EQUITY & INCLUSION
Lessons and Benefits From A Year Leading the JEDI Program
By Sara Wildberger A
s the evidence of racial injustice— the killing of George Floyd by a police officer and other similar
slayings, attacks on Asian-American seniors, and the racial and identity disparities in COVID-19 cases and deaths—increasingly gained attention and outcry, many organi- zations pledged to increase their knowledge and action against bias and inequities. Argentum was one of these. The organi-
zation had the dual mission of collaborating to lead change in the industry as a whole and within the Argentum staff. Leading and supporting action in both of these is Argentum’s human resources director and staff accountant, Olivia Wilson. To help with continual improvement in
the industry itself, Argentum, American Seniors Housing Association (ASHA), and the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) have formed the Senior Living DEIB Coalition—a shared commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) to empower business- es operating in and around senior living. Action within Argentum among our staff
was personal, intensive, and eye-opening. One best practice in DEIB is to learn how to have the “difficult conversations.” In a small staff with a large workload—and while navigating a pandemic having an outsize effect on its mission—the success of the Argentum program was made possible through Wilson’s research, outreach, and leadership. In this interview, edited for length and
clarity, she shares some best practices and lessons learned through the first year of the JEDI program as well as from Argentum’s commitment to the future of the industry through intentional hiring of interns from underrepresented or marginalized groups.
Q. How did the program start? What was the motivation? A. For those unfamiliar with the term, JEDI stands for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. I was inspired to start JEDI from hearing from fellow colleagues of the frustration of what was happening in our country following the events of the George Floyd murder. Often staff need an outlet to have discussions on topics that are import- ant to them. In order for us to make this an effective
program, we needed leadership support. Initially, we developed a diversity, equity, and inclusion work group comprised of myself and a few colleagues to brainstorm ideas for DEI within our industry, and also internally at our organization. Through these discussions we looked at different ways we could be impactful—having this column in Senior Living Executive came from those dis- cussions. We also looked at how we could get more diverse representation of speakers in our events. And for our organization, we knew we
wanted to have a way for people to talk about this. Once we had the leadership support, I worked on putting together a quarterly schedule of discussion topics. (Because of COVID restrictions, discussions were held through video conferencing.)
Q. As a participant, I found that the schedule and the topics really gave us a good basis for discussions. What were some ideas behind that? A. The first quarter focused on racial dis- crimination and the criminal justice system, because the George Floyd killing was in every- one’s hearts. They needed to talk about this. From that, I tried to coordinate with national events—we had our LGBTQ dis-
Equity & Inclusion
Olivia Wilson Human resources director and staff accountant Argentum
cussion during Pride month, for instance. Environmental discrimination was coordi- nated with Earth Day, and the poverty and homelessness topic was around the holiday season…for that quarter, we were also able to work with a charity collecting gifts for children and serving food at a shelter. I thought having that hands-on element was important. It was really beautiful to hear different
people’s perspectives and stories. Just because you’re in a minority or you’re female doesn’t mean you won’t have your own perspective; everyone deals with things differently.
Q. We usually had a resource to discuss—a film, a video, a book— that we watched on our own, then discussed together. What can you share about that practice? A. Many of the ideas for resources came from discussions. It was not uncommon for staff members to talk to me about events and how they were affected. Because we have a smaller staff, it gave me the ability to have a lot more personal interactions, to listen and understand social issues that mattered to them. I found documentary films touched peo-
ple and put things in perspective—to actual- ly see what’s going on. For the first topic, we
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