Category Archives: EDI

Equality Diversity and Inclusion – Updates

EDI Forum 

A new EDI Forum Teams site has been created for all staff and students – join the teams site to start talking Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

What’s it’s Purpose

‘On-the-ground’ group to provide an avenue for staff and students to raise issues, concerns, share best practise and ideas for improving EDI at Kent.Actions can be passed to the most appropriate steering group, or inter-sectional issues reported to the EDI strategy group.Completed and in progress actions should be fed back from the relevant steering group to form an EDI forum report and the start of subsequent meetings.

What are the Ground Rules

Please comply with the University IT Regulations IT Regulations – Information Services – University of Kent

Behave respectfully

  • Don’t waste IT resources or interfere with others’ legitimate use.
  • Don’t behave towards others in a way that isn’t acceptable in the physical world

Active Bystander Staff Training 

Staff Training – 3 dates available

The training will provide the skills to challenge unacceptable behaviour including those that have become  normalised

A 90 minute virtual session which will include:

  • A video demonstrating bystander apathy
  • Specific references for the HE Sector
  • References to high profile examples of inappropriate/unacceptable behaviour
  • Decision-making techniques to help people overcome fear and self doubt when faced with a challenging situation
  • Assertiveness techniques to give them the confidence and tools to speak out, whether they are dealing with the challenge directly or calling for help from others.

The session will include group discussion and interactivity and each delegate will receive an PDF  ‘Active Bystander’ toolkit booklet, which contains the main techniques covered in the session.

There are 40 places available on each session and they are bookable on Staff connect

All sessions will run from 14.00-15.30 on the 28 April , 19 May and the 23 June

Staff EDI Rep Induction

Staff – New to Role or need a refresher
8 April 13.30 – 15.00 
Please contact equalityanddiverisity@kent.ac.uk if you would like to attend 
#The induction will provide 
  • Overview of role
  • EDI Governance and teams at Kent
  • EDI Projects/Networks
  • Online resources
  • Good Practice and Communication Tips
  • EDI website

Inclusive Employers webinars

Free spaces for staff

As part of our membership with Inclusive Employers we are provided with 5 free spaces on each of the Webinars that they deliver – they will be allocated on a first come first served basis – if you are interested in attending any of the following webinars – email equalityanddiversity@kent.ac.uk

Monthly updates of upcoming webinars will be posted.

University Harassment Contacts – we need you!

Staff – University Harassment Contacts are trained staff members who can be contacted for advice and support. Staff or students can choose to contact any of the Harassment Contacts and may prefer to speak to someone from a different department or section about intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive conduct or unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, for example.

The EDI team would like a more diverse group of Harassment Contacts. If you are interested in becoming a harassment contact for the University of Kent please email equalityanddiversity@kent.ac.uk where we can take you through what it involves.

The next introductory session will take place 30 March 14.00-16.00

White Privilege webinar

Challenging Racism: White Privilege live webinar – 18 March

Article from the Challenging Racism team

Continuing with our ‘Challenging Racism’ campaign the next Live Webinar on Thursday 18 March at 12.30. We are delighted to welcome Dr Deborah Gabriel speaking on the topic of White Privilege.  The ‘Live webinar’ is a 90min online webinar facilitated by Inclusive Employers, with a guest speaker, panel discussion and Q&A session.

Dr Deborah Gabriel

Dr Deborah Gabriel

Dr Deborah Gabriel is the Founder and Director of Black British Academics, a global network of scholars focused on addressing racial inequality in higher education and society, established in 2013. Key areas of focus are transformation in teaching, learning and research, with an emphasis on equity and social justice. She created and leads the Ivory Tower Project on race and gender inequality in academia and developed the 3D Pedagogy Framework to decolonise, democratise and diversify the higher education curriculum.

Her current areas of focus are community empowerment and collaborative social justice. Her intellectual work is interdisciplinary and broadly focused on the dynamics of race, gender and culture in media, communication, and higher education. These areas of inquiry are approached from a critical race and Black feminist standpoint to analyse the relationships between race, power, privilege, and inequality. As a consultant, she specializes in strategic approaches to equity, diversity and inclusion centred on social justice and transformation in higher education and society.

Book Your Place Today: Eventbrite Registration Link. 

The aim of the ‘Challenging Racism’ campaign is to promote unity, not division and to help understand and develop more inclusive behaviours. To do that we all need to increase our awareness and understanding of racism and how it can be tackled within Kent, to ensure all staff and students feel safe and empowered.  

Please share this and encourage your contacts and teams to sign up so that we can all work together and take the first steps to address racism at Kent and beyond.

#EDI #challengingracismtogether #choosetochallenge 

If you have any questions, contact us via challengingracism@kent.ac.uk

Kent Africa Summit 2021: Redefining African Identity

Article by the Kent Africa Summit Team

We would like to warmly welcome you to Kent Africa Summit 2021!

This year, the theme of the summit is “Redefining the African Identity in the 21st Century” – as we seek to have conversations on what it means to be an African today, and use those conversations to build and inform the future of the African continent.

The Kent Africa Summit was borne from a need to create a platform to bring together individuals and generations from differing backgrounds to talk about how we as a community can reflect on our history, analyse current affairs, and discuss matters to push for change and development. It brings together participants from around the globe, and provides exceptional opportunities for individuals to network, engage in conversation, and to leave with a greater understanding of the multi-faceted identity of the African continent.

Year after year, the conference has been a highlight of student-run events on the University of Campus, featuring a full day of talks with a gala dinner afterwards. However, given COVID-19 and its disruption to our everyday lives, we have had to reimagine this year’s summit.

This year, we are welcoming you to the first virtual Kent Africa Summit, in which we will have various panel discussions taking place between 8 – 12 March 2021. A selection of speakers include Nyasha Mugavazi of Kugali Media, and Sena Voncujovi, an African Spirituality Activist.

The topics of discussion will include creative industries in Africa, African spirituality, mental health in black communities and more. Though we have adjusted some aspects of the summit, our core aims remain the same. The summit will still provide participants with the opportunity to hear from inspiring leaders, teachers, and creatives with a passion for African stories.

We welcome you to take this summit, and we hope it will be an enjoyable and insightful experience for all.

Tickets to sign up to the event can be found on the Eventbrite website 

And follow us on our Instagram and Twitter accounts too, where we’ll be sharing updates on the speakers invited for the conference.

 

University Mental Health Day

Thriving @ Work on University Mental Health Day

An article from the Thriving @ Work project group:

University Mental Health Day brings together the university community to make mental health a university-wide priority’. Although the primary focus is on student mental wellbeing, all staff can support our students and there is an online training programme  “Identifying and responding to Student mental health problems” . Kent also recognises that any initiatives and processes that support the mental health of all those involved in higher education, be they working or studying or both, is a force for good, and will have a beneficial effect across the community.

The University’s Thriving @ Work project group have assessed and produced a plan with the aim of ensuring appropriate and easily accessible support for staff’s mental health needs. The group recognised early on that no single space existed where colleagues could access up to date information on staff mental health support available at the University of Kent. Its first action was to construct the Staff Mental Health Support web resource  .This went live on Time to Talk Day, exactly one month ago. The Mental Health Awareness module within staff training moodle launched the same day.

The web resource will provide you with everything you need to know to access help, be that if you are feeling emotionally fragile or challenged by the circumstances that life is presenting to you. You will find out how to access advice and support if you have been diagnosed with a mental health problem. You will also find signposting to literature and tools to help you build up mental health resilience,

The Thriving @ Work group have plans for further initiatives rolling out from Spring onwards:

  • Employee Assistance Programme, (EAP) Just over a year ago the EAP was launched. To ensure its continued success the University would like to gather your thoughts on the service. There is now an EAP Feedback Questionnaire  for you to fill in, where we encourage all those that have used the service to complete the questionnaire and provide us your thoughts, all responses will be completely anonymous. The closing date of this survey is Wednesday 24 March.

We plan to complete a lunch and learn session on the EAP during April so it would be great to get your feedback so this can be built into the session.

  • Mental Health Allies Training: this will be open to staff who have an interest in or experience of mental health issues. This could be related to involvement from a personal, work, or academic viewpoint. The role of the Mental Health Allies will be to advocate for support and empowerment of colleagues who are living with mental health challenges. This advocacy is aimed at ensuring that these colleagues are not treated less favourably because of their mental health issues. In addition, Mental Health Allies will provide an ear to those who wish to discuss their feelings and will be able to signpost them to what support is available.
  • Lunch and Learn Sessions: the focus of these sessions will be to talk through the staff support accessible through Occupational Health and Wellbeing (OHW and will include discussion and guidance on university processes. There will be a focus on topics such as :
    • Managing Sickness absence – including what to do when a member of staff is unwell , on extended sick leave , returning to work and reasonable adjustments

It is anticipated that these sessions will be led jointly by members of OHW and HR.

If you can think of a topic related to mental health at work which you believe would be a good subject for a Lunch and Learn session, please let the Thriving @ Work group know by emailing equalityanddiversity@kent.ac.uk

Join our Inclusion Circles

All University of Kent Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff are invited to join our first Inclusion Circle session on 10 March 2021, focusing on BAME wellbeing, as part of our ‘Challenging Racism’ campaign.

The aim of the Inclusion Circles is to create a safe environment to listen to staff concerns, share experiences, discuss a variety of topics, and show solidarity. Facilitated by Inclusive Employers, the programme will take place over three 90-minute sessions. The first two sessions will focus on a different topic, with the third session culminating in an action plan based on feedback and shared experiences from earlier sessions.

Session 1 Inclusion Circle 1: Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) wellbeing (10 March, 10.00) 

    • A BAME* only discussion about current Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the disproportionate effect of Coronavirus on BAME people.
    • A place to feel comfortable, share experiences and to find out how to get support
    • This is a safe space to express concerns and show solidarity

Sign up now, spaces are limited!

Further information and a full list of additional dates corresponding to Inclusion Circle sessions, can be found on Staff Connect. [Logon to your to Staff Connect account, click on ‘My Training Details’, then click on ‘Training Request’, enter search term ‘Inclusion Circles’ and click on ‘Search’ button.]

*Please note: the acronym BAME does not represent a homogenous group but is used here in a similar manner to its use in higher education research and by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for statistical purposes, to represent people who are racialised as belonging to a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background.

LGBT+ History Month – This is Not My First PANDEMIC

The University of Kent LGBT+ Staff Network is pleased to invite you to the final event in our series to mark LGBT+ History Month 2021. ‘This Is Not My First PANDEMIC – The LGBT+ Community Response to AIDS & Covid: then & now’ will take place on Thursday 25 February from 18.00-20.00.

The Programme

During the Teams event, we will hear from three speakers about the impact of the AIDS and Covid-19 pandemics on our community, drawing parallels between the two:

  • Jose C. Mejia, HIV Peer Support Manager, METRO Charity – ‘Insight on the experiences of people living with HIV during the COVID-19 pandemic: activism, triggers and vaccines’
  • Dr Ken Levine, Faculty Member, Department of Communication at Michigan State University – ‘From AIDS to COVID-19: examining the impact of messaging on the two pandemics’
  • Hilary Cooke, CEO of Medway Gender & Sexual Identity Centre, Chair of Medway Pride, founding member of Medway Pride Radio – ‘Trans realities 2021: health care, support, discrimination and hate crime’

This will be followed by a panel discussion and Q&A.

Attendance is free and open to all. Please register your intention to attend via Eventbrite.

Allyship Progamme – starting 23 February 2021

Continuing with our ‘Challenging Racism’ campaign, 23 February 2021 sees the start of our Inclusive Allyship Programme as a four part series looking at the values, behaviours and actions of Allies within Kent.

Allies will play a key role in supporting the University to advance its Equality agenda by linking with the staff networks, to support them with events and activities; be driven by staff lived experience and expertise; and support various stakeholders across the University to drive a culture of inclusion.

We continue our partnering with Liverpool John Moores University and City, University of London, and Inclusive Employers in delivering the Allyship programme with a cohort of 40 people across all 3 institutions.

Inclusive Allyship Programme (Part A)

Delivered by Inclusive Employers, the programme will take place over several weeks to allow for reflection and action between sessions. Each session will be one hour long.

Aim of the programme:

  • Understand what makes an Inclusion Ally and how it relates to three key areas: values, behaviours and actions.
  • Explore privilege, circles of influence, and the boundaries of the role.
  • Explore frameworks and techniques to challenge exclusion and have challenging conversations.
  • Create an individual plan of action.

Session 1 (Introductory Session) – “Welcome to Allies” webinar (23 February 2021 – 11.00)

  • Values: why are Allies important? – We’ll take a look at the purpose of Allies at the University and the wider context, including anti-racism and structural discrimination.
  • Behaviours: how do Allies make a difference? – We’ll discuss privilege and power and how this can be utilised to make the workplace more inclusive, identifying the boundaries of the Ally role.
  • Actions: what do Allies do? – We’ll look at specific projects and initiatives Allies can support, and the actions they will be taking over the next 4 weeks

Further information and a full list of additional dates corresponding to the Allyship programme, can be found on Staff Connect. There are places still available so don’t forget to book your spot!

Man wearing jumper that says "respect"

Take the Expect Respect Module

Here at Kent, we want everyone to be treated with dignity and respect. Therefore, we have taken proactive steps to ensure you are well informed and know about the support available.   

The Expect Respect module is a compulsory module for all registered students at the University of Kent, regardless of what you are studying or whether you are an undergraduate or postgraduate student.  

The Expect Respect module outlines the behaviours we expect of you whilst you are with us as well as what you can expect from both the University and your Students’ Union. The module will dig deep into issues of racism, bias, sexual harassment and consent; it will challenge you to think about your own behaviour, the way you interact with others and the impact this could have on someone else’s experience.  

This module will demonstrate how to report any incidents to the University so that you, or any student affected, can access the right support. It will also make you aware of the wide range of different support services available to you depending on your needs.  

You can find the Expect Respect module on Moodle (code DP6636) – you should be automatically enrolled but if you have any issues please get in contact with Auzimuth Jackson at A.Jackson-502@kent.ac.uk. 

Reclaiming our Past: LGBT+ History Month blogs

A series of blog posts championing influential films, music, authors and historical figures has been launched to mark LGBT+ History Month.

The blog posts published so far on our EDI pages feature:

  • the inspirational author and activist Audre Lorde, written by Dr Stella Bolaki, Reader in the School of English
  • James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, described as a ‘stunning and startling piece of literature’ by Dr Declan Kavanagh, Senior Lecturer in the School of English

LGBT+ History Month, originally the idea of an American teacher in 1994, has been celebrated in Britain since 2005. Sue Sanders, who has spoken at the University, was one of the co-founders. It is held every February, marking the first attempt (in February 2000) to repeal Section 28, a highly discriminatory piece of legislation which made it an offence to ‘promote’ homosexuality.

The History Month serves as an important opportunity to celebrate LGBT+ histories and cultures, raising awareness by recovering the stories of those who are often erased (or ‘straight-washed’) from popular memory and making visible the achievements and obstacles overcome. Its remit is about ‘Claiming our past. Celebrating our present. Creating our future’.

Staff Network events

A series of events run by our LGBT+ Staff Network include LGBT in Lockdown – Wednesday 17 February from 18.00 and This Is Not My First Pandemic – Thursday 25 February from 18.00.