ABOVE: Tent Partnership for Refugees announces the companies joining them Human Rights Campaign at the North American Business Summit on LGBTQ Refugees. Photo via Tent Partnership’s Facebook page.
Nearly two dozen companies in North America have agreed to mentor LGBTQ refugees as part of a new initiative announced Dec. 8.
The Baltimore-headquartered Under Armour is among the 23 companies in the U.S., Canada and Mexico that have pledged to mentor at least 50 LGBTQ refugees over the next three years under the new initiative the Human Rights Campaign and the Tent Partnership for Refugees unveiled during their virtual North American Business Summit on LGBTQ Refugees.
Accenture, ADP, AT&T Mexico, Bain & Company, CIBC, CompuCom, GSK, Chobani, Finastra, Hilton, Huron, IBM, Ipsos, Kearney, Medtronic, Nomura, SAP, Scotiabank, Softchoice, TD Bank Group, Von Wobeser y Sierra and Warby Parker are the other companies that have joined the initiative in which roughly 1,250 LGBTQ refugees will participate. Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power announced them during the summit in which HRC President Alphonso David and Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya, who founded the Tent Partnership for Refugees, participated.
The companies will mentor the refugees through their respective LGBTQ employee affinity groups.
The nation’s capital, Los Angeles and San Francisco are among the cities in which the participating companies will offer mentorships.
“This is a wonderful first step,” said Power after she announced the companies that are participating in the program. “Each of you companies that made these commitments, you’re making it easier for other companies to do the same, by being first movers and so I just think have so many people’s personal gratitude, people whose names you’ll never know.”
The Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration during the summit unveiled a guide that advises companies on how they can develop and implement mentorship programs for LGBTQ refugees and asylum seekers. ORAM Executive Steve Roth participated in the summit alongside José Luis Loera of Casa Refugiados, a Mexico City-based group that assists migrants, and Forouz Salari of The519, a Toronto LGBTQ community center that provides services and support to migrants and asylum seekers.
Journalist Merryn Johns moderated the summit.
“LGBTQ asylum seekers and refugees are some of the most marginalized communities around the world. Yet in spite of the hardships they face, this community also demonstrates tremendous amounts of strength, hope and resilience,” said Roth in a press release his organization released after the summit.”
“I believe that there is a natural synergy with companies lending their expertise to help LGBTQ refugees develop new career skills and thrive,” he added. “We’re thrilled to be able to share these recommendations and best practices to help leverage that synergy.”
David was a teenager when he arrived in the U.S. after his family fled political persecution in Liberia. David said American “kids were looking for your tail and they said, ‘You’re from Africa, where’s your tail?’ And this came from children of all stripes, all colors.”
“There was a political and a social lack of awareness that affected my impressions of U.S. citizens or Americans at the time. And I think for immigrants and refugees that come to this country, they face such oppressive systems and philosophies that we have to do everything that we can to create a platform for them to succeed,” he said during the summit. “For me along the way I had mentors who invested in me and today I hope that the more than 1,000 refugees who will get mentors through this initiative, people will see the investment in them as well and they will see the investment that others will make in them.”
Hilton Chief Human Resources Officer Laura Fuentes in a press release said her company’s employees “are eager to demonstrate our values of hospitality and offer career guidance and skills development to our refugee partners; empowering them to bring their full, true selves to work each and every day.”
