Inclusion and belonging

We have signed up to ACEVO’s eight leadership principles, as part of their Racial Diversity in the Charity Sector report with the Chartered Institute of Fundraising. Here is how we plan to deliver these across our organisation and for our residents.

We’re not here just to respond to such inequalities and disadvantages, but to seek to do what we can to challenge and change them too. We take positive steps to provide opportunities for residents of Your Place to have their voices heard on the issues affecting them – by influencing decision-makers and seeking input into our service provision – and ensuring that their needs are met.

We are aware that unconscious bias affects decisions made by leaders, that’s why we’ve created a sub-committee within our Board structure to focus on diversity, inclusion, wellbeing and spirituality, to oversee our strategic direction in these areas.

We have provided all employees, senior managers and Board members training on unconscious bias. The training covered topics such as white privilege and anti-racism. One of the key learnings from this has been to shift our diversity and inclusion policy that acknowledges racial equity rather than racial equality. We acknowledge that not everyone has access to the same resources and opportunities. We believe that equality implies that everyone starts from the same position- we don’t believe this to be true.

Our aim is to be more representative of marginalised groups which are achieving in terms of gender and racial balance in management. Becoming an organisational member of the Housing Diversity Network (HDN) – a social enterprise that works collaboratively to support organisations to improve how they address inequality, get the most from their staff and meet the needs of the communities they work with.

Working with HDN we have worked to diversify the skills and characteristics of our trustee Board including finding candidates with lived experience of homelessness. In June 2021, we launched our own HDN Board Diversity Programme – a two-year programme for New Generation Trustees who wished to develop their skills and work towards becoming a trustee for Your Place, when they were ready and when we had a suitable Board vacancy.

We have reviewed our recruitment processes to expand where we find talent from and reach more diverse audiences. We’ve put occupational health and wellbeing processes in place to support people living with disabilities from the moment they start their roles or during their time with us if people have access requirements part way through working with us. We have also organised more learning and development in place on a variety of topics including unconscious bias, anti-racism, supporting disabled employees in the workplace. Our performance management processes are also linked to our values which includes inclusion.

We now have a Belonging Committee, led by employees across the charity, to ensure we listen to and incorporate the views and lived experience of all colleagues across Your Place.

Our Residents’ Engagement Services commit to connect with residents and work with them to establish relationships grounded in trust and accountability, using the Together with Tenants Charter as a framework. An initiative we’ve introduced as part of the charter is to have a resident committee consisting of Representatives – one of which is our representatives is our Equality and Diversity representative. Our resident representatives meet monthly and communicate regularly as well as attend meetings with trustees

We are committed to taking positive action and placing diversity and inclusion at the forefront of our conversations and decision making. We are determined to ensure that our staff and residents receive the best possible support and service on their journeys with us.