Byline: Written by Vinciane de Pape, DEI Advisory Lead I regularly talk to people who want to build more inclusive workplaces in my job at Bloom. These conversations go wonderfully until we talk about activities. That’s when I hear the dreaded “Can we do this in a one-hour session?” question…

Byline: Written by Vinciane de Pape, Lead, DEI Advisory at Bloom. As an organization that provides context-specific DEI training and fractional DEI advisory, we get a lot of fascinating insight into who is championing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts internally and who isn’t. An overwhelming majority of the reach-outs we…

This past November, Tanisha Godfrey went viral for a video describing her lunch: a chicken salad. In it, she says, “Y’all better come up and get one of these… It’s a chicken salad. 81st Deli.” Tanisha’s original audio has been used over 200 thousand times on TikTok and 1.2 million…

Examining the risks and pitfalls of requiring employees to return to a physical office environment — Byline: Written by Vinciane de Pape, DEI Advisory Lead at Bloom Much has been said about the state of work over the last few years. Many organizations adapted to working remotely when the pandemic hit, some have continued to operate under a hybrid model, and others still are now starting…

Byline: Written by Jessica Regan, Sr. DEI Advisor at Bloom Dear Bloom, I am a Digital Marketing Director and also a Black man. Our office is hosting a virtual Halloween costume contest this year. I want to dress up as Yasuke, the African samurai (the actual 1500’s Japanese African samurai…

Byline: Written by Vinciane de Pape, DEI Advisory Lead at Bloom Dear Bloom, I’m a Senior Recruiter and recently interviewed a candidate who shared that they listen to a controversial podcast — one whose host is notorious for making inflammatory and oppressive remarks about folks from historically marginalized communities, specifically…

Centring the Voices of Trans, Disabled, and Racialized Women — Byline: Written by Jessica Regan, Sr. DEI Advisor at Bloom Women’s Equality Day celebrates the signing of the 19th Amendment on August 26, 1920, a proclamation giving women the right to vote in the United States. However, this amendment really only benefitted white, non-disabled, cisgender women. The early suffragist movement…

Article was written in collaboration by: Jessica Regan (Sr. DEI Advisor, Bloom) and Vinciane De Pape (Lead, DEI Advisory) On May 27, 2021, the remains of over 200 children were discovered on Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation Indian Residential School grounds, situated in Kamloops, BC. Over a year later, that…

Lessons learned from last year’s Juneteenth — Byline: Written by Jessica Regan, Sr. DEI Advisor at Bloom Slavery may have legally ended in 1863 in the United States, but it wasn’t until 1865 that federal troops actually ended slavery in Texas, the last state to hold out. That day — June 19th, 1865, or “Juneteenth” for short…