Aaron Clark: Investing in Equity Solutions
By Jessica Rettig
Aaron Clark has spent more than a decade noticing what others have found it relatively easy to ignore: the lack of sustainable career options for the less advantaged. Given the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, he says many are now being forced to take note too.
“Pre-COVID it was easy to ignore the less advantaged people in our society — gig workers, restaurant workers, small business owners, workers that are immigrants, or people of color of any kind,” he says. “Now that COVID has hit, and in the aftermath, if we don’t reverse that course and think of these segments, they will disappear [from our communities]. COVID, to me, is just shining the light on the need to protect that diversity in our state.”
COVID-19, Clark says, allows Coloradans a chance to reset and to ask ourselves, how can we restart with equity as the new normal? As we look at rebuilding a struggling business, how can we, instead of thinking about dollars and cents, build it thinking of the people involved?
He has spent much of his career developing answers to these questions too.
Originally from the Bay Area, Clark, a freelance software developer, first came to Boulder two years ago. Though newer to Colorado himself, he quickly started to use his network in the tech industry to advance the local community’s efforts to promote diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEI). For the last two years, he ran the DEI track for Boulder Startup Week, and this year, he chaired the event’s newly created Inclusion Committee.
In 2019, he also created his own organization, Equity Solutions, which works at the intersection of tech, equity, and criminal justice reform to bring long-term career solutions to those impacted by the criminal justice system. One of these initiatives is a re-entry technical training program, essentially a coding bootcamp for those involved in the criminal justice system with additional services to make sure participants can succeed.
“If you need to change your station in life, whether that’s from being involved in the justice system or being discriminated against in the tech industry or whatever, it has to be at a level that is sustainable,” Clark says. “A lot of jobs that people receive when they get out of jail or prison are jobs that only pay barely above minimum wage, and it’s really hard to pay bills and build financial stability. So, my passion is in bridging that gap, so that people will have access to the tech world, make a higher wage, and really contribute to society.”
Though the state of Colorado hasn’t been known for its diversity in the past, that has already begun to change. “Colorado is a state where diversity is growing,” he says. “If you’re running a tech company, for example, and your company is not diverse — not only of people, but diverse of thought — people start getting louder. The market starts to push back against that.”
Indeed, beyond addressing the pushback, there are a number of reasons why Coloradans should use these trying times as an opportunity to seek out greater diversity, argues Clark.
“First, for moral reasons,” he says. “It’s right. We can discuss that all day.”
Secondly, he tells business owners that it’s simply a good business decision. “If you’re not thinking inclusively,” Clark says, “you are going to leave out a potential customer, leave out a potential employee, leave out a potential partner.”
When people ask him how to increase diversity in our state specifically, Clark also advocates for greater access to the active Colorado lifestyle. He believes that by making our relatively expensive sports and hobbies more accessible, we can break down a barrier that now discourages many from enjoying what we enjoy as Coloradans.
For business leaders and entrepreneurs who want to take advantage of this reset, Clark has two key recommendations.
The first step anyone should take, he says, is to do the personal work to find out where you are in your own journey toward equity, identifying which skills you’re missing. Along with Matt Zweibel and Pledge 1% Colorado, Clark is developing an app, DEI Today, that will address this skills gap head on, helping leaders do their own work to understand diversity and inclusion.
Clark also recommends treating equity and inclusion just like you would treat a finance or legal topic, and hire a professional consultant. He recommends checking out the list he created to find them.
“Thankfully the state of Colorado has some amazing men and women that have dedicated their life’s study towards helping companies do workplace integrations around equity,” he says. “Invest in them.”
Currently, Clark is leveraging his skills and experience as a volunteer with Energize Colorado to help create a workforce talent program and enable women and minority-owned businesses to find necessary resources.
As he continues his push for equity in the state and uses grassroots strategies to bring others along in the journey, he borrows a lesson from Dr. Nita Mosby Tyler, a prominent Colorado-based DEI consultant: to provide an “accountable yet graceful” space.
“The invitation is, let’s do this together, let’s journey together, let’s learn together, and let’s learn from each other,” he says. “And I think trying to provide that grace to people — to say that things are okay — and provide some resources that allow people to skill up on their own, in their own way, gives people a better chance to show up.”
Jessica Rettig is a writer and marketing director. A former reporter for U.S. News & World Report, she now focuses her talents on creating stories and strategies that bring businesses and brands to life.
