This week is Race Equality Week

Race Equality Week is an annual UK-wide movement uniting thousands of organisations and individuals to address the barriers to race equality in the workplace.

The events of 2020, including the Black Lives Matter movement and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on ethnic minority communities, has heightened public consciousness of race inequality.

Race Equality Week unites employees, focuses senior leaders, and unites organisations. It also encourages them to continue their activity and drive race equality all year long.

This year’s theme is #ActionNotJustWords

The emphasis is to drive meaningful action that makes an impact. Race Equality will only be achieved when we all play a part. Here’s what the Council will be doing as part of Race Equality Week and the wider conversation.

Cllr Ruba Sivagnanam, Diversity Champion said:

“This Race Equality Week is a huge step forward in raising the profile and tackling issues that affect local Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities.

"This year's theme is particularly poignant, Action Not Just Words. I'm pleased to see that as an organisation, we are making actionable commitments and holding ourselves accountable.”

#MyNameIs

We will be launching the campaign #MyNameIs – a campaign to encourage people to phonetically spell their names in email signatures and on name badges. This will help others to know how to pronounce names with which they are not familiar.

Safe Space Meeting

This will be a two-hour facilitated conversation between 3-5 Board members and up to 10 ethnicminority colleagues.

It will be an opportunity to inform and educate and to raise key race equality issues that need to be addressed. At the end of the meeting, members will decide on an action plan, committing to targets and progress monitoring.

The aim of the meeting is to:

Open the conversation about race equality in an organisation in a positive and constructive way.
Enable an organisation to demonstrate its commitment to race equality by taking action on key issue(s).
Bring businesses together from across the UK to demonstrate their collective commitment to race equality.

As an individual and employee, the Safe Space Meeting will ensure that you are heard and give you the chance to connect with colleagues across the organisation.

The Big Promise

The Safe Space meeting will also be used an opportunity for the Chief Executive, Rob Thomas, to take part in the Big Promise.

The Big Promise is a commitment to action not just words.