Reframing the diversity debate
ACEVO’s steps to improve equity, diversity and inclusion in civil society organisations
STRATEGY
Image: Istock
Kristiana Wrixon
Head of Policy, ACEVO
In 2020, ACEVO and Voice4Change England released Home Truths: Undoing racism and delivering real diversity in the charity sector. This report sought to reframe the diversity debate, saying that racism is a significant and unresolved issue in the charity sector just as it is in the rest of society (see Beyond Diversity for more on this).
In January 2021, we released a report on disability in civil society organisations called Hidden Leaders: disability leadership in civil society organisations. These reports are part of a programme of work that ACEVO has undertaken over the past four years to help us become a more inclusive employer and membership body, and to ensure we can support ACEVO members who are working to do the same.
Acknowledging ‘ablism’
Coordinating the Hidden Leaders project, and working with the report’s authors, Zara Todd and Ellie Munro, showed me just how little I knew about disability. I did not know the legal definition of disability, the history of the disability rights movement or phrases and language that are commonly used in the disability movement – and that is ablism. In the same way that over the past 12 months we have seen more discussions about the need for White people to be active allies in the fight against racism, non-disabled people must be stronger, more proactive allies in the fight against ablism. That is not to say that racism and ablism are distinct, separate categories. One of the seven areas of work identified in the Hidden Leaders report is ‘working at the intersections’.
Four years ago, words and phrases like ‘intersectionality’ and ‘social model of disability’ were not in my vocabulary. I hadn’t begun the lifelong work of learning about how and why the status quo is as it is. I saw work on equity, diversity and inclusion as mainly about changing who has a seat at the table rather than changing things like who gets to invite people to the table, who sets the agenda, who designs the table and who makes the decisions.
This isn’t to say that data that tells us who is at the table at the moment is unimportant. ACEVO has worked hard to improve the quality of the demographic data we collect. We have also improved transparency of this data, publishing information annually on our website and using the information to inform organisational targets for improving diversity. However, these targets are not just about ticking a box and are not the end goal on their own.
“I saw work on equity, diversity and inclusion as mainly about changing who has a seat at the table rather than changing things like who gets to invite people to the table, who sets the agenda, who designs the table.”
The importance of accountability
For me targets are about accountability. As a leader, I have also found that they help focus my mind, creating a push against the voice of privilege that sometimes wants to wait for things to slow down, or resources to increase, before changes are made. As the saying goes, what gets measured gets done.
So conversely, while I think good data is necessary, I also think it is just one part of the work. Both Hidden Leaders and Home Truths contain a series of practical recommendations covering organisational policy, individual behaviour and sectoral practice. ACEVO’s focus now is not to collect more data, but to use the knowledge we have gathered to take action that progresses these recommendations.
In March 2021 ACEVO published its equity, diversity and inclusion plan which outlines its next steps in detail. As with everything ACEVO has done to date it is published on the organisation’s website for transparency, to help members and supporters hold us to account, and in the hope that it is useful to others working through similar challenges. So please do take a look and if you have any thoughts please do get in touch.
