We at 1upHealth fully support the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, anti-racism efforts, and the protests around the world calling for racial justice. We acknowledge the tragic deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Elijah McClain, and the many more lives taken by police brutality and hundreds of years of institutionalized oppression stemming from slavery. We are calling for change to dismantle systemic racism. We not only want to show our support and solidarity, but actively work towards actions we can take, both as individuals and as a company, to commit towards active anti-racism. We realize that taking action will be a continuously reflective process, and are dedicated to making our support actionable on an ongoing basis.

There are two areas where we are committed to helping in the Black Lives Matter movement. First, through promoting diversity, equity & inclusion within our workplace, and second, through taking action to promote black empowerment, and black and racial equity. Our goal, both inside and outside of the workplace, is to promote the equal treatment of individuals and provide support to ensure that everyone has equal access to opportunities.

As a fast growing startup, we are taking some initial actions within our workplace to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion:

• We have created a detailed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policy, separate from our code of conduct, to ensure an equitable and safe work environment for all of our current and potential employees.
• We will actively expand our recruiting to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), starting with recruiting at virtual career fairs, or any similar means.
• We will allow PTO for employees who want to participate in supporting Black Lives Matter, such as attending protests or charity work.

We realize that for action to be taken, continuous change needs to happen on an ongoing basis through a reflective practice. We take full responsibility for educating ourselves and each other within the company to show and act in solidarity with black empowerment, and black and racial equity:

• We have created an internal “Social Justice” Slack channel to promote continuous learning and reflection on our, and others actions. So far this has included circulating petitions, reading resources, webinars, and podcasts, in addition to an open discussion on Black Lives Matter, anti-racism, and any associated social issues.
• Will make Juneteenth a day of education and reflection, through company wide training, such as bias training. We will also partake in reflective practice through monthly sessions, from internal and external individuals. We will listen too and collaborate with the black community and other communities of color to address these issues.

Some further actions which are in the works, for helping the Black Lives Matter movement through our individual and collective expertise:

• We acknowledge that there are great racial disparities within healthcare due to systemic racism. This is an area that we at 1upHealth, a company in the healthcare tech space, are committed to seeing if there are any actions that we can partake in to help the fight to end systemic racism. We will start by identifying ways that 1upHealth can use our resources to help, for example, if any of our products can help decrease significant racial disparities within healthcare.
• We will partner with mentorship organizations, introducing kids to new career fields that they may not have been otherwise exposed to, especially if their parents are not in the field. We will provide mentorship and advice to help mentees work towards their educational and career goals. We also would like to participate in coding programs for lower-income schools, and are working to figure out how to best make this work with the current COVID-19 pandemic.

1upHealth is committed towards helping in the fight to end systemic racism, to promote anti-racism, and to offer our resources as a company in the healthcare tech space. We acknowledge that this is a reflective process where continuous learning and actions are needed, and are open to suggestions, questions and potential solutions or partnerships towards helping to reach this goal.

As a final note, some of our employees wanted to share their personal commitments towards the Black Lives Matter movement:

“I pledge to each week take (at least) a single concrete action to advance the cause of equal justice and opportunity for people of color. This will at least prevent these issues from fading from my own mind in importance.”

• Marvin, Principal Software Engineer

“I believe that a fundamental issue with social injustice in America is the years of segregation which have made a lasting negative impact on the education in historically non-white neighborhoods. I will therefore be proactively participating in educating children in African American communities with technical and coding based sessions which are fields that lack input from the community. I hope that doing this will help introduce African American youth to opportunities that they may not have been aware of before and lead them to make lasting decisions about their careers and economic freedom.”

• Ricky, CEO

“I will use my privilege to speak up for those who might feel they don’t have any, and will look to open doors and help provide opportunities to minorities in corporate America.”

• Khristina, Head of Product – Biopharma

“I will educate myself more about what we can do about the systemic dimensions of racism. I will use a blog that I write as a mechanism for me to write about the topic and how we can all think, act and evolve. In my role as a leader I will drive change both within the company and across our broader community.”

• Joe, COO

“I will better educate myself on systemic racism and be more aware of my own unconscious biases.”

• Jay, Head of Product – Provider Solutions

“I will do something concrete once a week to either improve my awareness and knowledge of the racism black people face in America and I will have the hard conversations with a person in my life who I believe to be contributing to the racism in this country.”

• Liam, Lead Software Engineer

“I will educate myself about colonial history by listening to podcasts and watching documentaries. I will make myself aware of how the existing problems became problems by understanding the history and the events in time. I will learn and create awareness around this.”

• Harshmeet, Software Engineer

“I pledge to practice antiracism constantly moving forward – to call out individual racism where I see it, to try to be aware of how institutional racism benefits me as a white person and disadvantages POC in every situation and to consider in every moment what I can do to help..”

• Timmy, Software Engineer

“I will work to understand what it truly means to be anti-racist, via reading and listening, and build this into an ongoing area of focus and commitment. I will work to understand what I can do personally, and what we can do as a group, to promote opportunity and diversity, and take action, including voting, donating, and participating.”

• Doug, CPO

“I will continue to call for racial and social justice, and amplify the voices of others doing the same. I will examine my own biases and encourage my peers to examine theirs. I will urge my peers to be present in the fight for racial and social justice after news coverage declines, as systemic oppression will take years and years of sustained effort to dismantle.”

• Adedoyin, Product Manager Intern

“Making a lifelong commitment to continuously educating myself on black history and systemic racism, in both the U.S. and globally, so that I may proactively fight against white supremacy. I will also continue to support black owned businesses & organizations, especially now, during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

• Katrina, Research Consultant