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Black History Month 2024: let’s take action

Join us in taking action this Black History Month! Here are three meaningful ways you can get involved in promoting race equality in the workplace.


Campaign for an anti-racist work environment


It’s not enough to just get involved with Black History Month every October and then go all quiet about race equality for the rest of the year. Make sure anti–racism is embedded in your work culture. Firstly, you need to take responsibility for educating yourself on everything from racism to white privilege. In terms of the wider picture, it is paramount for your team to regularly review company policy and ensure that it addresses representation and offers equal opportunities for all etc.


Here are some useful resources provided by Skills for Care to get you started:




Raise money for charity


As a busy social worker, a quick and effective way to show your support this Black History Month is by raising money for an anti-racism charity. Whether you organise a bake sale at your child’s school, host a pub quiz with your colleagues or sign up for a half marathon, there are a variety exciting options when it comes to raising money for Black History Month. If you’re too busy for all this, you can always donate directly and share the link on socials to help spread the word.


Here are some ideas to consider - along with their mission statements:


‘UK Black Pride is Europe’s largest celebration for LGBTQ people of African, Asian, Caribbean, Latin American and Middle Eastern descent. We are a grassroots movement that advocates, fights for, supports and celebrates LGBTQ people of colour and your donations go towards our annual (digital or physical) celebrations, community outreach and hardship funds. Help us be the change we need to see in the world!’



‘Our mission is to support in making mental health topics relevant and accessible for all Black people in the UK.’



‘When you donate to Stop Hate UK, you're not only supporting survivors of hate crimes. You're also supporting education and awareness programmes that can prevent these crimes from happening in the first place. You're supporting advocacy efforts that seek to change legislation and policies that enable hate crimes to occur.’



‘The Black Women Rising cancer support project is the flagship programme of The Leanne Pero Foundation, a registered UK charity offering vital help, information and practical advice for people of colour who have been diagnosed with cancer.’



3. Revisit your recruitment process



Inclusion and diversity in the workplace all starts at the early stages of the recruitment process. This Black History Month, take the time to sit down as a team and examine how inclusive your hiring process is. For example, are your job descriptions gender-neutral? Do you remove personal details from applications (e.g. name, age and gender) so that the risk of Unconsciousbias is minimised? Is the hiring team trained to recognise unconscious bias? This could look like hiring a less qualified candidate because their personality is a ‘better’ fit for the team or not hiring someone because you associate negatively with the university they went to. Indeed have a cracking blog on the different types of unconscious bias which you can find here.


Get in contact with the team at Imperium Solutions via email at info@imperiumsolutions.co.ukif you’re on the lookout for new opportunities in health and social care.



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