To say “Black Lives Matter” is both to affirm that black lives deserve the same respect and dignity that most other Americans have enjoyed throughout American history, and it is also to acknowledge the systematic inequality in how black people have been treated repeatedly by law enforcement and the justice system.

The BLM movement is a call to action of all citizens to take a stand within our communities.

The focus is to end police brutality and the murder of people of color. The goal is to address harm and conflict in our Black communities and to recognize human rights for Black people. Countless people have been victims of police brutality and other forms of institutional racism in our communities and around the country.

For the latest updates, we advise that you first visit the website of the Black Lives Matter movement, which can be found at blacklivesmatter.com. For additional information, we also encourage you to check out our Black Lives Matter Community Outreach webpage on the following link: zvrs.com/black-lives-matter/community. If you have any recommended resources and links you would like to share with us, please email us at BLM@zvrs.com or BLM@purple.us.

The guiding principles of Black Lives Matter calls us to recognize the worth of every person, but at this time in history, this is a focus on serious issues of systemic injustice towards Black people specifically. The belief that all lives matter must include Black lives.

Over the last several weeks, the Z&P leadership team have been working together to truly understand how we can bring about change and greater equality within our walls and our community. We believe this movement is a time to bring greater awareness to our shared history of racism and injustice. Our goal is to launch action plans that are impactful, but also to ensure that we do not jeopardize efforts and progress for speed. Our action plans are identified below. This list states some of the efforts happening at Z&P and should not be viewed as comprehensive. There is more that we need to do. We recognize that change and healing is an ongoing process and we will continue engaging, listening, acting and communicating.

1) Sourced a team of employees to assist in the development of the Z&P outreach page dedicated to the Black Lives Matter Movement. The primary purpose of this site is to provide resources to support our common journey toward a higher awareness of systemic racism and bias.

2) Launched an Employee Resource Group (ERG) Program that provides team members with common interests or backgrounds opportunity to bring their collective voices together to build relationships and create a sense of community.

3) Offered Option to Vote Holiday for Full-time employees to use a paid day off to vote in elections and support voter registration and mobilization efforts. We realize elections are a key vehicle to address structural racism in both government and society.

4) Hosted internal dialogue groups to listen and seek to understand the needs of the employees and identify areas for further consideration in alignment with our ally-ship, mission and core values.

5) Exploring internal and external resources to provide training and workshops for leadership and employees on facilitating open dialogues, racism, unconscious biases, and allyship. We are evaluating all options to add to our library of training resources for all employees.

6) We have subscribed to Diversity.com, a job board that allows us to recruit highly skilled and diverse talent.