{"id":3457,"date":"2021-09-15T18:50:43","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T18:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fx5.com\/en-gb\/?p=3457"},"modified":"2021-09-15T19:02:57","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T19:02:57","slug":"acsa-stepup-foundation-distilling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fx5.com\/en-gb\/acsa-stepup-foundation-distilling\/","title":{"rendered":"ACSA Increasing Diversity in Distilling with STEPUP Foundation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>The Beginning<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Several years ago,&nbsp;Chris Montana&nbsp;of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dunordcraftspirits.com\/#change-is-coming-fall-2021\">Du Nord&nbsp;Social Spirits<\/a> (formerly Du Nord Craft Spirits)&nbsp;walked in the doors of&nbsp;a trade show&nbsp;and realized he was&nbsp;the only person of color in the room.&nbsp;When he became&nbsp;President of the <a href=\"https:\/\/americancraftspirits.org\/\">American Craft Spirits Association<\/a> (ACSA), Montana voiced his concerns over the lack of diversity&nbsp;\u2013 due to lack of touch points for the minority population to gain access&nbsp;into the distilling industry \u2013 to&nbsp;the rest of the board at ACSA.&nbsp;The team at ACSA was unanimously in agreement that something had to&nbsp;change;&nbsp;they needed to stop talking&nbsp;and start doing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the beginning of 2020, ACSA&nbsp;worked&nbsp;to&nbsp;revise&nbsp;their&nbsp;strategic&nbsp;plan&nbsp;for the year&nbsp;to include a Diversity and Inclusion&nbsp;initiative.&nbsp;They were juggling with how to implement a meaningful&nbsp;initiative&nbsp;that would help increase&nbsp;access for underrepresented professionals and increase&nbsp;diversity across the distilling industry. Then, George Floyd was&nbsp;brutally&nbsp;killed,&nbsp;and suddenly no one could run from or deny the&nbsp;systemic&nbsp;racial inequality staring the country in the face.&nbsp;ACSA decided to expedite their plan for an initiative, and by August 2020,&nbsp;they&nbsp;had applied for a 501(c)(3)&nbsp;and&nbsp;laid the foundations for the&nbsp;Spirits Training Entrepreneurship Program for Underrepresented Professionals, aka, the STEPUP Foundation.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Mission<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The conversation around racial inequalities inherent to our society or the barriers to entry minorities face in most industries&nbsp;is not new or groundbreaking. The conversation has been taking place for&nbsp;years and&nbsp;has been brought even further to the forefront&nbsp;in light of&nbsp;recent events, but&nbsp;ACSA realized very few in the distilling community were&nbsp;doing anything about it.&nbsp;With&nbsp;STEPUP, ACSA hopes to foster an understanding of how differences bring strength&nbsp;from different vantage points&nbsp;and pave the way for minorities to gain access to the distilling industry, ultimately providing gainful employment to those who complete the program. \u201cWe are an industry that prides itself on innovation.&nbsp;How can innovation occur if we don\u2019t have access&nbsp;to&nbsp;all&nbsp;the different colors and flavors life has to offer?\u201d&nbsp;asked&nbsp;Margie&nbsp;A.S.&nbsp;Lehrman, CEO of ACSA, when we spoke to her&nbsp;earlier this year&nbsp;about the program.&nbsp;It\u2019s the differences that propel us forward and allow us to continue&nbsp;to grow&nbsp;as an industry, and as a community.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Vision<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In its pilot year, ACSA hopes to select two&nbsp;candidates&nbsp;to send through&nbsp;spirit operations&nbsp;training at 3-4 distilleries for 8-12 weeks at a time. The interns will be&nbsp;trained in both BOH and FOH&nbsp;operations and will also spend time working with a distributor.&nbsp;STEPUP will offer a&nbsp;generous&nbsp;stipend from&nbsp;donor&nbsp;funds,&nbsp;industry partners and&nbsp;interested friends,&nbsp;to allow interns to fully immerse themselves in the experience without worrying about financial stability.&nbsp;Upon program completion, ACSA hopes to&nbsp;help&nbsp;place each intern in a full-time role within&nbsp;the&nbsp;alcohol beverage industry.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interns will&nbsp;spend time learning all facets of a distillery business,&nbsp;similar to&nbsp;residents completing rotations at hospitals; candidates need&nbsp;no&nbsp;prior&nbsp;experience&nbsp;to apply.&nbsp;ACSA plans to&nbsp;eventually&nbsp;recruit applicants through existing networks and communities by partnering and advertising with the NAACP, HBCUs, and other BIPOC-representative groups&nbsp;in addition to those representing gender differences.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Ideal Candidate<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>STEPUP Foundation&nbsp;is looking for&nbsp;professionals&nbsp;who display grit, determination,&nbsp;and a&nbsp;passion&nbsp;for learning and new experiences.&nbsp;As the position rotates through geographically agnostic partner facilities, there is no regional requirement; the ideal candidate is simply one who is eager to learn&nbsp;about the industry but might not otherwise gain such an opportunity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Present<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The STEPUP&nbsp;Foundation&nbsp;has seven&nbsp;board members&nbsp;from both craft spirits and bigger brands, including alumni of Bacardi and Heineken. A&nbsp;selection committee&nbsp;was built last&nbsp;year&nbsp;that&nbsp;will vet candidates and ultimately&nbsp;send their&nbsp;recommendations&nbsp;to the board,&nbsp;as to&nbsp;who will be admitted into the program. They&nbsp;have just begun&nbsp;accepting applications from established distilleries across the US who wish to&nbsp;participate&nbsp;and train&nbsp;selected candidates.&nbsp;Similarly, anyone within the alcohol beverage industry can apply to be a mentor, a significant design feature of the program. The intern will have unparalleled support throughout the internship process.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Future:<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>ACSA is hoping to grow the STEPUP&nbsp;Foundation&nbsp;to be able to help&nbsp;20 candidates&nbsp;per year&nbsp;within five years or less&nbsp;and remain fully funded by donations.&nbsp;By building a network of alumni of the program, STEPUP hopes to create a supportive community to facilitate organic outreach as well as to mentor current interns throughout their experience.&nbsp;They&nbsp;envision a more equitable future for underrepresented populations in the distilling industry.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team at FIVE x 5 is proud to support the STEPUP Foundation and play a part in&nbsp;removing&nbsp;barriers to entry for minority populations in the distilling industry.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Where to stay updated:<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn more and apply to be an intern,\u00a0host\u00a0distillery, or mentor\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/stepupinternship.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can reach out to Margie&nbsp;A.S.&nbsp;Lehrman with questions&nbsp;margie@stepupinternship.org.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Beginning Several years ago,&nbsp;Chris Montana&nbsp;of Du Nord&nbsp;Social Spirits (formerly Du Nord Craft Spirits)&nbsp;walked in the doors of&nbsp;a trade show&nbsp;and realized he was&nbsp;the only person of color in the room.&nbsp;When he became&nbsp;President of the American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA), Montana voiced his concerns over the lack of diversity&nbsp;\u2013 due to lack of touch points for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gallop_menu_shadow":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,11],"tags":[81,83,62,82,85,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-3457","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-distiller-resources","8":"category-spotlights","9":"tag-acsa","10":"tag-distilling-internships","11":"tag-diversity-and-inclusion","12":"tag-diversity-in-distilling","13":"tag-stepup-internship","14":"tag-stepup-program","15":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.4 - 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