Posted on by Ola Durotoye

Championing diversity in the UK’s first ever Race Equality Week

|

Logo for Race Equality Week, 1-7 February 2021, with a green leaf symbol.

Central YMCA is excited to announce its participation in UK’s first ever Race Equality Week, as it unites in activity with hundreds of other organisations between the 1st and 7th of February to seriously address race in the workplace.

A UK-wide initiative, Race Equality Week was launched by community interest company Race Equality Matters to turn words into action; a movement spurred on by the events of 2020 which have heightened the country collective consciousness of the racism, inequality and injustice experienced by ethnic minority people. 

As the pandemic continues to disrupt ‘business as usual,’ and many people enter the new year longing for things to go back to normal, the message of Race Equality Week is simple: normal is not good enough. Let’s not go back to normal.  

Normal is 75% of ethnic minorities experiencing racism in the workplace.
Normal is a third of FTSE 100 companies having no ethnic minority board members. 
Normal is graduates from minority backgrounds being twice as likely to be unemployed.

It is time for a change. Now is the time to act!  

So we are asking our community to join us and thousands of others by participating in Race Equality Week and taking meaningful action towards tackling the barriers to race equality. 

There are four key ways to get involved:  

Virtual Badge Campaign: devised by the co-creator of the Green Ribbon Mental Health Campaign; A visible movement of support for race equality. 
The Big Promise: a commitment to action, not words. Individuals and / or organisations make a public commitment to create a positive change.
Safe Space: which guides conversation into action. This initiative helps organisations enable a meaningful and purposeful dialogue between board members and ethnic minority employees. 
Do your own thing, as devised by your ethnic minority employees or race network. 

Race Equality Matters was Co-Founded by Green Park and The Collaboratory, and supported by other diversity championing organisations: BT, Data & Marketing Association, AggioSergeant, Flair, Edelman, Diversity UK, the governance forum, Mental Health First Aid England, #Talkaboutblack, & The Diversity Digest.

For more information and to sign up to participate, visit raceequalitymatters.com.

Latest news

Read more on