Racial & Social Equity
Making a difference by empowering diverse people, ideas, and communities.
Extending a Huntington Welcome for Pride Month
Across our footprint, Huntington colleagues celebrated and participated in Pride Month. The newly created Central and Northern Michigan Pride Alliance chapter set up a booth to engage with attendees at several events, including the Up North Pride and Traverse City Pride Carnival.
Huntington also sponsored the Traverse City Splitters Pride Night baseball game. A large group of colleagues attended and celebrated with baseball and Huntington-branded pride giveaways.
To complete the month’s celebrations, colleagues volunteered for the PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) Chocolate Party, a fundraiser for the PFLAG Great Lakes Bay Region. This national organization envisions a world where diversity is celebrated and all people are respected, valued, and affirmed of their sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression.
Meanwhile, West Virginia's Pride Alliance BRG welcomed hundreds of people across the Mountain State to Pride Month events. Several colleagues volunteered to run booths and march in parades, and some drove more than two and a half hours. William Unger, West Virginia Pride Alliance BRG Lead, represented Huntington in Charleston, Parkersburg, and Morgantown.
Fostering Conversations on Diverse Housing
In partnership with Huntington’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) team, the Illinois region hosted a DEI Summit in Chicago. They gathered more than 100 community leaders and government officials for an engaging conversation about housing equity in underserved and under-resourced communities.
As part of the Strategic Community Plan’s commitment to strengthen small businesses and foster economic justice, the summit focused on building wealth through homeownership—from getting residents home-ready to helping seniors and heirs keep their family homes. They also discussed the shortage of home appraisers in the United States—in particular, appraisers of color. Freddie Mac shared information about a unique program established in collaboration with Huntington to help lower the barriers and address the shortage of this profession.
The meeting allowed participants to network, build connections with community partners, and hear from a panel of experts from the Woodstock Institute, Chicago Urban League, Housing Action Illinois, Spanish Coalition for Housing, Neighborhood Housing Services of Chicago, and Freddie Mac, as well as Huntington’s senior leaders Mary Kline, Melissa Overton, and Nancy Spencer.