Preparing for Black History Month, Freedom of Speech and State of the Nation

The Inclusive Compass Monthly Insights

Designed to help inclusive leaders navigate the ever-changing landscape of inclusive leadership, providing them with direction and guidance as they strive to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. This month, we explore, preparing for Black History Month, Freedom of Speech and the State of the Nation.

Preparing for Black History Month

As National Inclusion Week draws to an end, let’s harness that buzz and excitement from our organisations into October. If you’ve looked at our Inclusion and Diversity Calendar, you’ll see that the upcoming month brings a whole host of different awareness days, weeks and months, focusing on characteristics such as race, neurodiversity, age, LGBTQ+ through to life experiences such as adoption, menopause and mental health. This might feel overwhelming; where do we start? How do we prioritise?

What better time to apply an intersectional lens to our inclusion work and consider how our overlapping identities may impact our experience of life? Let’s not treat our experiences in isolation. There is power in the awareness of how our identity impacts our lives. Consider getting your staff network groups involved – this is a fantastic opportunity to collaborate and find common causes to raise awareness, take action or celebrate. Take World Mental Health Day for example. Consider the factors that contribute to mental health or barriers to support for people from Black communities, or neurodivergent communities, or different generations.

One of the most prominent upcoming awareness dates is Black History Month. This year’s theme from the organisers is Saluting Our Sisters, in recognition and celebration of the contributions of Black women to our society, workplaces and lives.

To get involved:

• Read our blogs written by our colleague Ruth-Anne Eghan, Inclusion and Diversity expert, exploring the experience of women of Black Heritage through a personal, organisational and self-care lens.
• Purchase our anti-racism toolkit to get thinking about how you can implement this all year round.
• Encourage employees to get involved in the Celebrating Black Women National Poetry Competition, or create your own internal initiative to celebrate the Black women in or connected to your organisation.
• Take action beyond October – by doing an ethnicity pay gap analysis, reviewing your anti-racism action plans, or committing to anti-racism training for all levels of your organisation.