Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging
Zurich Community Trust’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Pledge
“Our future is bright because our voices are diverse,
our behaviours are inclusive, our actions drive equity,
and our people feel a sense of belonging”
As a learning organisation, Zurich Community Trust ‘ZCT’ is committed to educating ourselves about diversity, equity, inclusion & belonging “DEIB” and its impacts - this means being open minded, curious, keen to learn, to practice active listening and to understand.
Creating a culture where everyone belongs, and individuals learn to take personal responsibility for their behaviours, actions, and learning is fundamental to our mission. If confronted with bullying, harassment and/or discrimination within our organisation, we pledge to take action to deal with any such inappropriate, offensive or intimidating behaviour.
In support of our values, we pledge to continuously work towards creating a more diverse, equitable and inclusive environment where people feel they belong, where everyone can thrive, regardless of their identity, background and any protected characteristics - whether as an employee, volunteer, trustee, partner, charity friend or service user. We will use audits, training, feedback and the advice of external professionals committed to DEIB in order to achieve this.
ZCT supports a wide range of charitable organisations and not for profits from across the UK and this DEIB pledge is our strong commitment to better understand how to support them in the right way. Our goal is for our partners, charity friends and their beneficiaries to feel better supported, represented, and understood. Therefore, when working with our partners, charity friends and with the wider charitable sector, we pledge to actively listen, use our voice, and where appropriate, offer our resources to provide support to our communities and those impacted by unfair treatment. We will champion their DEIB efforts and, if possible, provide advice and support arising from our own learning and through the experts we work with. In 2023, we will also launch a new DEIB & Sustainability Network for our partners to encourage collaboration and the sharing of knowledge, skills and resources.
We are placing a huge focus and resource towards ensuring that all our programmes – our grant-making, fundraising and volunteer brokerage, along with our actions, are as diverse, equitable and inclusive as they can be – while creating a sense of belonging too.
Further details of our commitments are contained within our DEIB Policy - here we have pledged to turn our commitments into action and periodically report on the progress we are making.
If you’d like to know more about our efforts, please reach out to Laurie Deans or Carla Mandis.
Sustainability & DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) Network
The Sustainability & DEIB Network is made up representatives from our local and national charity partners, who meet on a quarterly basis. The objective of the group is to:
- Share first-hand advice around anything DEIB related
- Sense check ideas with like-minded individuals/organisations
- Find new sustainable ways to save money
- Utilise each other’s knowledge to access sustainable free, subsidised or heavily discounted goods and services
- Learn more about established ways of recruiting and retaining diverse staff/volunteers
- Share ideas around supporting a diverse base of service users
- Find out more about how our partners support the mental/physical health of employees, volunteers and service users by following an inclusive and sustainable agenda
If you are interested in joining the Network, please contact Carla Mandis carla.mandis@zct.org.uk in the ZCT team.
DEIB Toolkit
The past few years have presented challenges for many charitable organisations. A global pandemic, the war in Ukraine, a worsening climate crisis and a multitude of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging "DEIB" issues. At the same time, charities have been grappling with recruitment and retention of staff, an increase in the cost of living, reduced household income and fundraising opportunities.
Against this backdrop, we've spoken to a number of our partners about their own DEIB journeys. Whilst some are fortunate to have staff dedicated to managing the delivery of their DEIB programmes, the majority tell us they simply don’t have the resources or expertise to manage this effectively.
With this in mind, we created the DEIB Toolkit to help our charity partners better understand how to approach DEIB within their organisations. The intention is to create a library of resources. This includes information about ZCT’s own DEIB journey and some case studies of our partners that have also embarked on new initiatives.