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Like many people and communities in Sweden and around the world, the team at SwedBNB believe that the current and long-overdue outcry over violence and injustice for people of colour is noteworthy. The tragic video of police killing George Floyd, handcuffed and crying for his mother, has generated widespread disgust and sustained demands for change in Sweden and many countries including America. Many of us welcome the long-over due recognition about truth and inequality, and SwedBNB encourages this dialogue within our workplace, in our meetings, and in our communities. SwedBNB will build healing into our actions. We want SwedBNB’s presence in communities around Sweden to be a positive influence so we will work to create new ways of being that is a force for good, even a small one. Social justice, racial healing, gender equality, financial and economic freedom, and access to all human rights are too important to not take action on.

If you have ever been the minority in a room, a woman, a person of colour, a war veteran, then you know how isolating and lonely it can feel. The founders and directors at SwedBNB do not understand the pain everyone is feeling, but we have each felt isolated and discriminated in ways we shouldn’t have. We want our communities and SwedBNB to welcome and celebrate diversity and inclusiveness. Our partners, our property owners, our cleaning staff, our guests, and all the personnel that contribute to SwedBNB’s continued success are aware of the dynamics occurring in our communities and the need for a fundamental shift in so many aspects of our lives. We all need to commit to better identifying, recruiting, mentoring, supporting, and promoting under-represented groups in our workplaces.

“The time for action is now. This takes courage and it involves risks, but standing up for what is right is what we believe in. When we created SwedBNB it wasn’t just about fixing a problem, it was about helping people, about creating even better communities, and about using our influence to help vulnerable people and social justice issues. Now we are having a really good look internally and I am proud of our team’s decision to make this a focus of our activities – our recruitment, our partnerships, and our marketing. I don’t have all the answers, but I know I am committed to trying and trying again and again until we get this right.”

                                                                                    Sofia Sandahl, Founder and Director

SwedBNB, like so many socially responsible companies has become more self-aware after the death of George Floyd and the work of Black Lives Matter. We have always had empathy, and now we know better and have committed to doing better. The team at SwedBNB has always had the mindset of constantly learning, fixing, adjusting, growing and improving. Now we get to use this same attitude towards how we stand up and show up for others. At SwedBNB we have created space for this learning and improvement discussions in our team meetings, in our business, and in our brand. We know we will undoubtedly make mistakes. We want to avoid mistakes, but we accept they will probably occur, and we hope that is a positive part of our ever-evolving, growing, and learning relationship with our communities, friends, co workers and partners. If you have advice for us, please let us know. We are ready, humble, empathetic, and ready for this journey. Join us.