Black Lives Matter
We stand in solidarity with the black community, in the UK and across the world, as well as the wider BAME community. The unjust murder of George Floyd has been a catalyst in shaking the world and awakening an acknowledgment that things need to change.
We have worried for too long about what to share in response, for that we apologise. We wanted to avoid putting out an empty statement with no action, but recognise silence is not an option. With that in mind we have been educating ourselves, listening to black voices and trying to understand our own, mostly unearned, and unacknowledged, social advantage as two white people. We have reflected on the power and privilege we hold as individuals and as a business and we have created a plan for how we can influence positive changes.
Organised Fun specialise in Student Opportunities, it is our responsibility and within our power to act in this area. We believe Student Opportunities are powerful and hold the possibility to create real change. We want students from all backgrounds to get involved and we want Student Opportunities to continue to be led by those with differing experiences and motivations to positively impact the world.
The world of Student Opportunities is not immune to structural inequalities. Many students face barriers to participation that are vast, complicated, and difficult to remove or reduce.
As the home for Student Opportunities in the UK, we see it as our responsibility to take a lead on this. Therefore, we are starting a research project on structural inequalities within Student Opportunities. A primary focus of this research will consider racial inequalities within Student Opportunities.
Today we don’t even know how many students take part in Opportunities let alone the diversity of the people involved and what their experiences are. The findings of this research will allow us to learn, know the facts about students’ actual experiences, and take meaningful action.
We recognise the limit of our knowledge and seek support, advice and partnership from other organisations and individuals. We would like to work with BAME individuals and organisations with expertise in equality, diversity, and inclusion. To get started we’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. You can submit these here and there’s an option in there to get more involved or arrange a conversation with us about this.
Whilst the research plan develops, we will continue to promote equity and tackle inequalities within our existing work:
The Student Opportunities Framework theme of ‘diversity’ is our priority for development. We need to have more solid solutions for students’ unions looking to tackle inequalities. The Framework is designed to be a development tool and a standard of excellence in Student Opportunities. Equitable opportunities are fundamental to ‘excellence’.
The National Societies & Volunteering Awards 2020 included the ‘Opportunities for All Award’. This category will be included in the 2021 awards. This category had the fewest nominations compared to any other category, so we will run development activities before the nomination period to support societies and volunteering groups to create opportunities for all.
We acknowledge that the speaker line up for the Student Opportunities Festival could be more diverse. In any futures events similar to we will ensure there are practical sessions regarding tackling inequalities and we will work strategically to have diverse panels and speakers.
Our understanding of inequalities is limited. We will invest in development activities to improve our knowledge as a team.
We acknowledge our privilege. Despite being two anti-racist individuals who strive for equality, we acknowledge that prior to the most recent movement, we did not do enough. We will continue to read, learn, listen, and educate ourselves in our anti-racism work with the intention of improving our sector. We will continue to work to dismantle the structural inequalities around us to ensure Student Opportunities are for everyone. We will update regularly on how the research is going and what’s happening next.
Thank you for reading.
Organised Fun