Honoring Juneteenth

Dear Colleagues,

Tomorrow is Juneteenth, when we commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. More specifically, Juneteenth is the anniversary of the day in 1865 when word finally reached the enslaved people in Galveston, Texas that they were free — two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had legally freed them.

Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States, once said, “Juneteenth has never been a celebration of victory or an acceptance of the way things are. It’s a celebration of progress. It’s an affirmation that despite the most painful parts of our history, change is possible — and there is still so much work to do.”

At VNS Health, we know there is still much to do, including working to address ongoing inequities in our health care system. We also believe in change and in rising to overcome challenges — one of our Core Values is, after all, Agility. Which is why I know that, as an organization working together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish.

Thank you for carrying out our mission, and I hope everyone has a wonderful Juneteenth.

Dan

Dan Savitt
President and Chief Executive Officer