IBM Parents Network
Mission
To cultivate a culture at the workplace for parents (including moms, dads, & adoptive parents) to feel supported during all stages (pre, during, post) of their parenting journey
Objectives
• Grow our community to 500+
• Recruit 10 volunteers to help scale community efforts
• Create events calendar to keep working parents motivated and inspired
• Build out resources and pathways to make navigating being a parent easier at IBM
• Secure Executive support to aid in discussions around advocacy
Results
Events & Community building:
• Organized a panel discussion at 2019 International Womens’ Day event on topic of working parents
• Organized the first ever “bring your kid to work day” for babies under 3
• Forged relationships with new parents in Austin, Bangalore and Tokyo to share experiences on how to build a parenting community organically
Support systems
• Established a Slack channel to organically build the community and foster connections
• Launched a Buddy Program for those new parents returning to work – pairing them with another parent
• Hosted monthly brown bag lunches for people to get together
Resources
• Cultivated D&I resource for new parents in partnership with GBS
• Created user-generated “fun” resources for working parents, including a list of NYC activities for families
• Curated resources for parents home with their children during COVID
Testimonials
"Thanks to those in the IBM Parents Group who made "Managing It All" happen. As a Dad at two points in my life, I'm still learning plenty during my 2nd journey. Lots of good food for thought in this session!"
"This was one of the first 'work-life balance' calls I've been able to fully attend without having a work-life balance conflict pull me away...It was informative and empowering and I'm actually going to try to listen again at some point to cement some of the ideas!"
"[This session] was great!! It’s so nice to join a group with people having similar experiences.”