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04 / 02 / 21
We are pleased to announce that the Faith & Belief Forum (F&BF) is now a signatory of the Business in the Community Race at Work Charter.
The Charter is composed of five calls to action for leaders and organisations across all sectors. Signing up means taking practical steps to tackle barriers that ethnic minority people might face in recruitment and progression and committing to be an organisation representative of British society today.
As an organisation dedicated to building understanding and good relations between people of all backgrounds and identities, the question of racial equality is important to us. At F&BF we have always said that we wish to model internally the world we wish to see externally. This means that we seek to create the sort of inclusive environment within the organisation that we aim to bring about in wider society.
The Race at Work Charter is a public commitment to improving the experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic employees in the workplace. It sets out five actions for signatories to take:
At F&BF our aim is to be more intentional in addressing questions of race. We want this to be something we engage with not just when issues hit the headlines like during last year’s Black Lives Matter protests, but informs our work in an ongoing way. Signing the Race at Work Charter seemed like a perfect way to show our commitment in this area.
We have already made some progress. Our Race and Faith Working Group was established in 2017, and consists of staff members who can advise on our strategy and programmes in relation to matters of race. The past couple of years we have also made good progress on our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) strategy, and among other things developed systems for keeping track of the racial and ethnic makeup of job applicants, and positive action aimed at increasing team diversity.
During 2020 we reviewed our internal policies to make sure they were robust enough before putting our name on the Charter. The most recent step in this process was appointing two champions for EDI on our Board of Trustees, who will oversee organisational matters relating to race and ethnicity. With this latest step in place, we felt the time was right to sign the Race at Work Charter in early 2021.
Phil Champain, Director of the Faith & Belief Forum: “We’re very pleased to have signed the Race at Work Charter, and also fully aware that it is not the end of the process but an opportunity to learn and develop further. So we are delighted to join this initiative which offers both support and accountability in this area. Our aim has always been to be an organisation where people can bring their whole self to work, where staff from ethnic minority backgrounds can thrive and feel welcome in all aspects of their identity.”
