Does everyone feel welcome in your organisation? Are you flexible and creative about the roles people can play? Do you see people’s strengths and support them to use them?

There are lots and lots of different things that you can do to ensure that everyone is treated fairly. Think about how you can support people to be involved with your organisation whatever barriers they are facing. Be creative with every individual and community to ensure they are able to get involved if they want to.

Be proactive about promoting equality and diversity – remember everyone has something to offer to your organisation – be sure you are not missing out!

This leaflet can also be downloaded from: http://www.ashfield.gov.uk/media/1546/12-equality-and-diversity-_rev-feb-2015_.pdf

This advice leaflet has been compiled by Ashfield Community Development Group (ACDG). For details of ACDG members offering support, please refer to leaflet “i”.

What is equality and diversity?

Equality is about making sure that everyone has access to the same opportunities. It doesn’t mean you should treat everyone the same, but that you make adjustments to ensure that everyone has the chance to join in. It is about recognising the value of every individual and supporting them appropriately.

Diversity is about all the different sorts of people there are.

Supporting diversity within your organisation means that you will not discriminate against anyone because of their race, gender, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion or beliefs, marital status, HIV status, language, or any other requirements. You may need to make adjustments to ensure that everyone from a diverse background can join in – that you are offering equal access to opportunities.

Having a diverse range of people in your organisation will bring lots of different skills and strengths and help your organisation be even better.

Revised February 2015: Please Check For Updates

Policy

An ‘Equality and Diversity Policy’ talks about how you are going to make things fair for all sorts of different people.

It shows that you are committed to including everyone in your organisation. It will apply to your staff, volunteers and anyone who uses your service.

The law says that we should do more to make things fairer for different people. Your policy will help you do this. It will also explain what you are doing, both to people in your organisation and to the wider public.

Often funders will want to see your Equality and Diversity Policy and hear about how you are putting it into practice.

It does not need to be a great big document, as long as it says some key things and helps you to ensure that you are promoting equality and diversity in practice.

What is in an Equality and Diversity Policy?

1. You need to start with a statement of your commitment to equality and diversity and why you think it is important for your organisation.

2. Then you need to say what you are going to do to ensure the fair treatment of everyone in your organisation and how you will do this. You may want to split this section into staff/volunteers and people who will use your services.

3. You then need to say how you are going to check you are doing what you say you will and how people can complain if they are not happy.

You will need to show people your Equality and Diversity Policy – perhaps include it in volunteer induction packs, for example.

You could monitor your organisation’s diversity on application or evaluation forms. You might want to set targets and use your monitoring to check how you are doing.

Equality and Diversity in Action

It is not all about having the right policy – it is more important to ensure your organisation is truly accessible for everyone.

You will need to be creative and think about how you can ensure people are not discriminated against.

You might want to offer staff/volunteers equality and diversity training so that they understand the value of including everyone too.

As well as thinking about different sorts of people, think about some of the barriers people might face accessing your organisation. For example:

• caring responsibilities, for children or adults • mental health issues • criminal convictions • learning disability • drug or alcohol misuse • physical disability • learning difficulty eg dyslexia

What can you do to make sure everyone is able to access your opportunities?

Think about how you are going to promote your organisation and its opportunities to the diverse community. You may need to use different methods or promote in different places to reach as many people as possible. Do you need to use different formats such as Braille, Easy Read, coloured paper, large print? Do you need to put information in venues which different communities use?

How do people get into your service? Can everyone get in? Do you have ramped access, or lifts, are the isles wide enough, are things on low enough shelves so people can reach, do you have an accessible toilet?