BIG is pleased to announce the arrival of ‘Equality Matters – a good practice guide for small to medium sized voluntary or community sector organisations’. The guide is designed to help applicants think about equality issues and incorporate them into the planning of their projects, whether they are applying to BIG (or another funder) for a grant. The production of this guide is part of BIG’s drive to promote equality and maximise opportunities for people to take part in the projects we fund. We hope you will find it a useful read!

Equality Matters

We have developed the following equality principles, and we expect everyone we work with to follow these principles:

Promoting accessibility

Accessibility is about providing services that people can use relatively easily, without spending too much time and money and are sensitive to the different cultures of the people using them.

Valuing cultural diversity

People have different needs, beliefs, values and abilities and those differences need to be both respected and promoted. Having a diverse public face can help us build trust and confidence among the varied communities we seek to fund, and a diverse workforce generates a richer mix of ideas and talents. We also believe we are more efficient and effective when our decision-making structures are reflective of the diverse views of society.

Promoting participation

Our new policies, processes and programmes must be developed on the basis of real need. This means that the people who will be affected by them should be involved in their development. We know that there are groups that are traditionally under-represented, so we need to work with those groups to establish structures and provide them with a more active role in shaping the work that we do. In this way we are able to encourage participation, openness and honesty.

Promoting equality of opportunity

We recognise that some groups commonly experience poorer access to employment, have fewer training opportunities and are under-represented in the workforce, particularly at senior level. In addition, we know that not all groups have the same access to services and their experiences of receiving services may be poorer. We believe that in order to level the playing field we may need to treat people differently to help them have the same chance to take part in employment and service opportunities.

Promoting inclusive communities

A cohesive community is one where people feel they belong. Where their lives are appreciated and valued, and where people with similar life opportunities develop strong, positive relationships with  people who are from different backgrounds.

Reducing disadvantage and exclusion

We fund initiatives that deal with the causes of disadvantage and exclusion, and target our money on projects that promote inclusion of groups at greatest risk. Our understanding of what ‘disadvantaged” and “excluded” takes into account such factors as people’s experience of discrimination.

Joint (Race, Disability and Gender) Equality Scheme

We published our first Joint (Race and Disability) Equality Scheme back in December 2006. In the last 12 months we turned our attention to gender issues and identified a number of areas where we could sharpen our focus. This revised scheme Joint (Race, Disability and Gender) Equality Scheme July 2009 - 454KB, published in July 2009, subsequently highlights our commitment to ensuring that equality and diversity are at the heart of our policy-making and service delivery across all three strands – race, disability and gender.

We recently completed our second annual progress report which sets out the achievements we have made in addressing the various commitments outlined in our action plan and in collating and analysing relevant information, which has subsequently informed our equality assurance work. You can also view our first annual progress report Under the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 (DDA), BIG is required to produce an equality scheme. There is no similar requirement under the Race Relations Amendment Act (RRAA...
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