We believe that embedding racial diversity in every aspect of our work; recruitment, staff development, due diligence, funding decisions, our non-financial support, governance structures and more, will make us a better, smarter organisation, truly able to implement our mission.
In August 2020 we started a Race Equity Taskforce internally to look at every aspect of our organisation and our work from a race equity lens, and identify recommendations for improvement. Those recommendations were unanimously approved by our Board in March 2021.
We are now working to implement these recommendations. Our EDI Taskforce, a cross-organisation group, is dedicated to this aim.
We're committed to embedding racial diversity into all aspects of our work. Though each aspect has a corresponding target, we are mindful that targets are not the priority. They are a guide to help us to be a better organisation.
a) At Impetus
b) In our partnerships
a) At Impetus
b) In our partnerships
We are acutely conscious that as a youth charity focused on socio-economic disadvantage, social mobility must be a golden thread running through all our diversity work. We have lots to learn, test, fail and build to be better in this area.
Below are some of the steps we've taken to embed race equity and diversity in our work.
We can’t do this work alone. We welcome your partnership, your advice, your challenge and your questions on our ambitions. Please email info@impetus.org.uk.
We partnered with Spark Insights, a research, training, and coaching collective, to conduct a race equity audit across Impetus and our Board, improving our organisational culture and commitment to anti-racism.
We reorganised the group of colleagues tasked with progressing our EDI plans, renaming the group 'The EDI Taskforce'. This is a cross-organisation group of nine colleagues, with additional SMT and Board sponsors. Each member has 0.5 days ringfenced for EDI work per week. We also plan to appoint external consultants to support us in the next stage of this work.
Our third annual panel discussion, hosted by the Impetus Leadership Academy, was titled 'From non-racism to anti-racism'.
We hosted experts Yvonne Field OBE, Ashley McCaul and Christopher Murray, to discuss the difference between non-racism and anti-racism, why it is not good enough to be merely ‘non-racist’, and how leaders can effectively embed anti-racism in their work.
We announce that Streets of Growth, is a dynamic youth intervention charity using a “targeted streetwork” outreach approach in London’s Tower Hamlets, has entered our Connect Fund.
As part of our Connect Fund, we launched an open grant round looking for organisations that both primarily work with young people from ethnic minority* and socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, and support young people to find work or develop work related skills.
We enrolled the third cohort of the Impetus Leadership Academy, welcoming 12 more participants and widening the ILA community to 36 leaders from ethnic minority backgrounds.
We celebrated the achievements of our second cohort of participants in the Impetus Leadership Academy art a graduation ceremony hosted by the programme sponsors, Bank of America
Our second annual panel discussion, hosted by the Impetus Leadership Academy, covered 'Building truly diverse organisations'.
The expert panel of Sherine Mahmoud, Raj Tulsiani and Louis Howell, discussed the importance of living cultural values, the role of leaders in creating space for honest discussion, and how to ensure decision making structures reflect the diversity of an organisation.
Following an open grant round, we began partnerships with four more organisations through our Connect Fund: Babbasa, Generation UK, IMO Charity and Sister System. All four organisations are focused on achieving race equity in youth employment through a range of interventions, including: intensive skills bootcamps, local and community-centred holistic support and therapeutic mentoring.
We enrolled the second cohort of the Impetus Leadership Academy, widening the ILA community to 24 emerging leaders from ethnic minority backgrounds.
The inaugural cohort of the Impetus Leadership Academy graduated from the programme, with 10 out of 12 participants progressing into more senior roles, including trusteeships. One participant, Sat Singh, became an Impetus Trustee.
We partnered with an executive search firm to make a more focussed attempt at attracting a diverse range of high-quality candidates. Through this organisation we made six appointments to key roles in our Investment and Philanthropy teams. We continue to work with them.
As part of the inaugural Impetus Leadership Academy programme, we convened a panel discussion on how to embed race equity in grant making.
We began our first portfolio partnerships through our Connect Fund, with Career Ready and MAMA Youth Project, two organisations working to address the employment gap faced by young people from ethnic minority backgrounds.
We launched our Connect Fund. Together with our partners, we’re working to close the employment gap faced by young people from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK.
As part of this work, we launched an open grant round focused on youth employment and race equity, looking for organisations supporting young people into employment.
Testing of new ways to increase the diversity of organisations we consider for investment; with particular attention paid to racial diversity. Our priority funding areas for 2021 were apprenticeships, social and emotional resilience and higher education.
Launch of the Impetus Leadership Academy - in partnership with Bank of America we launched a 12 month programme offering professional and leadership opportunities to emerging leaders from ethnic minority backgrounds working in the UK youth sector. |
Our Board of Trustees approved the targets recommended by the Race Equity Taskforce, agreeing that making racial diversity a part of how we work is fundamental to effectively delivering our mission.
The Race Equity Taskforce presented their findings and recommendations to staff and captured reflections and comments.
While our Race Equity Taskforce researched and considered targets concerning our organisation, work and our mission, they also held conversations with our wider group of stakeholders (including portfolio partners, funders, and other partners), all staff and our Board of Trustees.
We set up a cross-organisation Race Equity Taskforce to critically assess our organisation and our work from a race equity lens and develop recommendations for improvement
22/07/2024
28/02/2023
