BEYOND SPORT REACHES MORE THAN 30 MILLION WITH DIVERSITY & INCLUSION COMMITMENTS FROM U.S. SPORTS LEAGUES
10 August 2016, New York City - In partnership with founding supporters MLB, MLS, NBA, NFL, NHL, and WNBA, Beyond Sport reached over 30 million people with Diversity & Inclusion learnings and commitments from Tuesday’s annual Beyond Sport United conference.
The event, which explored how sport can be used as a tool to tackle key issues around Diversity & Inclusion, hosted over 500 delegates at the Barclays Center and featured some of the most influential names in sports and influencers from the world of business, development and politics. Partaking in a collective commitment to Diversity & Inclusion, conference participants and speakers pledged their support with social media posts throughout the day, culminating in over 500 committments and then amplified using #SameTeam to reach more than 30 million people.
Morning highlights included WWE’s Stephanie McMahon, who gave a key note around the organization’s community engagement efforts including the Be A STAR campaign to combat bullying and their work with the Special Olympics. Emphasizing the importance of this cause, McMahon noted, “We want kids to know that they’re not alone, that we’ve all been bullied. If we can make a difference in just one child’s life, it’s worth it.”
"Sport is a fantastic platform to reduce ignorance and express commonality,” commented Beyond Sport Founder Nick Keller, who challenged the leaders in attendance to “be incredibly present and participative in order to make a statement about the power of these gatherings, and enact positive change in the world.”
Rising to this challenge, participants engaged in round table discussions addressing key Diversity & Inclusion issues, with a particular focus on economic mobility, gender equality and accessibility for all - particularly those with disabilities. Where the morning focused on identifying challenges, the afternoon focused on finding solutions, with participants committing to address these issues by using their assets and influence to improve education, address media depictions, and promote mentorship.
Key takeaways from the round table discussions included solutions aimed at each of the identified challenges. While discussing economic mobility, participants agreed to the importance of: investing in education projects, exposing job opportunities within sport, establishing role models and mentors in sports, and teaching life skills thorugh sports. Outcomes from the discussion of gender equality included a commitment to: address negative depictions in the media, educate both genders on the issue, place more women in leadership positions, and provide added co-ed opportunities in sports. Finally, participants agreed to the importance of accessibility for all by pledging the sports industry’s assets to: provide education about the issue at all levels of sporting organizations, provide financial support for disability focused sports programs, find and celebrate role models, establish a baseline of accessibility to sport, communicate the issue and provide awareness of where accessibility is available.
Closing out the day with a call to action, human rights activist and pioneer for racial equality, Richard Lapchick led Diversity & Inclusion leaders from the five major US leagues in an exclusive panel reflecting on how they can use their standing to tackle key challenges. Rallying the leaders, Lapchick noted that “Sport can help us lead a transformation of culture within organizations, and not just a change of diversity numbers.”
The leagues spoke to solutions across a range of social issues: Jessica Berman from the NHL highlighted the opportunity to “integrate Canadian immigrants and refugees into popular culture with the Canadian hosted 2016 World Cup”; Robert Gulliver from the NFL noted the “importance of making diversity personal” in reference to their focus on father-daughter relationships to help promote gender equality; Wendy Lewis of the MLB emphasized the importance of working with diverse business partners to “foster impactful relationships within communities”; JoAnn Neale from the MLS noted the importance of “acting as one another’s champions of diversity to affect change”, and Oris Stuart of the NBA concluded that we should “spend more time celebrating the power of our similarities before focusing on the power our differences.”
In addition to the support from the major US leagues, the event was backed by official sponsors and partners including: Barclays, Barclays Center, Equinox, The Gaurdian, Harvard Group International, Boks Kids, Hotel on Rivington, JetBlue, WBC, Whistle Sports and WWE.