Blissful Latinx / Hispanic Heritage Month by ActiveCampaign

This article was contributed by Karyn Acevedo and Avy Kea.

Have you ever wondered why Latinx / Hispanic Heritage Month starts on September 15th? This special date marks the anniversary of the independence of five Latin American countries (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) – others (Mexico and Chile) will follow. This 30-day period is designed to celebrate the culture, achievements, and contributions of these individuals with Hispanic and Latin roots.

In this blog post, we love to hear from our Senior Email Marketing Specialist & ActivelyLatinx ERG Co-Lead and DEI Program Manager how they talk about their work to make this month special for ActiveCampaign colleagues of Latin / Hispanic backgrounds .

Meet Karyn, ActivelyLatinx ERG Co-Lead

My name is Karyn Acevedo and I am a Senior Email Marketing Specialist. The best part of what I do is working with so many different teams across the company on all email topics! Whether we’re announcing an action or building an automation, our team brings ideas to life.

In addition to my daily role, I am also co-head of ActiveCampaigns ERG ActivelyLatinx. This group’s efforts are to build community and justice within and among our Latinx employees, create valuable career development programs, and give back to our community. I joined the ERG in 2019 as a member and was later asked to become more involved as a co-lead.

I was at a point in my career where it was more important to me to be part of something bigger than my everyday life. I wanted to make a contribution and make a difference in a space outside of my individual role. Since joining leadership, my co-lead Jay and I have made it our mission to make community the foundation of our ERG. We continue to create a space in which our Latinx employees feel they belong, participate in open dialogue and can contribute their whole self.

One of our first company-wide initiatives was the recognition and celebration of Latinx / Hispanic Heritage Month. We host various events around the importance of this celebration and learn more about the Latinx perspective and the importance of recognizing these things in the workplace.

Employee Spotlights was my favorite initiative. I contacted many members of our ERG for an interview in order to get to know them both professionally and personally. These interviews were published during the month and a Latinx employee was introduced to the company every other day so that our colleagues could learn more about them and how they contributed to the success of ActiveCampaign. In this newer (mostly) remote workspace, it was a way for us to learn more about the people we may not work with on a regular basis and publicly acknowledge their contributions.

One of the best ways ActiveCampaign has focused on diversity and inclusion has been through our monthly ActivePerspectives program. This program brings together guest speakers from different backgrounds and walks of life to share their experiences.

Our ERG even had the privilege of working with the DEI team to invite guest speaker Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, author of For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts and owner / founder of LatinaRebels. The event will focus on Prisca’s story as a first generation Latina, challenges she faced, obstacles she overcame, and how she was a voice for people of color.

While it’s important to recognize Latinx / Hispanic Heritage Month in the workplace, it’s even more important that ActiveCampaign continue to build an environment that recognizes and celebrates all communities year-round. Every member of our organization helps create this space of diversity and inclusion.

Meet Avy, DEI Program Manager

My name is Avy and I joined ActiveCampaign four months ago as a DEI program manager. During my job search, I was drawn to ActiveCampaign because one of the company’s core values ​​is promoting inclusion and diversity. I loved hearing about the different ways ActiveCampaign brings its core values ​​to the company: requiring DEI training, creating spaces for open dialogue, organizing company-wide DEI events with an emphasis on celebrations and intersectionality, and supporting its seven employee resource groups.

Now that I’m here I can truly say that it is both an honor and a privilege to be in a position that enables me to work with a DEI team that has an active role in creating an inclusive culture.

Our DEI team aims to empower our colleagues to take the initiative to be leaders in this area and practice allies. We also believe that efforts to promote diversity and inclusion can be laudable, but unsustainable without justice. In order to offer all employees fair opportunities to exploit their full potential, centered equality is of crucial importance.

My role as DEI Program Manager enables me to work closely with our ERGs to raise cultural awareness, support ActiveCampaign’s diversity goals, increase business impact and create a sense of community among our employees. I also manage the implementation of our company-wide DEI engagement (e.g. ActivePerspectives, Events / Programs) in order to promote awareness and continuous dialogue on topics related to DEI.

Celebrating Latinx / Hispanic Heritage Month is a real example of what cultivating inclusion and diversity is like at ActiveCampaign. Executives like Karyn work diligently to create moments to celebrate and recognize the contributions of our Latinx employees. While we encourage our colleagues to explore the history of Latinx / Hispanic Heritage Month on their own, there are additional ways to learn about Latinx’s perspectives through special programs such as member-only events, open access meetings, employee spotlights, and our upcoming ActivePerspectives Event.

Made possible by our partnership with ActivelyLatinx, this event will focus on Prisca’s story as a first generation Latina and her experiences with Imposter Syndrome – topics that resonate with our ActivelyLatinx members and the wider ActiveCampaign community. Our goal for this discussion is not only to train our colleagues on these topics, but also to promote different Latinx perspectives through well thought-out programming.

Latinx / Hispanic Heritage Month may only be on the calendar for 30 days, but at ActiveCampaign, the celebration and recognition of our Latinx / Hispanic Heritage colleagues won’t stop there.

Because for us, these events and activities are more than just programming and Slack posts in a channel dedicated to DEI – they are opportunities for our colleagues to learn, to find community and to support one another. These are no-expiration opportunities that will continue to be the backbone of how ActiveCampaign cultivates inclusion and diversity.