The Standard has always set out to be more than a collection of rooms. Sure, the sheets are soft as butter and the cocktails are mixed to perfection, but our underlying mission is to bring people together in ways that allow their differences to shine through and their inhibitions to fall away.
Our mission was and still is to support positive, productive activism. To do this we realized that we needed to provide our guests, dreamers, club kids, drag queens, artists, eccentrics and beyond a platform to be able to voice whatever issue they see fit, at no cost to them whatsoever.
While we showcase many examples of these platforms on our website included along with our submission, there was one that started it all: "Ring Your Rep" phone booths at all five of our hotels in NYC, LA, and Miami.
We feel it is our responsibility to continue to use our voice, platform, and creativity to make the world more like the one we share.
Since installing our Ring Your Rep phone booths at all five of our properties, we've partnered with organizations from Everytown to the ACLU, as well as notable activists, to host Ring Your Rep activations in all of our cities.
Hosts like;
-Saada Ahmed, Saada created Brothers & Sisters, a monthly get-together that encourages dialogue to effect social and political change.
-Janet Mock and Jonathan Simkhai, Trans-rights luminary Janet Mock and womenswear designer Jonathan Simkhai lit up the congressional switchboard with their joint event at The Standard, Hollywood on International Women's Day to support Swing Left.
-Father of Parkland victim Joaquin Oliver, Manuel, who co-founded Change the Ref – an organization he started with the mission to empower our next generation so they can fight for their values, have their voices heard, and impact change for their future.
-And our friend Paige Elkington who helped us take a special Ring Your Rep phone booth to Frieze Art Fair here in New York.
Also, in partnership with the ACLU, we invited a diverse group of award-winning chefs to design dishes for one-of-a-kind dinners inspired by the cultures of our immigrant employees. At these Chefs Stand Up dinners, speakers from the ACLU included:
Howard Simon (Executive Director of Florida), Nancy Abudu (Director of Legal Operations of Florida), Rachel Streitfeld (First Vice President of Florida Greater Miami Chapter), Eunice Rho (Advocacy and Policy Counsel), Danielle Silber (Director, Strategic Partnerships), Omar Jadwat (Director, Immigrants' Rights Project), David Hausman (Skadden Fellow at the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project).
Last but not least, The Standard is what it is because of the diversity of our guests and employees. While we see our current administration actively threatening immigrant safety and wellbeing, we had to Stand Up, and #StandardVotes was born. Wherever and whenever we can, we use our voice to speak out on the issues that matter to us and our communities most. And with the recent midterms, our voices mattered more than ever. From the digital realm to the real world and back again, we leveraged email, social, a physical billboard above Opening Ceremony in West Hollywood and even phone banking events at our properties in NY, LA and MIA to spark change. And change is what we accomplished.
Through supporting positive and productive activism and with the help of our partners at the ACLU, we impacted unquestionably the toughest category to change: law and legislation.
Our phone banking events for the midterms held at The Standard, East Village, The Standard, Hollywood and The Standard, Miami made 25,000+ calls total, helping to pass the following legislation, directly impacting the lives of millions:
- The Florida Amendment 4 ballot initiative, re-enfranchising 1.4 million people!
- The Michigan Proposition 3 ballot initiative, re-enfranchising 200k+ voters and making it easier for all other voters to cast their ballots.
- The Nevada Question 5 ballot initiative, which enacts automatic voter registration.
- The Oregon Measure 105 ballot initiative, protecting immigrants and maintaining Oregon as a sanctuary state.
This plus the 6,000 calls to date from our Ring Your Rep phone booths to Congress account for over 30,000 calls that have gone to seeing positive change make its way across the country!
Last but not least, our fundraising efforts for programs such as the ones described above have raised a total of $100k+ and have been contributed to the following organizations:
• ACLU
• Everytown for Gun Safety
• Skid Row Housing Trust
• Elizabeth Taylor Foundation
• National Endowment for the Arts
… and beyond!
