At Baby Umbrella we are committed to ensuring our team, those who visit us and those who would like to, all feel able to join us authentically and accessibly. We do not believe it is enough to ‘think’ that we are doing enough or even to demonstrate that; we want to ask, listen and act on what is communicated to us, to ensure our charity is as inclusive as it can be.
Things that are important to us:
To listen to those in the team who want to contribute
To have an awareness of any issues that might limit inclusion and equality
To understand how we can be more inclusive with support
To follow a reflective process in everything we do, continually evaluating and improving – the process is never ‘complete’
To take action on those things we can change and improve
To be proactive – not waiting for people to speak up but to build a community wherethere is open dialogue and communication
What have we done so far?
In the last few months, we have completed an internal survey of our team across the charity inviting responses to find out where we are starting from. As part of this survey, we asked for volunteers to join our working group to help shape this project and we are delighted to have had a brilliant team come forward. Â
What's next?
Our next steps will be to consider positive changes we can make as a result of our internal survey, to build our strategy and policy and to conduct the first stages of our external survey (to current and previous service users). Â
Our future plans include a scoping project to find out about different cultures and how we might better serve them. We want to find out who doesn’t reach us and why and see what we can do to address these gaps. We will take time to consult and to listen, enabling us to draw more effective conclusions, ensuring the pace is appropriate to deliver useful timely impact.Â
How can I get involved?
We believe we always have something to learn and in the emerging field of DEIB this is particularly true. We actively seek out information and resources to inform our practice and build networks to support our work, ensuring we take time to have the important conversations, to listen and to pace our progress appropriately. For people to be able to bring their authentic selves and to trust that we will listen, we need to communicate what we do and explain our reasons behind our decision making.
We are committed to consider DEIB in every aspect of designing, delivering and evaluating our services and we welcome all contributions to this work.
If you would like to get in touch please send an email to jennie@babyumbrella.org.ukÂ
Our working group
Our working group consists of volunteers from across the charity. The group are involved in discussions, research and advocacy across the charity for everything we are trying to achieve with DEIB. We are incredibly grateful to them for their thoughts, ideas and contributions.
Group Chair:Â
Jennie Yelverton (DEIB Lead, Management Team)
Trustees:
Nicola Kirkwood
Sarah Martin
Management Team:
Laura Shtaingos
Practitioners:
Jani CombrinkÂ
Harriet Rudd
Peer Supporters:
Sarah StuartÂ
Jaanki HargraveÂ
Naomi Enkan
Sophie ThorneÂ
Monica AtkinsonÂ
