Ramadan: A journey of the heart and mind
Maryam is one of our volunteers at Bradford District and Craven Mind. She has kindly […]
Five Actions Towards Race Equality
This week (3rd – 9th February 2025) is Race Equality Week, a UK-wide campaign led by Race Equality Matters.
This annual campaign encourages organisations to look at the barriers to race equality in the workplace and encourages actions however big or small to address them. Race Equality is a real issue that we need to recognise and act on all year round.
At Bradford District and Craven Mind we’re on a mission to champion equity, diversity, inclusivity, and anti-discrimination in every area of our organisation and beyond. We stand firmly against discrimination of any kind and our aim is to build a culture of belonging to allow every staff member, volunteer and service member to thrive.
In this blog, we are going to share with you five actions we have taken at BDC Mind to enhance our awareness and reduce race inequality.
1. Training and Development for Managers
We are constantly learning, evolving and changing as an organisation. Over the last year we have been working with African Caribbean Achievement Project (ACAP) to provide our management with a reflective space to explore anti-racism. ACAP are a local, grassroots organisation who started out as an education charity to tackle structural racism in schools. They have grown over the last 30 years, and have recently become partners in our Hope & Light programme (read on to find out more).
We have been training our management in topics such as structural racism and microaggressions so that they can reflect on their own actions, and spot language use or behaviour in others. Read this blog to hear from staff members that took part in the first training session.
Participants said:
I left the workshop with a much better understanding of these topics and feeling empowered to challenge and call-out any discriminations and micro-aggressions that I may witness.
Get in touch with ACAP if you would like to organise similar training for your organisation.
2. Implementing #MyNameIs
#MyNameIs was developed by a team at Race Equality Matters, the organisation behind Race Equality Week. Put simply, it asks you to put a phonetic spelling of your name in your email signature. BDC Mind’s Service Manager, Daniel Sintim-Aboagye [Dan-e-yul Sin-tim – Ab-oh-ah-jee], championed this campaign at a recent Staff Engagement Day, encouraging staff to take part.
It’s so important for people to get your name right, as not only is it your identity but it also represents your culture and heritage. Not trying to truly understand how to pronounce someone’s name could be seen as a microaggression, a behaviour that contributes to race inequality. In the words of actress Uzoamaka Abuda, “if they can learn to say Tchaikovsky, Dostoyevsky and Michelangelo, they can learn to say Uzoamaka”.
3. Home Truths 2 Programme
Our CEO, Helen Davey, is currently participating in a 12-month training programme designed to enhance our organisation’s commitment to becoming truly anti-racist. This significant time commitment reflects our leadership’s proactive stance on driving meaningful and lasting change across BDC Mind.
Home Truths 2, developed by ACEVO and Voice4Change England, equips participants to challenge and support mainstream UK civil society in taking serious, practical actions on anti-racism and race equity.
The programme encourages leaders to examine their own perspectives, organisational culture, and the broader charity landscape while engaging with complex topics like privilege and power. Helen will be sharing her insights in a blog post soon, stay tuned to learn more about her journey and the broader impact on our work.
Helen Davey commented on her experience so far:
The course has provided me with deeper understanding of racism, how power and positionality can play its part in dismantling racism and given me the space to share and learn from peers across the country. It’s been a challenging, emotional and inspiring journey for me so far.
4. Multicultural book club
At BDC Mind, we have a staff book club called Mind Readers. In this group we often have a theme for the book, and we try to push boundaries in terms of topics and cultures covered. For instance, during South Asian Heritage Month (18 July – 17 August) we read All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir which was about the struggles of a first-generation American teenager, and his Pakistani heritage.
We believe it’s important to read books and support authors from a variety of backgrounds to broaden our understanding of other views and cultures. This is a simple action anyone can participate in. Even if reading isn’t your thing, why not look at films or TV series from cultures different to your own?
5. Hope and Light
Last year we were awarded the contract to provide culturally appropriate mental health services to Black African, Black Caribbean, Eastern European and South Asian communities. Over the last year we have been working with those communities to find out what the barriers to seeking mental health support are, and what type of support would work best for them. We are now in the process of developing programmes which we will be launching in April 2025.
Hope and Light is a partnership programme working alongside Staying Put, ACAP, the Girlington Centre, Inspired Neighbourhoods and Roshni Ghar.
Posted on: 3rd February 2025
