Every year, Black Historical past Month offers a possibility to acknowledge the contributions of Black Individuals and lift consciousness of previous and current struggles dealing with the Black neighborhood. 

What was as soon as a week-long celebration through the second week of February (coinciding with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln) Black Historical past Month is immediately celebrated with all kinds of observances within the U.S., Canada, the UK, and Eire (amongst different international locations).

At WP Engine, our Worker Useful resource Group, Rise (WP Engine’s worker useful resource group devoted to offering a protected, open surroundings for BIPOC and allies) commemorated Black Historical past Month by organizing programming to focus on vital figures in Black historical past and communicate to points dealing with the Black neighborhood immediately. 

WP Engine is dedicated to constructing a office tradition that encourages workers to convey their full selves to work. To us, bringing your full self to work signifies that every facet of your identification, together with your struggles, your strengths, your passions, and each different a part of your self, is each welcome and celebrated right here.

Some of the vital methods we rejoice the variety of our workers is thru our Worker Useful resource Teams (ERGs). Our ERGs are opt-in teams accessible to all workers that plan occasions and supply training to the better WP Engine neighborhood. Proper now, WP Engine has eight ERGs accessible to our workers:

• Department: connects caregivers inside WP Engine and serves as a community of help to assist navigate the intersection {of professional} and private accountability associated to being a caregiver. 
• Embrace: offers advocacy and help for seen, invisible, and persistent disabilities and diseases.
• Flourish: goals to construct an open and welcoming neighborhood for workers to hunt and supply help; educate and be taught; and advocate for each other on the matters of psychological well being, neurodiversity, and particular person wellness.
• Hue: offers a protected, open surroundings to advertise, educate, and advocate for LGBTQ+ folks and their allies.
• Open Hearts: by means of charitable motion, fundraising, and volunteer work, this group is working on the intersection of ardour and neighborhood want, focusing totally on well being, starvation, and training initiatives.
• Refresh: goals to create a world neighborhood of people that wish to make a constructive affect on the surroundings by affecting change on the particular person, regional, and world ranges.
• Rise: offers a protected, open surroundings to advertise, educate, and advocate for BIPOC and their allies.
• Roar: offers a protected, open surroundings to advertise, educate, and advocate for ladies in positions or industries the place being a lady has traditionally been considered as unfavorable or “lower than.” 

On February 23, WP Engine welcomed licensed government coach and DEI marketing consultant James C. Jones to our weekly City Corridor the place he mentioned the subject of unconscious bias. 

Understanding the character of unconscious bias and addressing it, particularly in a office setting, is significant to the success of any workforce.

Staff in attendance mentioned the methods by which our private experiences form the way in which we view the world, together with our office. Jones spoke particularly concerning the methods unconscious biases hinder our collective progress.

“In case you’ve acquired a mind, you’ve acquired biases,” Jones stated. “So you must assume, what would possibly they be getting in the way in which? It takes a variety of braveness to be open to excited about this stuff, and being intentional about recognizing new concepts and new views makes you extra prone to attain the strong creativity you’re on the lookout for as a corporation.”

He ended his speak by reminding attendees that by being open to new views and keen to examine in with themselves and their assumptions, they’ll be capable to construct nearer, extra trustworthy relationships with the folks round them.

All through February, Rise management additionally posed day by day trivia questions within the group’s Slack channel to coach group members about vital leaders in Black historical past. 

Listed here are a few the questions; see if you recognize the solutions! (Scroll down to seek out the solutions to those trivia questions on the finish of this text).

Query 1: Who am I?…

• I shaped an acapella group with Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, and others that may comprise the core of the well-known band, The Wailers.
• In 1976, I used to be shot at two days earlier than acting at a live performance aimed toward decreasing tensions between warring political factions. Regardless of this, I went on to carry out for a crowd of 80,000 folks as deliberate.
• I obtained the United Nations Peace Medal of the Third World in 1978.

Query 2: Who am I?…

• I invented the induction telegraph in 1887, which allowed folks to speak by voiceover telegraph wires.
• My induction telegraph elevated the velocity of communication, which was used to stop prepare accidents. Alexander Graham Bell purchased the patent.
• I improved air-brake techniques and electrical avenue vehicles and have been known as the “Black Edison.”

There are a whole lot if not 1000’s of worthy causes to help this Black Historical past Month. That stated, WP Engine holds one group near our hearts. 

As an organization, we’re dedicated to facilitating unorthodox profession pathways for people who wouldn’t in any other case have as many alternatives to enter the tech business—and particularly people with out school levels. 

Code2College shares our purpose of decreasing the barrier of entry to the tech business for minorities and low-income college students. We’ve partnered with them previously and respect the work they do to establish new expertise and create distinctive skilled improvement alternatives for historically underrepresented college students.

Whether or not you’ll be able to donate your {dollars} or just unfold consciousness a couple of trigger near your coronary heart, take into account supporting a corporation like Code2College this 12 months.

Thanks to all our workers who participated on this 12 months’s Black Historical past Month actions, and particularly to the members of Rise management that organized these nice occasions.

In case you’re on the lookout for a piece surroundings that encourages you to convey your entire self to work, take a look at our open roles and apply to affix the workforce at WP Engine!

Now, go forward and examine your solutions from the trivia questions posed above:

• Query 1 reply: Bob Marley
• Query 2 reply: Granville T Woods

Do you know the solutions? Tell us within the feedback!