Along with our colleagues across Penn Medicine, Lancaster General Health is committed to advancing diversity and inclusion within our health system, the communities we serve and beyond.
Earlier this summer, LG Health was proud to serve as a Freedom Sponsor of the local Crispus Attucks Community Center’s Juneteenth celebration. Juneteenth — which is short for “June 19th” — is the oldest holiday to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States.
Our local Juneteenth celebration included the debut of “Sincerely, Crispus Attucks,” a series of videos that highlights and honors generations of local African-American leaders. You can find links to these inspiring videos on StarNet.
One of the videos features Ismail Smith-Wade-El, an LG Health employee who is the current president of Lancaster City Council. Ismail appears alongside Ron Ford, the first African-American elected to city council and as a Lancaster County Commissioner. Thank you, Ismail, for your legacy of service to our community.
LG Health’s support of local Juneteenth events is due to the efforts of our Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Committee. This dedicated group of your colleagues has been working very hard on developing and implementing strategies to ensure that LG Health is a more inclusive and equitable organization. You will hear much more about the committee and its work in the near future.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge that we are still early in our journey to advance diversity and inclusion. I encourage you not to let fear or an effort to be perfect prevent you from taking action. As we continue this journey together, I ask you to be empathetic and compassionate of others who act with good intentions, and view any mistakes as opportunities to learn and do better.
Please know that LG Health is dedicated to this important work, and understand that creating real change will take time and determination. Thank you for your commitment to learning and taking action together, so that each one of us can live our legacy in an environment that is supportive and inclusive of all.