It’s time to spotlight another winner at the annual DIVERSEcity Awards of Impact!
The Empowering Employer Award, sponsored by Fortis BC, recognizes an employer that supports and empowers its staff and the community to be inclusive.
Fortis BC Community Relations Manager Kim Halowski came to the stage to present the Empowering Employer Award to Coast Capital.
Coast Capital has long been committed to inclusion and championing people. It emphasizes purpose, connection, flexibility, growth and wellbeing for its staff. In the community, their social purpose reaches to others, including the people we serve at DIVERSEcity. Most recently, they have been DIVERSEcity’s partner in the Coast Capital Credentialing Program for Newcomer women.
Tanya Smith, Senior Manager, Social Purpose Ecosystems, at Surrey-based Coast Capital, accepted the award on behalf of the credit union.
She spoke passionately about the transformative partnership between Coast Capital and DIVERSEcity, particularly the profound impact of the Coast Capital Credentialing Program for Newcomer Women in the labour market.
“You [at DIVERSEcity] have created a space for things like this program to come to life, [which can’t happen] without leadership that allows the space for new ideas to come to life. How this program came to life, I have to go back to the very beginning and honour this moment because we have been a partner of DIVERSEcity for many, many years, and when they sat down and told me the stories of some of the newcomer women that really struck my heart, I said, ‘What can we do? How can we work together to create something new?’
“And we brought this program to life. Sitting down and listening to the stories of the women who go through this program, it has to change you. It has changed me. And I have honoured these women by retelling their stories and by championing them in every corner where I have space to speak. As we share their stories at work, at Coast Capital, our employees, this is the one program where inevitably every time, they come to me and say, ‘That is my story, that’s my mother’s story, that’s my sister’s story. So, it means a lot to us,” she says.
“This is our neighbourhood. We have grown into a national credit union but have been in this community for more than 80 years. This has been very meaningful to me and thank you for this spark that started such a great journey.”
Learn more about the 2024 DIVERSEcity Awards of Impact recipients here.