Cedar Trails Senior Living Explores the Importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

As a company, Arrow Senior Living has made learning about and celebrating our unique differences a part of our company culture. So much so that, in recent years, it has become an extension of our core values. And for the past year, Arrow has expanded beyond yearly diversity, equity, and inclusion workshops to create Arrow’s D&I Speaker Series, which pairs special guest speakers with residents from our communities to have conversations on a wide range of topics such as mental health, PRIDE, Juneteenth, and so much more. We believe that sparking conversations on what some may believe to be sensitive topics helps to shed light on misconceptions and ultimately brings about understanding as it relates to the experiences of others. This ensures our employees and residents have the tools to build a safe place to live and work, one where a diverse group can come together and feel equally seen, heard, and included. 

At Cedar Trails Senior Living, DEI goes beyond training and mentoring. It is a way of life. One of my favorite conversations thus far was Diversity & Inclusion with Braylan Benoist.

When Braylan talks about the idea of acknowledgment, their face lights up as they say, “it happened, but we are alive, resilient, and still here. We want to move in a positive direction. As discussed, we also want to be a part of this.”

Hearing this conversation makes you realize how important it is to educate ourselves about other cultures and religions. Everyone needs to learn about the historical and present-day struggles of Native American people so we can be better as a country. 

These conversations have only just begun, and I look forward to the conversations to come and all the new growth and opportunity that lies ahead as we work toward creating the greatest and safest place to work that we can!