Our commitment
Locality works in a diverse society where massive inequality exists, often perpetuated and sustained by in-built structural issues. The places in which our members work can offer connection, community and identity. But they can also be defined by division on areas such as sex, race, gender and ability. Our vision is of a fair society where every community thrives. We cannot achieve this vision without understanding structural inequalities and playing our part in dismantling structures which create and perpetuate inequity. Our strategic plan adopted in 2019 restates our ambitions and commitment for us to play a leading role on diversity, equity and inclusion.
We have made some progress in achieving this, but we recognise that we still have a long way to go. Our board and staff are committed to action to see real change.
We will:
• Take an anti-racist stance, and ally with others to challenge all forms of discrimination to effect change
• Recognise our own power and privilege and challenge ourselves to tackle inequality and injustice wherever we see it
• Understand we do not have all the answers in all these areas, and that this area is constantly evolving. We commit to educating and challenging ourselves and working with others to do the same
• Make sure we lead by example in our internal practices and policies from staffing to how we plan and prioritise our work
• Use the influence we have with our members and others to build a fairer society.
Our approach:
We are working with our strategic partners and supporting efforts across the charity sector to dismantle racism in the sector, to push funders and government to do more, and to address the diversity deficit in charity leadership.
- We are doing more to help our members support minoritised communities, based on the findings in our No More Blank Pages report (for example directing funding during COVID and the cost of living crisis to groups supporting racialised communities, our resources to help members respond to racist violence, and our forthcoming Creating Places for Everyone research).
- We are monitoring the diversity and needs of our members, and we are sharing examples of good practice from our membership to help others.
- We are providing dedicated spaces to explore and support this work (for example our Leaders of Colour peer support group).
- We are providing bursaries for minoritised groups who could benefit but cannot otherwise access our annual Convention and our membership.
- We are partnering with specialist, diversity focused organisations to help us improve our work.
- We continue to develop our staff recruitment and other internal policies and practices to reach a wider pool of talent and to further our DEI goals.
- We commit to publish and improve on our pay ratios for gender, ethnicity, the ratio of staff to CEO pay, and comparing our lowest paid staff to the national Living Wage.
- We are developing spaces where we can challenge and be challenged in the spirit of improving practice across all of our work and in the wider sector.
We know we've got lots to do and that we are battling decades of oppression and structural inequity right across society; but we also believe in the power of community to harness resources and to make great change.
