DEI Book Club for Q1, 2022
The next DEI Book Club will be dedicated to women immigrants and their heart-breaking experiences in America.
The book that was picked is called A Dream Called Home: A Memoir written by Reyna Grande.
When Reyna Grande was nine years old, she walked across the US–Mexico border in search of a home, desperate to be reunited with the parents who had left her behind years before for a better life in the City of Angels. What she found instead was an indifferent mother, an abusive, alcoholic father, and a school system that belittled her heritage.
With so few resources at her disposal, Reyna finds refuge in words, and it is her love of reading and writing that propels her to rise above until she achieves the impossible and is accepted to the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Although her acceptance is a triumph, the actual experience of American college life is intimidating and unfamiliar for someone like Reyna, who is now once again estranged from her family and support system. Again, she finds solace in words, holding fast to her vision of becoming a writer, only to discover she knows nothing about what it takes to make a career out of a dream.
Told in Reyna’s exquisite, heartfelt prose, A Dream Called Home demonstrates how, by daring to pursue her dreams, Reyna was able to build the one thing she had always longed for: a home that would endure.
You don’t have to read the book to participate in the book club.
If you would like to sign up for Q1 Book Club discussion in January 2022 please email HR@visitcss.com. CSS is happy to cover the cost of your book (Kindle, Audio or paperback).
Donation Matching Program - running until December 19th, 2021
This is an initiative led by our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion committee as part of CSS’s commitment to provide charitable support to nonprofits addressing DEI-related issues. In order to include our employees in this effort, and to maximize our collective impact, CSS will match employee donations made to any of the nonprofits below up to $50/employee.
Here are the organizations we have chosen to support, after research and voting by the DEI committee members. We have limited the number of nonprofits in order to ensure that CSS’s donations make a meaningful impact on each one:
- NAACP Legal Defense Fund: https://www.naacpldf.org/ - America's premier legal organization fighting for racial justice.
- We All Code https://www.weallcode.org/ – volunteer non-profit organization that offers free STEM classes (where possible) in an effort to eliminate the barriers keeping girls and underserved youth from learning STEM skills.
- The Trevor Project https://www.thetrevorproject.org/ - nonprofit organization focused on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth. Through a toll-free telephone number, it operates The Trevor Lifeline, a confidential service that offers trained counselors.
- Greater Cleveland Food Bank: https://www.greaterclevelandfoodbank.org/ - provides emergency food assistance to those in need in the Greater Cleveland area. You are also welcome to donate to a local food bank in your area, and this will count as part of the matching program.
Here is how the matching program works:
- CSS will match any employee donations to any or all of these organizations from today through December 19th, up to $50/employee.
- To notify CSS of your donation, please email your donation receipt to hr@visitcss.com.
- CSS will then submit all the matches the week of December 20th.
- Results of this program will be announced in weekly huddles and displayed on the HR SharePoint site. HR will update the results daily. Right under the tracker, you will also see the countdown till the deadline.
CSS will also continue to make its standard company year-end donations based on 1% of the profits we generate, and we will share more information on those donations with employees in December.
Thank you in advance for your generosity and support of these impactful organizations!
*Please note that this program is completely optional.*
What our offices have been up to:
Winter clothing donation: The North Olmsted office set up a box for gently used winter clothing to be taken to a local charity.
Region 3: Each week we have Jean Day on Wednesday where we pay $2.00 per person. We collect this money all year long to then adopt a family at Christmas. So we took $200 and bought hats and gloves for the Central Michigan Association of Realtor drive going on till November 19th. The rest of the money from last year and this year we are adopting a family of up to 5 or 6 people. CSS had also matched the amount donated by Reg 3.
Region 2 selected The Manna Food Project as their non-profit of choice. The Manna Food Project supplies food to dozens of other food pantries throughout the Northern Lower Peninsula in Michigan. For Thanksgiving, they put together 168 complete holiday meal boxes with all desserts, fixings, and even a gift card for turkey, to give to area families in need.
Larissa Ulrich says:
"When we reached out they were still in desperate need of 7 items for all 168 boxes. After reaching out to Meijer grocery store I found out they have a special program for businesses to purchase items for non-profits at a significantly reduced rate to help the money go further. Within 48 hours our region had not only pledged $630 ($315 from us, $315 from CSS matching) to provide 5 of those items, but we found two other businesses in Charlevoix to cover the other two remaining items before the Friday deadline at 5 pm. As of November 10th, those items have all been delivered to Manna, they received everything they need, and the first distribution of items went out to the families on November 11th."
Traverse City Winter Clothing Donations Drive
Celebrate Diversity at CSS
Thank you so much for your amazing photo submissions! During the month of December, the pre-huddle presentation will be dedicated to celebrating our differences because we are strong in our diversity. We hope that you enjoy seeing the uniqueness of our employees.
