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When you become an Inclusive Employers’ Member you grow your I&D team.

Your account manager works with you to understand your goals, your challenges and achievable next steps.

Do you need more support for your inclusive culture to thrive?

Learn about membership today

1) Can you tell us how you came to be in your role?

Hi, I’m Yasser and I have quite a unique role here at Inclusive Employers as a project coordinator for the West Yorkshire Police Project (WYP). What attracted me to this role was my previous track record and experience in change/project management. I have always loved the intricacies that go into landing meaningful change on a large scale and what attracted me to this role was the chance to have an impact on delivering Anti-Racist Training to Police in the district I grew up in.

I have always been an inclusion professional at heart, often doing inclusion and diversity (I&D) work and trying to make changes on the side of my full-time jobs. So, when I found Inclusive Employers, it was a no brainer to make my favourite thing about work my every day!

2) Can you share an ‘inclusion moment’ with us – a time when you have felt included either at work or in your personal life?

I hold the word inclusion very high in terms of how it relates to my values. It can mean so much more. For me, it’s about providing fairness and equity to all and levelling the playing field so we can all thrive and contribute to society, while being our best selves.

I would like to share a time which helped shape what inclusion meant for me. It was in a previous role, where I was part of creating and piloting a reverse mentoring program for people from underrepresented heritage groups.

This programme aimed to support people of colour through mentoring to gain the right skills and experience to progress their career into leadership roles. This felt like a great inclusion moment for me, not only to be part of the group that designed this programme but also be able to take part and be mentored by someone who I could also influence by helping them understand some of the barriers we face as people of colour when it comes to career progression. The key things I took away was how important it is to have multiple perspectives in the room to help make decisions and generate ideas that will benefit all equally.

“He began mentoring me and I mentored him by providing insight with my lived experience into how he can be a better ally. What really made this memorable was our regular conversations, where we showed vulnerability to one another and provided each other with insight and coaching.”

Become an Inclusion Ally
Yasser Bouarfa smiling at the camera as he takes part in a pottery class. His apron says

3) What do you love most about your role?

The thing I love the most about my role as a project coordinator is seeing all the pieces of the puzzle come together when it comes to my influence on the delivery of the project. I often say admin and project management isn’t sexy. However, when done right it is really rewarding. I feel I am a great servant leader to the team by removing barriers and impediments to allow associates and speakers to deliver the WYP training to the best of their abilities. It’s also great to know my role still contributes to the positive impact that Inclusive Employers has on our society through the work we do.

4) What is a typical day like for you?

A typical day at work for me as a coordinator on WYP is looking after the project infrastructure and planning. I am responsible for coordinating our wonderful trainers and speakers who deliver to our delegates twice a week and ensure that delivery runs smoothly for our associates. I also take part in the development of the programme supporting our project manager in the refreshing and updating of content as of when it is necessary.

Outside of Inclusive Employers, I am massively passionate about fitness and sports. I was never the most athletic person, but last year I took it upon myself to try and get fitter and in the process, became a qualified Personal Trainer and coach, a role I still like to do from time to time. I love to workout and lift weights, followed by rewarding myself with a phat burrito to cancel out the training, but it’s all gainz right (at least it’s what I tell myself).

5) What has been your most memorable moment in your inclusion career?

I have lots of great inclusion moments I am proud of in my career, such as being part of the diversity action group at Sky, which helped influence our corporate I&D plans at a senior level and set targets to increase diversity in the workforce.

More locally I was an ED&I champion in my previous roles, chairing listening circles to allow people the space to discuss issues and provide a platform for them to speak to internal leaders in how they can work towards solutions.

I would say one of my proudest inclusion moments is my reverse mentoring relationship I had with my previous mentor. He won’t mind me saying this, but he is a great bloke who had a lot of positive intentions as an ally to support inclusion work but didn’t know where to start. So, as if fate meant it, I was lucky enough to cross paths with him at 18 years old and was someone he saw potential in as a future leader.

So, he began mentoring me and I mentored him by providing insight with my lived experience into how he can be a better ally. What really made this memorable was our regular conversations, where we showed vulnerability to one another and provided each other with insight and coaching. This supported us both in becoming better.

I feel this inclusion moment really helped shape my career, as I wanted to become someone who can help coach brilliant leaders like my mentor and allies become that little bit better and allow them to use their influence at a senior level to support inclusion in a meaningful way. I also want to be someone who inspires others like me to feel empowered to support others in their growth. I truly feel that Inclusive Employers is the place to do this.

Do you have more questions for the Inclusive Employers team?

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Grow your team

When you become an Inclusive Employers’ Member you grow your I&D team.

Your account manager works with you to understand your goals, your challenges and achievable next steps.

Do you need more support for your inclusive culture to thrive?

Learn about membership today

Get to know more of the Inclusive Employers team