Your Digest
Pride Month messages from your colleagues and EMT
With many of us still working virtually this Pride Month, it hasn’t been as easy to celebrate with our 2SLGBTQIA+ colleagues as it may have been in previous years. Throughout the month of June, many have proudly displayed Pride Teams backgrounds or wished their colleagues a happy Pride during meetings. For those working on-site, we’ve loved seeing photos of your colourful t-shirts, pins and other visible displays of Pride. Since we can’t all be together this year to celebrate Pride Day in the way we’d like to, several employees and members of our senior leadership team have recorded video messages to wish their 2SLGBTQIA+ colleagues across the organization a very happy Pride. Watch the video here and on Connect TV screens across the country.
Don’t miss our Pride Day fireside chat at 1 p.m. ET
Later today, we’ll be holding an employee “fireside chat” featuring several of our 2SLGBTQIA+ colleagues from across the organization. Join Catherine Lewis, Petrus Chan and Malcolm Henderson as they share their personal stories and perspectives on topics ranging from visibility and representation to psychological safety, allyship and the significance of the forthcoming sexual behaviour-based screening criteria change. If you haven’t registered for this special event yet, you can do so by filling out this short form before 12:30 p.m. ET today.
Canadian Blood Services partners with Pride at Work Canada
As Pride Month comes to a close this week, we’re reiterating our year-round commitment to 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion at Canadian Blood Services. We’re thrilled to announce our new partnership with Pride at Work Canada. Pride at Work empowers Canadian employers to build workplaces that celebrate all employees regardless of gender expression, gender identity and sexual orientation. We know that building a culture of belonging requires us to prioritize 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion every month — not just during Pride Month — and having Pride at Work as a partner will give us access to important resources and tools to guide and support us on our journey. Visit Connect to learn more about this new partnership.
LinkedIn Learning: Resources to help foster allyship, psychological safety and inclusion
Canadian Blood Services recently partnered with LinkedIn Learning to provide all employees with access to an expansive suite of tools, webinars and courses to help facilitate continuous learning. As part of its library, LinkedIn Learning offers many resources to help allies better understand and support your 2SLGBTQIA+ colleagues in the workplace and build up your knowledge, skills and confidence to engage in everyday acts of allyship. Activate your account and begin exploring available resources that address concepts such as unconscious bias, inclusive language and 2SLGBTQIA+ workplace barriers. If you’re looking for a good place to begin growing your knowledge, check out this series of five-minute (or less) educational videos. Tip: Every three months, consider re-evaluating other acts of allyship you can take by adding reminders in your calendar. Setting aside just 15–20 minutes can help to expand your allyship skills and make a significant impact for your 2SLGBTQIA+ colleagues!
Explore stories and resources from Pride Month
Over the past month, we’ve shared stories and resources that recognize the diverse lived experiences of 2SLGBTQIA+ people, along with employee tools and training to help foster allyship and inclusion. If you missed any of the content shared during Pride Month, you can visit connect.blood.ca/PRIDE. We will continue to share 2SLGBTQIA+-related content and resources throughout the year and are always looking for ways to better support 2SLGBTQIA+ employees and drive forward necessary progress within Canadian Blood Services. If you have any questions — or, if you would like to share your ideas about how we can advance 2SLGBTQIA+ inclusion across the organization — you are encouraged to reach out anytime to DEI@blood.ca.
Question of the day
What are we doing as an organization to ensure that employees are prepared for the forthcoming sexual behaviour-based screening criteria change this fall?
On April 28, 2022, Health Canada approved our request to remove eligibility criteria specific to men who have sex with men and instead focus on sexual behaviour associated with higher risk among all donors. When implemented later this year, this change will bring an end to men being asked during the pre-donation screening process if they’ve had sex with another man. Since receiving approval from Health Canada, we have been preparing to implement the new criteria in all donor centres across the country. These preparations include making necessary updates to our screening software and rolling out robust training for employees about the new criteria and how to engage in respectful, sex-positive conversations with donors. The training seeks to better equip staff to understand donors’ diverse and intersecting identities and sexual behaviours and as a result, feel more comfortable engaging in these conversations. Training has already begun with some donor-facing teams and will continue throughout the summer. We expect to have the criteria changes implemented no later than September 30, 2022.
About Your Digest
This digest highlights the latest policy and employee support measures, resources to help you manage our new reality and original content to remind us that what we do matters. This information can be found on blood.ca/employees from any device, no login required.
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Have questions? Check out blood.ca/employees or email us at communications@blood.ca.