June is Pride month, when we reflect on the challenges and achievements of our LGBTQ+ communities and the steps that have been made towards achieving equality and fairness for all.
As part of our diversity and inclusion programme we’re also focusing on important inclusion content that is useful when thinking about all of our diverse communities.
We’ll be starting an inclusion & diversity training programme for all of our colleagues at MBNL across the summer and beyond, which will help bring to life why a focus on this topic is important and will help us all learn about allyship.
Allyship is about building relationships of trust, consistency and accountability with marginalised groups of people. You do not have to be a member of a marginalised group to be an ally: you can support them and use your voice alongside theirs. This can be as simple as speaking up when you see or hear something that doesn’t sound inclusive, and learning about how different groups of people experience everyday life.
What could allyship look like?
Allyship can include speaking up and giving credit – these are often the two easiest ways to start being an ally to groups who don’t always have an equal voice. In real life you might hear speaking up as:
‘I know you really meant that as a joke, but when you talk about people that way it does real harm to individuals’
‘Hang on, before we move on let’s make sure we’ve heard from everyone on the call – I don’t think we’ve heard thoughts from Cynthia and Jon yet’
‘This is mostly Barbara’s work – she’s the expert on this topic’
These are just a few examples of inclusion content that support and promote allyship.