This October marked Black History Month 2021.
These past couple of years have been new and challenging, to say the least. And with so much going on from returning to work; getting kids back in school; learning new routines and trying to make sense of the new normal we’re all experiencing, it’s easy to see how some things could fall out of the net.
Making sure this doesn’t happen is more important than ever, with the social and political commentary surrounding Black lives, we need to make sure that every day we elevate Black voices and use ours to raise awareness of issues that may not make it to the mainstream media.
Here, we’re looking back at some of our work and initiatives to see how we can learn from these to continue, and elevate, our work with the Black community going into the future.
A few weeks ago, we hosted an internal OPEN Your Mind podcast with Sean Betts, sponsor of the OMG Minds advisory group, Nathaniel Oke, a Black mental health practitioner from The Talking Therapy Clinic, and Naomi Davidson, a wellbeing specialist, discussing the importance of protecting your mental health along with practical advice and guidance. The podcast focused on the intersectionality of the Black experience and mental health, and how these issues can be realistically combatted in both work and homelife settings.
More recently, Chief Executive of Omnicom Media Group Dan Clays sat down for a fireside chat with June Sarpong OBE. Their conversation was centred around the importance of highlighting the need for inclusion and diversity, especially in our industry. June spoke to the glass ceiling that exists for women in the workplace and how this extends more deeply and impactfully for Black women.
We have also released an internal podcast with Chantelle Akwei who managed BRiM (Black Representation in Marketing) at Facebook, and Wakuda, the online marketplace to discover Black business, who will be speaking about the importance of Black representation.
We’d like to say a huge thanks to all those who have got involved with us over the past month to celebrate Black History Month. Sharing experiences and useful advice for navigating different landscapes is one of the best ways we can collectively make a real change in and beyond our industry.