual list published today highlights U.S. companies that demonstrate outstanding respect, care, and concern for their employees, communities, and the environment. Comcast was recognized on the list for the fifth time for our ongoing commitment to create real and lasting impact in the communities we live and work in.

At Comcast, we’ve been dedicated to using our platforms, people, and reach to ensure that everyone has the resources and opportunities they need to participate and succeed in today’s digital economy. Project UP is our comprehensive initiative to advance digital equity and help build a future of Unlimited Possibilities with a $1 billion commitment to reach tens of millions of people. It encompasses programs, like Internet Essentials and Lift Zones, and community partnerships across Comcast, NBCUniversal, and Sky that connect people to the Internet, advance economic mobility, and open doors for the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, storytellers, and creators.

Aligned to Project Up is Team UP, our volunteerism and employee engagement program. This always-on initiative brings our teams together and provides opportunities for everyone to get more involved with our communities.

We’ve also set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2035 in Scope 1 and 2 emissions across our global operations, and we’re proud to share that we’ve eliminated 960,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions since 2019. Our teams have been working diligently to invest in renewable electricity, increase network efficiency and resiliency, design sustainable products and packaging, and showcase the possibilities of a sustainable future through storytelling and production. We have the roadmap to carbon neutral, and we’re letting it guide us to a better, more sustainable future.

Comcast has been long committed to creating a work environment where everyone is supported. We’re constantly evaluating and expanding our benefits, career tools, development opportunities, and workplace policies to ensure they reflect and represent all of our employees’ needs.

For more information, please see our 2023 Impact Report. Jobseekers can explore opportunities at Comcast Careers, NBCUniversal Careers, and through Comcast NBCUniversal’s LinkedIn page.