Every June, the LGBT+ community comes together to celebrate Pride month. At Abri, we are big on making sure where we work is a great place to be for everyone, and a place where our colleagues can be their true, authentic selves.
We champion equality, and as part of Pride month, our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion ambassador and Head of Central Support Services, Zoë talks about how we can make Abri an inclusive place for all.
Everyone should be an ambassador for equality, diversity and inclusion
Even if they don’t hold that title. I am an EDI ambassador for Abri, and to me, it means I have a bit more responsibility to be aware of EDI, call out unhelpful behaviours and support change.
I decided to become an ambassador at Abri, because I wanted to make sure that we as a company do make improvements, do think outside of our own experiences and views and are known for being a great employer and landlord for everyone.
Our objectives as ambassadors align with requirements from the Public Sector Equality Duty and they are to tackle prejudice and promote understanding, eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation and advance equality of opportunity. The Ambassador and Champion programme helps to support this on the ground - in the corridors, when recruiting into our teams, when changing procedures or processes, and when out and about in our communities reporting certain graffiti or access issues. Depending on what fits within our roles.
As ambassadors, we support campaigns to make Abri a great place to work and to help make our communities more inclusive
These include campaigns on women’s safety, racism, gender pay, disability, hate crime or other things that matter to us and our communities. Our ambassador group is a fine mix of protected characteristics and experience, but really, we are just a group that want to make a difference and create a community where people feel safe and content no matter who they are. If I see someone like me on a website or advert, then I am more likely to think that I will be accepted and happy to use that space or product. We should celebrate but also normalise the diversity in colleagues that we have, for example, we show women in our trade jobs advertising to help show people being an operative isn’t just for men. We are doing some great things like our Get Curious sessions and Let’s Talk About… workshops, and this month we are holding a Pride Elephant in the Room special. As ambassadors we can speak up when we think something can be improved in this area, we can ask for a procedure or policy wording change if we feel it doesn’t sit right, we can celebrate special days and events that are important to us – Pride, Ramadan, Easter etc. By doing this we are shining a light on difference and also normalising it at the same time.
Equality, diversity and inclusion challenges that people face in the workplace and in communities are very individual.
As a gay woman, I make a choice every time I mention my other half based on my perceived reaction or behaviour that I might risk from the person or group I am with, saying either partner or wife depending on how safe I feel. That is just a tiny example. For others it might be that a chosen meeting place was done without consideration of mobility needs and so a whole demographic cannot attend and get their voice heard. A letter describing a major works project had ambiguous phrasing or open ended dates or did not make it clear enough what was happening when, which set off feelings of anxiety and behaviour changes for households with Autism or Attachment Disorder which impacts their wellbeing and comfort, as well as those around them.
To make our workplaces and communities more inclusive, we have to be thoughtful.
When we do upgrades, put new plans together, decide to make a change, add a new process or policy - stop and think: Is this inclusive? Have we created equality? If it can’t be adapted, are there alternatives?...
Having an equality, diversity and inclusion corporate strategy means we can do more.
We can challenge more, we can push ourselves to be better, we can be more open-minded. We are accountable to the responsibilities we set. By getting EDI right, by having true equality and justice, we can allow all our colleagues to flourish, achieve personal and company goals, perform well, feel good and accepted as our true selves at work and enable our customers to feel happy, safe and supported in their homes. Which all has a positive effect on our goals.
Zoë Collingwood Dane
Head of Central Support Services
