We strive to continue in supporting residents across the county living in ethnically diverse communities to access and enjoy opportunities for physical activity. To do this, we have made the decision that all Tackling Inequalities Phase 2 funding received from Sport England in August of last year would be allocated to Essex organisations supporting ethnically diverse communities. So far, we have worked alongside and funded 25 organisations and groups, with 1497 people benefitting, in an effort to tackle racial inequalities in physical activity participation.
A project we are proud to support is the Ghana Union Harlow, who have developed a physical activity project from a health check they have organised for the members of the Ghanaian community. Via their health check, Ghana Union Harlow have identified underlying health conditions within the community, such as hypertension, high blood pressure and obstructive sleep apnea, that can be alleviated by physical activity. Following the health check, the Union carry out their project every week with 200 families. They guide sessions including a mix of Zumba, health walks, exercise classes and football sessions – all appealing to different sections of the community. The project also includes health screenings after 3 months and at 6 months to show progress and to continue member’s motivation during and after the funded period ends.
Another project is the Over 50’s Black Men Forum in Chelmsford, first initiated to support those feeling the major impacts that self-isolating, shielding, redundancy and furlough due to the COVID-19 pandemic has had on their members’ mental health. Active Essex have supported this project, which included wellbeing walks as well as online exercise sessions, improving both physical and mental wellbeing.
We will continue to work with these organisations and commit to working with further organisations who can support ethnically diverse communities to become physically active.
To address the racial inequalities within leadership positions in the Sport sector, Active Essex became early adopters of the Race Equality Code in January 2021. The Race Equality Code and its accountability framework has been developed by The Governance Forum to provide organisations across all sectors of all sizes, with the opportunity to address race inequality in the boardroom and in senior leadership teams.
Since January, Active Essex have worked with The Governance Forum through a robust assessment against the Code’s requirements. Active Essex has now received our RACE Action Plan which will be embedded into the organisation’s ongoing improvement journey. The aim is for this to become a golden thread through the organisation, creating sustainable and lasting improvements to achieve a truly diverse board and organisational senior leadership team.
Jason Fergus, Director of Active Essex commented: “”Active Essex are committed to tackling racial inequality in the sport and physical activity sector. It’s great to see collectively, Active Partnerships standing together to proactively tackle the racial inequalities that prevent or discourage people from leading active lives. Active Essex have begun to take positive steps and are fully ready to set the scene for change.”
We are honoured to continue to support and fund the fantastic work taking place in our community at the forefront of this commitment. Active Essex sees an important role in leading from the front and championing for our stakeholders to also address race inequality in this way.
Our Race Equality Code commitment statement
Reporting – We believe it is important to publish our staff and board diversity and steps and actions to improve race equality across the organisation. We will ensure to gather this information and reporting on this will be publicly accessible through our website and annual impact report.
Action – We will adopt the RACE action plan developed as part of this process and all actions will be progressed and continually measured. Our identified improvement group will be accountable for driving the actions forward across the team and measuring progress and the Inclusion lead for the organisation and Inclusion lead for the Board will be accountable for reporting this to board and organisation on a regular basis.
Composition – We will collate data on Board, SLT and pipeline race diversity and create KPIs which will be embedded into our overall Diversity Action Plan. We will collate information on staff and board members completing training around diversity and we will include diversity objectives within performance management.
Education – We are committed to improving education around race and will embed identified CPD within staff and board induction and our training needs analysis staff assessments for continuous improvement within personal development plans. We will use our influence to upskill our stakeholders and address race inequality within our system.
