Supporting each other to make progress on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Over the last six months, Oxford Hub has coordinated and participated in a series of peer support sessions for people working on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in their organisations. In this blog, facilitators Katharine and Khosar reflect on some of the learning they’ve taken away from the series…

Like many charities in Oxfordshire, Oxford Hub strongly believes in the principles of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). Our vision is of an Oxford that’s better for everyone. To achieve this, we know we need to make sure that the work we do, and the way we do it, includes, represents and supports fair outcomes for a wide range of people, especially those whose voices and experiences are heard less often. We’ve set this out in our EDI Charter.

However, in practice, EDI doesn’t always get the time, resources and energy needed to make a real difference. Charity staff often feel stretched already, delivering day-to-day work — so trying to change and improve things gets sidelined. Some organisations do have a dedicated EDI lead, but this can make it seem like a ‘niche’ issue that they have to persuade other staff members to think about.

That’s why, with support from OSEP, we set up a series of peer support sessions for people working to further EDI in their organisations. We wanted to develop a space where people could share their experiences and ideas, hold each other accountable and work together to improve EDI in our organisations and beyond.

Over the last six months, we’ve met regularly to learn from each other and discuss different EDI themes suggested and led by members of the group, including trustee diversity, good practice for inclusion and workplace culture. The group was made up of representatives from a range of Oxfordshire-based organisations, including My Life My Choice, Yellow Submarine, Earthwatch, Oxfordshire Mind, Oxford City Farm, Oxfordshire Breastfeeding Support, Aspire, Active Oxfordshire, Family Links and Oxford Hub.

The Peer to Peer series has now ended, but we’re looking forward to continuing to meet as the Oxfordshire EDI Peer Support Network. We’ll also be developing some resources from the work we’ve done so far to share more widely — watch this space!

In the spirit of learning and sharing, we’d like to share a few things we’ve learned from running and participating in this series:

1. We can learn so much from each other. We had a really valuable session on trustee diversity and inclusion, which demonstrated the importance of positive inspiration but also honesty and openness about things that haven’t gone so well. One member of the group talked about their organisation’s impressive model, where the majority of trustees are service users. Another member shared their organisation’s challenges with retaining trustees from more diverse backgrounds. We learned a huge amount from both contributions.
2. EDI isn’t one size fits all. EDI can get reduced to a tick box exercise that promotes visible diversity. A theme that came through strongly was how important it is for organisations to think about what EDI actually means for them. Is it about representing the local community effectively, or the people the charity works with? What can the organisation actually do to include people from marginalised groups and achieve equitable outcomes? What might need to change about the way the organisation works to make that possible?
3. Diversity and inclusion are important in learning spaces too. We learned a huge amount from one of the participants, who is a service user and volunteer with their organisation. However, we did find that most of the organisations involved are small or medium-sized registered charities, and most of the participants were white professionals. Going forward, we want to make sure that we’re including people from a wider range of backgrounds and organisations — which will mean thinking about the way sessions are organised and structured. Not everyone can give up 3 hours in the middle of a weekday! We are planning to use our professional networks to invite groups and individuals to participate in and lead sessions, providing funding to enable this where that’s relevant.
4. Discussion and learning are great — but we still need to work on action! The discussion and feedback in the last session showed that, although members really liked meeting like-minded people and sharing frustrations and learning, this still wasn’t necessarily getting us any closer to acting on EDI. Going forward, we’d like to test ways of using the peer support group to hold each other accountable and support each other to make tangible progress.

Sign up to our Community Partners’ “Learning & Sharing” newsletter to find out more and get involved. You can read Oxford Hub’s Charter on Equity, Diversity Inclusion or watch a video about the Charter.