To our Community, 

We want to say this week: We are Hopeful. 

From Obama's speech, last week to the inspiring turnout at the Black Lives Matter march in Los Angeles on Sunday where over 50, 000 Angelenos marched together to the marches all over the globe, I have been moved. 

I see the embers of change.

I know for some I may be repeating myself but 2020 is exactly what we said it would be!  A year of clear vision. Sometimes in order to heal our deepest wounds and see the world clearly, we must rip off the proverbial veil. We have been able to do so because so many of us have slowed down, have been working from home, and have had the time to dig deeper.

We can grow and change together but in order to do so, we need to first be honest about what is ailing us not just as a country but as humanity. Injustice for any of us is injustice for all of us.  

As we move into even deeper transformation, we wanted to give a short overview and update of what we have been up to: 

Meeting / Initiatives
We had a company meeting to express our feelings and to create consensus around company-wide initiatives on resources, learning, and how we can create change within our corporate community around police brutality, voting, education, and the Black Lives Matter organization. We continue to meet daily on the topic and will be releasing our list of initiatives shortly. 

Donations
We donated last Tuesday's earnings to the following organizations: Black Lives Matter Global Network, Black Vision Minnesota / TakeAction Minnesota Network, The Conscious Kid, Brooklyn Community Bail Fund, NAACP and Reclaim the Block. 

We will be contributing monthly to the following organizations: 

Black Lives Matter Global Network
Black Vision Minnesota / TakeAction Minnesota Network
The Conscious Kid

Social Media
We paused all of our social media channels last week in unity and solidarity with the Black Lives Matter organization and the #amplifymelanatedvoices campaign. 

We continue to post the people, leaders, and ideas that inspire us regarding social change for Black Americans and black people across the globe. 

Employees
We created a dedicated chat channel on our intranet for the exchange of internal ideas on donations.

We have collaborated and shared an internal "anti-racism" folder that now houses books, podcasts, articles, and continuing resources on anti-racism. 

We are including bias and diversity training in addition to the work we have begun on gender bias and harassment training in our office. 

Let's keep doing better!

All the best,

Candice, Annie, Peter, Stephanie, Caitlin,
Misti, Molly, Zach 
and 
The Ladder Method Team