Movements and awareness have seen positive shifts in action over the past year. Inclusivity to interface underserved and deserving collective groups is among the rising.
“Carvana started their communities about a year ago,” said Senior Brand Activation Specialist Allison Andrews. “It was an initiative to have our team members at Carvana have these “belonging” groups encouraging them to be themselves and connect with diverse groups across the company.”
It began with their pride group for the LBGTQ community followed by CarVet for the veterans. The third employee resource group, BEACON (Black Employees and Allies at Carvana) soon followed with a focus on “increasing connections and being champions of change and support of our black employees, customers and community,” the BEACON executive leader said.
“BEACON has been huge for our team members, especially during the pandemic, because it was a time that a lot of people felt isolated and alone. It was unique because during the pandemic you were able to do a lot of things via Zoom and through internal communications, like Slack, to bring people across the company together to have those support systems that they may not have had during this tough time.”
At the beginning of the year, the company decided that they would allow each of the diversity groups to donate a car to a “community that aligned with their mission, goals and values,” she said. It was during community outreach that the leadership team saw a youth-build program the Georgia Building Trades Academy had and liked the positive impact it was having.
“We chose Atlanta because we have deep roots here as this is where our first operations started. We really felt passionate about giving back to the Atlanta community,” she added.
Supported by the Georgia Department of Labor, the program works with youth (ages 16-24) in education and employment opportunities through our trades academy with a goal of ensuring quality training for those interested in a registered apprenticeship program, said the Director of the GABTA YouthBuild program Kristina Smith.
BEACON donated a $20,000 scholarship to the program dividing it up between two students chosen by the academy who stood out.
“We noticed that a lot of the students, once they graduated from the program, would get jobs but they didn’t have transportation,” Andrews stated. “The program’s 4Wheels 4Work initiative was a perfect connection to help out with their graduating class.”
Sean Lattimore from Griffin is the first recipient of the “vehicle” scholarship. On Sept. 16, Lattimore was formally recognized and presented with his new vehicle at the Atlanta Car Vending Machine.
“He came in with a lot of challenges, but he overcame everything. Sean choose the path of plumbers and pipe fitters displaying exemplary performance in our program and was a light-shining armor through our program,” said Smith.
Purchasing his vehicle through Carvana, “It was exciting to have him come and go through that process as a customer himself because he worked really hard and I felt that it was a different experience for him than just giving him the car,” said the BEACON executive leader.
Lattimore said the program changed his mindset from “a lost person looking for the wrong answers” to one of a key purpose.
“I’m glad I received an opportunity like this and am blessed to be gifted this vehicle because you don’t know how much I’ve been waiting on this day to come for me to get my first car at the age of 18 because it allows me to have my own freedom, I can get back and forth from work safe and let me not forget one thing it runs fantastic on gas,” he added.
