MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2018
By Soulan Johnson
Urban League of Palm Beach County Inc.
Holds 44th Annual Equal Opportunity Day Luncheon
Patrick Franklin, Urban League Pres./CEO
Florida Power and Light, Office
Depot, and the Urban League of Palm
Beach County Inc. host the 44th Annual
Equal Opportunity Day Luncheon on
May 30 at the Cohen Pavilion at the
Kravis Center for Performing Arts in
By Black PR Newswire and
Legacy South Florida Staff
AN INDEPENDENT SUPPLEMENT BY MIA MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS GROUP TO THE SUN SENTINEL
West Palm Beach. This year’s keynote
speaker is Marc H. Morial, president and
CEO of the National Urban League.
ULPBC will be honoring Palm Beach
County Administrator Verdenia Baker
with its “Lifetime Achievement Award”
for her years of commitment in the
community and support of the Urban
League movement.
NFL Hall of Famer Rickey Jackson
will receive the “Community Legend
Award” for his work on and off the field
with at-risk youth, abused children and
their families.
Newly elected Palm Beach County
School District Superintendent Dr.
Donald Fenny II, will receive the
“Trailblazer Award” for his leadership,
guidance and transformation of
education, school departments, and
districts in various communities.
Devyn Hill, a senior at William T.
Dwyer High School and an Urban
League Nulites program participant, will
receive the “Youth Achievement Award”
for academic excellence and
volunteerism.
Tickets are $150, which includes
lunch and a VIP reception. The cost to
sponsor a table for 10 guests is $1,500.
Proceeds from the event will support the
Urban League’s mission to assist African
Americans and other minorities in the
achievement of social and economic
equality.
Urban League is an affiliate of the
National Urban League, the largest civil
rights organization in the country with
88 affiliates in 36 states and the District
of Columbia annually serving more than
2.7 million people. The local affiliate was
founded 44 years ago by a group of
concerned citizens who were looking to
address inequalities in education,
employment, and housing.
ULPBC serves more than 17,000
clients in Palm Beach County by way of
23 free programs and services in the areas
of youth, education, housing, financial
literacy, health, and workforce and
community development. The agency
invests 91 cents of every dollar raised into
programs and services.
ULPBC operates five offices in Palm
Beach County: three in West Palm
Beach, one office in Delray Beach, and
one office in Broward County. ULPBC
believes that together we can empower
communities and change lives.
For more information about the
luncheon or to place an ad in the
program please visit www.ulpbc.org or
call the Urban League’s main office at
561-833-1461. The office is located at
1700 N. Australian Avenue, West Palm
Beach, FL 33407.
Starbucks to Close Company-Owned Stores
Nationwide for Racial-Bias Education on May 29
PHILADELPHIA--Starbucks
(SBUX.O) has announced it will be
closing more than 8,000 company-owned
stores in the United States on the
afternoon of May 29 to conduct
racial-bias education geared toward
preventing discrimination in its stores.
The training will be provided to nearly
175,000 employees across the country.
The announcement comes as
Starbucks tries to cool tensions after the
arrest of two black men at one of its
Philadelphia cafes sparked accusations of
racial profiling at the chain.
“I’ve spent the last few days in
Philadelphia with my leadership team
listening to the community, learning
what we did wrong and the steps we need
to take to fix it,” said Starbucks CEO
Kevin Johnson. “While this is not limited
to Starbucks, we’re committed to being a
part of the solution. Closing our stores
for racial-bias training is just one step in a
journey that requires dedication from
every level of our company and
partnerships in our local communities.”
The manager of this Starbucks on 19401 NW 27th Ave. in Miami Gardens could not confirm
if racial-bias training will be conducted here on May 29.
In South Florida, DJ Mitchell-Jones,
the manager of the company-owned store
on 19401 NW 27th Ave. in Miami
Gardens, said she could not confirm if
her store would be closing to allow
employees to take part in training. The
Miami Gardens location was part of the
company’s nationwide initiative to open
stores in at least 15 underserved, low- to
medium-income communities around
the country.
All Starbucks company-owned retail
stores and corporate offices will be closed
in the afternoon of May 29. During that
time, employees will go through a
training program designed to address
implicit bias, promote conscious
inclusion, prevent discrimination and
ensure everyone inside a Starbucks store
feels safe and welcome. Meanwhile, the
company’s roughly 6,000 licensed cafes
will remain open.
“I think it’s a good gesture,” said
William Hobbs, who frequents the
Miami Gardens Starbucks. “But it will
not be as affective as it should be unless
the police sit in the training as well.”
The curriculum will be developed
with guidance from several national and
local experts confronting racial bias,
including Bryan Stevenson, founder and
executive director of the Equal Justice
Initiative; Sherrilyn Ifill, president and
director-counsel of the NAACP Legal
Defense and Education Fund; Heather
McGhee, president of Demos; former
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder; and
Jonathan Greenblatt, ceo of the
Anti-Defamation League. Starbucks will
involve these experts in monitoring and
reviewing the effectiveness of the
measures we undertake.
Once completed, the company said it
will make the education materials
available to other companies, including
licensee partners, for use with their
employees and leadership.
BB9