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Anyone who has worked with an organisation may well be aware of Equal Opportunities legislation. This is a range of laws that exists to ensure that no-one is discriminated against on grounds of ethnicity, faith, disability, age and other issues. The most important laws for this type of work are likely to be the Race Relations Act and the Disability Discrimination Act (see page 54). They set minimum standards - the requirements that must be adhered to in order to comply with the law. These are often seen in job advertisements where it will state that XYZ Company is (or 'is striving to become') an Equal Opportunities Employer. This is an important issue for environmental groups, especially those with a history of predominantly white membership even when working in multi-ethnic areas. A good starting point for work on this field is to check the Equal Opportunities policy for your organisation (if you have one) and to examine how it is being applied and monitored. Equality of opportunity is an important starting point: if you don't get this right then it is likely that your attempts to work with diverse groups will fail. But you don't just have to comply with the minimum requirements. Valuing Diversity is an increasingly popular way of working that moves on from simply checking that the Equal Opportunities regulations are being applied. Simply put, it is based on identifying and valuing the diversity of cultures and needs within the groups you work with and looking to work with those groups in the most appropriate ways to meet their needs. In most of the UK, a further development has arisen with the 2002 amendment to the Race Relations Act (different legislation applies in Northern Ireland). This now gives local authorities and other major public bodies a specific duty to actively promote race equality, and sets out standards and targets that can help identify progress. You may be working in a much smaller organisation, but a number of environmental groups are now looking at how they can work in the spirit of this new duty and in so doing are broadening their outreach and appeal. All content copyright © 1986-2009 BTCV Ltd. Registered charity No. 261009 |
