Stephen Lawrence Day began in 2019 as an opportunity to celebrate both Stephen’s life and the legacy of change that has followed since his tragic death. Stephen’s family has campaigned tirelessly since his murder on 22 April 1993 and the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation continues to work with communities to improve life chances and promote equality.
Following the death of George Floyd on 25 May 2020, Baroness Lawrence spoke publicly about the exposure of social inequality and ‘subsequent resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement’. Like many millions of people, we too were moved by George Floyd’s death and wanted to do more to play our part in championing equality, diversity and inclusion.
Today is about remembering Stephen’s life, and also a ‘reflective learning experience’. So, we wanted to take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitments to our colleagues, customers and their communities, and reflect on what we’ve done in the past few months.
Using our platform to do more
As an organisation we want to reach as many people as possible. This is about reaching our customers with our services, but wider communities and stakeholders too through our platforms. In the past 12 months we’ve started using our position as a large housing provider, and the platforms we have because of that, to do more and speak up about the things that really matter.
So, what have we done so far?
In September 2020 we released our All In Statement. This is our commitment to improving equality, diversity and inclusion at Abri, sharing our initial steps on how we hope to achieve that. Part of this is about recruiting in a way that’s representative of our society, and learning more about our colleagues and customers through a big data collection project. It’s still early days on our journey, but our colleagues are firmly on board.
We’re also being more proactive about sharing stories and raising the voices of our colleagues and customers. We’ve learned that we have to actively seek to do this, it’s simply not enough to hope it happens by itself. And as part of this, we reached out to colleagues and customers to hear about their experiences during Black History Month.
We’ll always be looking for opportunities to do more in our journey to improve equality, diversity and inclusion and use our platform in a way to tell meaningful stories. If you have any ideas, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Promoting equality of opportunity in communities
Our mission is to create thriving communities and empower lives. Promoting equality of opportunity within our communities is an integral part of that. Our customer base is diverse, but we know that sadly not everyone has equal life opportunities.
We’re currently working with Voices of Colour to host a six-week digital skills and training programme for women from ethnic minority backgrounds. They aim to shape the next generation of female changemakers and leaders. The programme, which is funded through our Community Funding, is all online, and starts next month.
Tackling unconscious bias and encouraging conversation
We want our organisation to be a great place to work, for everyone. To make that possible our culture needs to be inclusive. That means having open and honest conversations, even if it’s challenging.
We can’t change what we don’t talk about, so last year we launched Let’s talk about race. This is a training session designed to help colleagues understand why it’s vital that we talk about race and explores the language and terminology we use. Everyone is encouraged to participate in honest conversations and consider what more we can do to improve the landscape both at work and in the communities we serve.
Keeping the momentum going
Most importantly, we can’t let this priority lose focus. It is always the right time to talk about equality and inclusion because while it’s still yet to be achieved there is much to be done. We don’t have the answers alone – no one does. This is about working together, hearing directly from the people affected by these social issues, and about us providing a means for people to learn more about these issues. It is about trying our collective best to make the communities we’re involved in and the places we work, equal, fair and inclusive.
We know this won’t happen overnight, but we’re in it for the long haul. Today is about learning and reflection, and remembering the legacy of Stephen Lawrence, whose loss has affected not only those who knew him but those who have come to learn from him. The focus of today is something we must, each one of us, carry forward as we play our part in shaping a better society, for all.
- Dambu Tenner, Housing Solicitor
