blogs / 22 JUN 2022
Cartus Participates in Anywhere Third Annual Day of Understanding
On May 19, 2022, Cartus participated in the AnywhereSM third annual Day of Understanding, featuring this year’s theme: the power of Allyship.
Anywhere Real Estate Inc. Day of Understanding is dedicated to growth and learning; it’s a day when employees come together to reflect on their personal journey, learn about important topics, and engage in meaningful conversations. This year we continued the conversation about cultivating a culture of inclusion and belonging, with a focus on the important and critical role of allyship not only in our everyday lives but at work and in our business.
“Allyship” is defined as a lifelong process of building relationships based on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and/or groups of people. “Ally” is a verb—it’s an action. Throughout this special day, we dove deeply into the meaning of allyship.
The day kicked off with our Chief People Officer, Tanya Reu-Narvaez, and Vice President of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Ivonne Furneaux. Both shared powerful messages about our efforts in driving change in our industry (to enable everyone to live their best lives) and building an inclusive company culture (where we can all be at our best every day).
Keynote presenter Willie Jackson, Head of Learning & Development at READYSET, a strategy firm that creates human-centered workplaces, talked about what it means to be an ally and the power of allyship in breaking bias, removing barriers, building bridges, and driving change. Afterwards, Chief Operation Officer, Melissa McSherry, guided us through a meaningful self-reflection digital-painting exercise designed to make us think about our personal journey and the life experiences that make us unique.
In the afternoon, we hosted insightful conversations featuring Anywhere senior leaders who shared their personal stories about the positive impact of bold allyship at work and in business. Another discussion focused on the topic of accessibility and turning adversity into an advantage through allyship which was both incredibly inspiring and heartwarming.
Next, all eight of our ERGs hosted dynamic, thought-provoking, and powerful showcase sessions to educate, create awareness, and give employees an opportunity to discuss and share their thoughts on important topics like intersectionality, career development, education, and networking within the context of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) and allyship.
Anywhere President and CEO, Ryan Schneider, closed the day by announcing the company’s continued commitment to supporting LGBTQ+ rights by becoming a proud signatory of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) against anti-LGBTQ+ state legislation, furthering our dedication to fairness, equal treatment, respect, and opportunity for all. You can learn more about the statement on the HRC’s website here.
I could not be prouder to be part of a company that takes bold action to advance DE&I and leverages the power of allyship in meaningful and impactful ways in the industries and communities in which we operate. Stay tuned for more on how we continue to make an impact on the community and our people, and for information on our pride month event.
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Bill Tully
