“I know it’s getting to be a cliché, as I stand here in front of you every year and say “wow, what a year it’s been”! But 2022-23 did not fail to deliver!

Things started quite well; everyone was busy, and people seemed happy. I learnt some very valuable lessons about managing people, managing workloads, and about letting people go.

I cannot thank our outgoing Finance Manager, Steve Leather, enough for all his support over the last (nearly) 12-years. We have been working together as a valued and trusted colleague and as a friend to us all.

 

I also need to thank the wonderful Pat Rose who retires from the Trust. For all her work, care and support to both me and particularly to our Race & Bias Team members. Your wisdom and mentoring has been valued a great deal by everyone. We all wish you well and hope to see you again very soon.

None of this would be possible without you, the people. The people that make this fantastic, far reaching and impactful organisation. An organisation that has established itself in the DEI space and we are much better known now for our creative and intersectional approaches.

I’ve really enjoyed getting to know our new people and have been privileged to work on some fascinating programs. Our journey in the “meno space” is really starting to get noticed. And our contributions to the climate and environmental movement are growing. If you’d asked me thirty years ago what would you concentrate on if you weren’t working in equality and diversity I’d have answered environmental campaigns. So to have these wrapped up together is truly inspiring.

Over the last year we have expanded our schools offers, with local authority and lottery funding, we now work in local schools delivering assemblies, school role model visits, mentoring and 121 support and group work. As well as this, we’ve played an integral role in the Equalities in Education Steering Group and the Race Equality Task Force. As well as launching the LGBTQ+ Education Task Force. Mental health and wellbeing outcomes for LGBTQ+ young people, especially lesbian and bisexual young women are really concerning. We need to play our part in changing this.

We’ve partnered with Oxford Advanced Skills and the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority. Supporting them with their DEI journey; to better support apprentices. I get the pleasure to work with Lateesha on that programme. We delivered a significant anti-racism programme to Skills Development Scotland. That has really helped put us on the map in my newly chosen country.

Goldsmiths continue to provide us with outstanding student placements, including Johanna, Chris and Artur. Each one of them has brought their own unique talents and has made an impact on us all.

Our partnerships in South Gloucestershire continue to thrive. We hold the equalities portfolio on the Local Strategic Partnership, chairing the Equalities Forum and the Disability Equality Network. We play a core role within many far reaching, impactful networks including the Adult Mental Health Partnership, the Domestic Abuse Strategic Partnership, Equalities Voice, the Leaders Board, the Managers Support Group, the Youth Partnership and the CVS. We are currently collaborating with the Race Equality Network on empowering young people from minority ethnic communities, amplifying young people’s voices.

Outside of South Glos, but still in the region, we have launched a network in Somerset, which is now delivering under the careful steer of Sam and Joni. Our cool customer client there recently said “thank you, you star”. I think they are pleased with our progress. We also support SARI and Swan Advocacy (now 8-years in!) with Every Victim Matters and support the hate crime strategic partnerships in Somerset and Bath & North East Somerset.

Our lovely partners at Skin Deep and TSL in Wakefield enable us to keep pushing the boundaries of our podcasts and campaigns. We’ve explored getting more corporate, after meeting the India Diversity Forum, but have since returned to grassroots activism. We are more at home there. We’ve explored so much more together since our partnership began; including Menopause, women and trans rights and access to healthcare, anti-Asian hate crime, period poverty and what diversity and intersectionality mean in all these areas. Our partnership with Skin Deep and TSL enables us to trial the think tank model and thought leadership we are aiming towards in the DEI space.

So let’s look at some of our numbers.. I lose count of the number of our people, but there are 40 of us present here today and many more who have sent apologies, are unable to make it. Let’s look at the number of courses we delivered last year, not far off 500 programs and events, with audiences of over 10,000 people. Our social media reach is now over 11,500, with over 100,000 unique visits to our website each year.

Someone recently said to me they wanted to be part of the Diversity Trust because we were small enough to be a family. Growing up something I missed out on, not having a large family. Now I have quite a large family, and you all play your part.

But for many people from marginalised and minoritised communities the concept of family can be painful and difficult. So I want to offer an alternative constellation, that of a village, we are a village, a community, a community of people creating and communicating.

I hope I get to be stood in front of you next year. Maybe saying: “well, that was a dull, productive year wasn’t it?”. Wouldn’t that be nice. But that’s not the Diversity Trust, is it? We inhabit a space, in the epicentre of culture wars, and we have so much more to say and do. Our vision and mission to create a safer and fairer society is more profound, more needed, and more urgent than ever before. Not just here, but everywhere. As we continue to think globally and act locally. On a personal note I’m so delighted to be working in Scotland, where I live and work from now, to set up a diversity and language cafe for newly arriving communities whose first language isn’t English. Providing a safe space for people to get together, to share stories and to learn together. Next month, we are going to learn how to catch and then cook a wild, fearsome haggis! Not forgetting the all important but much less fearsome neeps and tatties.

My thanks, as always, go to our Board, especially to our Chair. And to everyone of you, staff, volunteers, consultants and supporters. Without you, none of this would be possible. Especially the size and scale of the impact we now have and create together.

So thank you my community of choice, from the bottom of my heart, you all keep me humble. The journey does continue…”

Berkeley Wilde, Chief Executive, 13th October 2023