Celebrating Diversity at The Christie
How We Celebrated EDI Action Week in Our Team
EDI stands for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, and it is a vital aspect of any organisation. EDI means ensuring that everyone is treated fairly and respectfully, that they have equal access to opportunities and resources, and that they can contribute fully to the organisation’s success.
In our team, we are passionate about EDI and we wanted to share our enthusiasm with our colleagues. That’s why we organised an EDI Action Week, a weeklong celebration of EDI across the team. Each day, we focused on a different element of EDI and a different protected characteristic. We had a mix of formal sessions with guest speakers and informal sessions with the team. Here’s what we did:
Monday: Introduction to EDI
We kicked off the week with an introduction to EDI, explaining why it is important to everyone and what we wanted to achieve over the course of the week. We also had an informal “Language Corner” to encourage people to share any other languages they speak. We learned some greetings and phrases in languages such as Greek, Russian and Welsh.
Tuesday: LGBTQ+ Community
We focused on the LGBTQ+ community with a Trans/Gender myth busting session. We invited the LGBTQ+ Network Chair at Royal Papworth NHS FT to talk about their experience and share some of their insights. They dispelled some common misconceptions and stereotypes about trans and gender diverse people and answered our questions. We also encouraged people to share some of their favourite recipes from around the world.
Wednesday: Religion and Ethnicity
We looked at religion and ethnicity with a presentation on religious celebrations focusing on Eid. We invited a speaker from our trust wide Ethnic Diversity Group to present. They explained the significance and traditions of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, the two major festivals in Islam. They also shared some personal stories and experiences of celebrating Eid in Britain.
Thursday: Neurodiversity
We showcased different forms of neurodiversity with a presentation on how neurodiversity can be an advantage in the workplace. We invited a speaker from Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust to talk about their experience. They explained what neurodiversity means and how it encompasses conditions such as autism, dyslexia, ADHD and dyspraxia. They also highlighted some of the strengths and challenges of neurodiverse people and how we can support them in our team.
Friday: One NHS Finance
We looked at some of the programmes and opportunities available to people through One NHS Finance, a network that aims to develop finance leaders across the NHS. We focused on sponsorship, a form of mentoring that involves advocating for someone’s career advancement. We invited a speaker from the North West Sponsee Network who shared some tips and best practices on how to find and be a good sponsor. We also closed the week with an EDI Quiz, testing our knowledge and learning from the week.
Conclusion: EDI Action Week – A Success Story
We are very proud of our EDI Action Week and the positive feedback we received from our team. We wanted to make sure that everyone could participate and benefit from the sessions, so we recorded them and shared them with daily updates, articles and learning resources. We also used various tools to encourage interaction and engagement, such as virtual hands, chat function and slido. We believe that this helped to create a safe and supportive space for everyone to learn and share their views.
We think that our EDI Action Week was a great way to raise awareness and celebrate EDI in our team. We learned a lot from each other and our speakers, who shared their insights and experiences on topics such as LGBTQ+, religion, ethnicity, neurodiversity and sponsorship. We also had some fun activities, such as language corner, recipe sharing and EDI quiz.
But we know that EDI is not just a one-off thing, but an ongoing journey that requires commitment and action from all of us. That’s why we will continue to work on our EDI objectives and initiatives, and keep the conversation going in our team. We hope that our EDI Action Week will inspire other teams to organise their own EDI events and activities, and join us in making our organisation more inclusive, diverse and equal for everyone.