Barca-Leeds is committed to encouraging a supportive and inclusive culture across the whole organisation, promoting diversity and inclusion, and eliminating discrimination across the organisation and its services. As an employer, our aim is to ensure that all employees and job applicants are given equal opportunity and that our organisation is representative of, and serves, all sections of society equally in ways that are responsive and sensitive to their needs.
This statement reinforces our commitment to providing equality and fairness to all. We will not discriminate or provide less favourable facilities or treatment on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, ethnic origin, colour, nationality, national origin, religion or belief, or sex and sexual orientation. We are opposed to all forms of unlawful and unfair discrimination.
We cannot achieve our mission without being an anti-racist organisation. That means we are committed to tackling racism wherever it occurs in our organisation, and to supporting the end of systemic racism in our communities and wider society. We recognise that our own policies and processes, and any unconscious bias that is present in our organisation, needs to be continually reviewed and refreshed.
In the summer of 2020 we issued a statement in support of Black Lives Matter, in response to the murder of George Floyd, and the Barca-Leeds Board, Leadership and Senior Management Team's attended Diversity and Inclusion labs – a series of learning workshops to ensure that we are better equipped to lead our teams to develop our policies, practice and culture further. The sessions included the drivers of inclusion, the Equality Act, types of discrimination and unconscious bias.
We are committed to an inclusive approach so that Barca-Leeds both serves, and reflects, the needs and aspirations of all members of the communities that we work with.
Training and awareness sessions have included becoming a trauma informed organisation, neurodiversity at work, mental health first aid, transgender, carers, dementia and menopause awareness workshops. We support and participate in many local and national awareness campaigns including: ending gender-based violence, David Olewale memorial, Black History Month, religious festivals, Hate Crime Awareness Week, Disability Pride Month, Refugee Week, Men’s Health Awareness Week, International Men’s and Women’s Days and many other cultural and awareness campaigns that support everyone to feel relevant and included members of society.
