Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Commitment
Forest of Hearts are committed to developing diverse and inclusive environments, creating outdoor spaces that can bring value; enjoyment and enrichment to the lives of everyone in the community. Creating a space where we can learn and grow from everyone we come into contact with. An organisation that encourages; attracts and retains talented employees and volunteers from all sectors of society.
Our organisational values of compassionate honesty, looking after each other and listening to understand will support us all as we share and learn about what is important to each other.
Inclusive practice means working in a way in which no one feels excluded. It is therefore necessary to provide activities which support those people who are least represented in our workforce and/or are least involved in our work. Initially we will balance resources to make sure that our activities deliver improved outcomes for all those that we currently engage with and those that we are seeking to reach from underrepresented group within our workforce, volunteers and activities. Forest of Hearts understand that different aspects of identities can combine to create unique barriers and experiences of exclusion and discrimination; for this reason, we are committed to developing our understanding of these experiences and of how we can take them into account in taking forward our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) objectives.
This EDI commitment seeks to understand and where possible address societal and systemic barriers faced by our communities; this commitment will extend to all activities delivered by Forest of Hearts; from our recruitment process through to enabling, supporting and providing opportunity to our staff, volunteers and those who join our programmes.
Forest of Hearts is committed to policies that will promote equal opportunities in all its activities regardless of age, disability, gender, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation and socio-economic status; to further this aim Forest of Hearts will take positive action to promote choice and opportunity for all participants in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 and our own values.
Our aims and objectives
We will provide training; opportunities to listen to ideas; ways to collaborate and be accountable for our actions in order to ensure our work, including our advice, our content, our policies and our projects are designed in a way that is relevant to a diverse range of people and are delivered in inclusive ways.
Understand the demographics of local communities so we can better reflect their needs and cultures within our work, enabling us to provide more inclusive open spaces, benefit from a diverse range of perspectives and recruit from the widest pool of talent.
Develop our expertise and our partnerships so that we can support, enable and challenge ways of working so that we can work towards dismantling societal barriers and create more inclusive spaces.
To encourage good mental health and well-being: we will provide space and opportunity for our teams to discuss how they are feeling and how challenges might be addressed. Encouraging those who work with us; or engage in our activities to have confidence; emotional balance and resilience in the face of difficulties. We recognise that someone with good mental health is able to cope better with the stresses of normal life and carry out the activities necessary to look after themselves and be allies to others.
To encourage through our employment, training and education programmes the development of necessary skills and attitude for those seeking meaningful employment; and in doing so develop ways to address any personal or societal barriers in fulfilling their potential.
To further our aims and objectives
In order to strengthen our commitment and further our aims and objectives Forest of Hearts will:
Present an Annual Social Impact Statement which will evidence our social impact over the previous twelve months.
To report on the progress and successes of previously set equality, diversity and inclusion objectives
To set out our next twelve months objectives formed through the discussions and needs of our workforce, volunteers and the local community and building on successes of the previous twelve months. In doing so we will recognise areas of urgent need in order to take bold actions to make significant and lasting changes to the experiences of our workforce, volunteers and those who engage in our activities.
To publish and share our equality, diversity and inclusion objectives.
Include a set of SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timebound) to deliver on our objectives.
This approach helps to ensure that equity and inclusion is a priority for all of us, and thus embedding EDI across the organisation; so that we can listen and be influenced by those who engage or work with us; we can effectively assess the impact of change, the effectiveness of our actions, policies and working practices; the building of knowledge; sharing of experiences and the availability of resources to deliver our aims.
Responsibility for promoting and delivering on our objectives; access to services and activities will be led by the board of Forest of Hearts, however the responsibility to further our inclusive practices, of the elimination of unlawful discrimination and the challenging of unacceptable behaviour rests with all staff and volunteers working with Forest of Hearts.
How we plan, promote and further Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:
We recognise that cultures, experiences and differences intersect and form our identity, together with other characteristics, such as socio-economic status and geographical location and as a result there is always more to learn from our workforce, volunteers and local communities. Therefore, in order to meet our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion Forest of Hearts recognise we can always be striving to do more. These include taking steps to continually review, evaluate and further the following areas:
To provide safe and inclusive environments so that this commitment is felt in not just our Annual Plan or Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy but throughout our policies, working practices and the culture of Forest of Hearts.
To actively seek to work in partnership with external organisations in creating inclusive environments
To seek feedback, to listen and act if anyone feels that during their involvement, engagement, or employment at Forest of Hearts that they have been treated unduly differently to others, have felt excluded, discriminated against or harassed by someone within our organisation
Continue to ensure that we understand the needs of people in the local community when designing spaces and services; providing feedback routes and seeking to understand the barriers to inclusion.
Ensuring our events, programmes and stories represent the diversity of the area we work within
To provide opportunity of engagement, a sense of purpose and an environment that feels supportive within our mental health and well-being programmes so that people build confidence to fulfil their aspirations for the future
To keep under review our employment, training and education programmes in order to support and provide the tools for people to develop their own ways to address barriers to fulfilling their potential
To continuously strive to make sure that our information, actives, programmes and opportunities have reasonable adjustments, inclusion and accessibility at their heart
Provide training on current equality legislation; unacceptable behaviours and the importance of delivering on the EDI values of Forest of Hearts.
Ensuring that equality, diversity and inclusion is the responsibility of everyone working, volunteering and engaged in our work.
To engage and collaborate with those effected by our new and revised strategies, policies and working practices so as to create approaches that are fair, enabling and inclusive
To encourage and support our workforce and volunteers to speak out against overt and subtle acts of racism; sexism, agism and other oppressive practices;
To educate our workforce and volunteers about the impact of bias; to help them understand the way bias and the manifestations of bias work so that we can mitigate them within our behaviours, policies and working practices.
To recognise the impact of bias on services; employment and engagement both organisational and personal and to actively work to mitigate them
All necessary steps are taken to ensure that this commitment is effectively communicated to employees, volunteers, partners, clients and those who engage in our activities, programmes and services. All involved are expected to adhere to this commitment and demonstrate through their actions and engagement with others a commitment to equality of opportunity.
This commitment will be kept under review and any changes made and notified to all concerned.