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Last year the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce (Chamber) began developing a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council that officially launched February 2020 and is Co-Chaired by Eva Dias (Phoenix Human Capital Solutions, LLC) and Andre Williams (The Law Offices of Andre Williams). The Chamber continues to strive to improve the quality of life for our diverse community and is looking forward to making significant contributions with this new Council.
Diversity and inclusion are core values for the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce and it is critical that we incorporate these values into all aspects of our work including advocacy, communications, workplace environment, vendor selection, hiring, promotion and retention. In order to carry out the Chamber’s core values, the Diversity & Equity Inclusion Committee (“The Committee”) will foster a shared culture at the Chamber that promotes the goals of accepting, respecting and valuing differences that include attributes such as age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender expression, sexual identity, ability, language, family circumstances and cultural backgrounds.
“I appreciate the support from the Chamber, Board Chair Robin Jacobs and Chamber President & CEO Jerry Libbin for the DE&I Council,” said Williams. “We understand that economic justice, equality and creating opportunity for people of color is important. These goals can only be achieved by engaging leadership in mainstream organizations like the Chamber to promote diversity, equity and inclusion to its member businesses whose bottom line will grow because of it.”
“The world will be a better place when we recognize that diversity, equity and inclusion are no longer a necessary discussion,” said Dias. “I look forward to the day that our mission is just part of our regular life and that we have completed our Council’s goals through the Chamber.”
“I want to acknowledge Andre and Eva’s leadership as co-chairs,” said Chair of the Board Robin Jacobs. “A diverse workforce means having a greater variety of backgrounds, talents, and experiences that enable businesses to have higher flexibility in adapting to a dynamic global market and it has shown to foster creativity as well as innovation.”
To date the Council has done the following:
- The Council hosted free webinars that provided valuable information to businesses on effective growth strategies during this time of COVID-19 that included e-commerce, online marketing and social media action plans. The Miami Gardens Chamber of Commerce and the United Way were sponsors of one of the webinars.
- In an effort to expand their multicultural efforts, the Council has developed partnerships with other organizations and government entities such as the City of Miami Beach’s procurement department, the Brazilian Consulate and the Multicultural Tourism & Development division of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.
- In the months ahead, this Council will focus on ways to create greater economic opportunities for minority owned businesses in and around Miami Beach.
For more information on the Chamber or the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council and to join the next council meeting, please e-mail Danny Diaz at danny@miamibeachchamber.com or visit www.miamibeachchamber.com.
