Bringing equality, diversity, inclusion and equity to the heart of our charity

Our work to bring equality, diversity, inclusion and equity (EDIE) to the forefront of our organisation began four years ago with a focus on addressing health inequalities in the communities we serve and reaching more people who need our support.

This work began with the creation of an organisational working group and a Board working group, led by our chair Sue Hawker, as well as the creation of a new communities and inclusion manager role linked directly to this work. We piloted a new approach to community outreach to connect with communities that hadn’t found support with us before – with the first project focusing on Polish communities in Worthing, Littlehampton and Bognor.

“We began by recruiting someone with lived experience of mental health from the Polish community,” explains Kate Scales, deputy CEO, who has led this work with Sue Hawker. “They opened up conversations about the barriers to mental health support; and then we supported people to either find help with our services or with those of other organisations. This approach proved to be successful and has provided our model for community outreach ever since.”

Another key milestone was the creation of our EDI co-production panel in 2022, bringing together people with lived experience of mental health from diverse communities to design and lead projects with an equality, diversity, inclusion and equity focus.

Our EDIE successes to date

Our 2023-24 equality, diversity, inclusion and equity plan focused on internal and cultural aspects, such as creating an equitable and inclusive workplace, training and development and co-production with people with lived experience of mental health, as well as outward-facing aspects, such as community outreach. And all of this was underpinned by data about gets support with us, identifying gaps and inequalities where we aren’t reaching people.

There have been many successes of this work, but here are some of the highlights:

• Our support for refugees and asylum seekers in Chichester in partnership with Sanctuary in Chichester. As part of this work, our mental health support worker, Lidiia, has held individual support sessions for refugees and asylum seekers from over 21 countries (see recent news story).
• Our help for people struggling with the cost of living. This has included the creation of a peer welfare worker role, providing phone-based and face-to-face support and group sessions for people who are finding it difficult to make ends meet; collaborative projects with Citizens Advice; and the distribution of over £20,000 of Household Support Fund vouchers through a West Sussex County Council scheme
• A partnership with community organisation, Dad La Soul, to reach more male parents and carers of children age 0-5. We now have a peer support worker who attends existing Dad La Soul groups to speak with men about their mental health.
• We have a more diverse Board, made up of people from different communities, with different skills and experiences, and many with lived experience of mental health themselves.

Shifting organisational culture

There are many things to feel proud of in our progress to date, but Kate says it’s the shift in culture and attitudes she is most proud of:

“When I look back at the last year, I can see that equality, diversity, inclusion and equity has become a key principle across the organisation. It’s embedded in all our services and functions and it’s part of every service business plan. It’s embedded in all our processes around people and culture – from recruitment and inductions, to service planning and staff reviews. It’s high on the agenda of every team and every service – and people want to be involved. When it feels like, this is the way we do things now, that’s incredibly rewarding.”

But of course, the work doesn’t stop there. We’ve just published our EDIE plans for 2024-25 and our biggest focus over the next year will be our drive to become a truly anti-racist organisation and to address some of the health inequalities that exist among local racialised communities.

“We have big ambitions for our equality, diversity, inclusion and equity work – and it will be at the heart of our five-year strategy 2025-2030,” concludes Kate. “I’m immensely proud of how far we have come and would like to thank all our staff, trustees, volunteers and service users who have helped us on our EDIE journey so far.”