Last summer, Century responded to the killing of George Floyd and other Black Americans at the hands of the police by immediately forming an inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Workgroup. The goal of the workgroup was to reflect upon, candidly discuss, and ultimately compile a set of recommendations for Century’s senior management staff to consider implementing in order to continue to make progress toward being a more inclusive and equitable organization.

The workgroup met for several hours at a time for many weeks in a row and submitted a bold, thorough, and thoughtful memorandum to senior management, which marked a major milestone for Century in 2020.

Following this remarkable work, Century formed a formal Review Committee comprised of representatives from all areas of the company to consider the recommendations and how to best implement them.

We could not be prouder of the thoughtful and deliberate process we undertook last year as we sought to grow as an organization and carve out a clear path toward increased diversity and inclusion in our work at Century.

To that end, we are humbled and pleased to share that more than a dozen of the workgroup’s recommendations have been adopted and implemented in three particular areas: (please note: only one of the many newly adopted practices and procedures from each category is shared below)

• Training
  • Century has retained the services of Diane Burbie, an experienced consultant, facilitator, and coach to present to all Century staff on the historical and current context of racial, gender, ethnic, and sexual orientation discrimination in the US; this training will be followed by small discussion groups for facilitated exploration of these topics.
• Communication
  • Century will review its existing grievance procedure for residents and make any improvements necessary to ensure that residents may safely communicate with management any issues they may have regarding their residency.
• Advocacy and Action
  • Century established a new paid holiday known as “One Century Day,” which may be used by staff at their discretion to celebrate or honor any day of the year that holds special meaning for them, such as Juneteenth, Good Friday, Yom Kippur, Chinese New Yea, Dia de los Muertos, or the anniversary of the Obergefell v Hodges decision.

These are just three of newly adopted practices and procedures that Century is proud to commit to in its ongoing efforts to become a more diverse and inclusive organization. The work our staff contributed over the last several months to make this possible was awe-inspiring across our organization, and we look forward to continuing this important work.