OVERVIEW
In an address to the United Nations in 2014, Emma Watson asked "How can we affect change in the world when only half of it is invited or feel welcome to participate in the conversation?".
This contextualises the gender debate very well but when it comes to the bigger picture - intersectionality, race, social, economic, gender, allyship, unconscious bias and stereotyping, the conversation is even more fragmented and uncomfortable. The people who are talking about these things tend to be speaking with each other, it’s very difficult to engage a broader audience. People are worried about causing offense or saying the wrong, so opt instead to stay silent. There are conversations people want to have, but can’t and conversations that should be had but aren’t. To really invoke change we need to engage society on a wider level, getting those who aren’t thinking about, or talking about equality to take part in the conversation.
This is the problem we’re looking to solve.
‘How do we involve the whole world in conversations that can lead to change?’
We believe if we can even make one person feel seen or heard, or another person question their perspective, we can make a difference.
To achieve this we have come up with a programme which takes a two pronged approach. Firstly, we work with adults, building awareness and understanding of subconscious biases and limitations that are We have developed the 4E model:
Engage
Empower
Educate
Enable
Our Mission
Together Equal aims to create equality in the workplace by creating conversations that build and challenge awareness of the inequalities prevalent in society.
What do we do?
We have a two pronged strategy, working simultaneously ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’.
‘Top down’
Corporate Workshops
We make EDI simple by offering a menu of workshops exploring different aspects of EDI at work helping people to understand their own unconscious biases and micro aggressions and understand the importance of allyship, intersectionality, social mobility and representation. Our workshops are hands-on, working with 20> people and specially developed to give them the tools to be able to run the same workshop independently.
We also offer ‘All Hands’ sessions on the same topics which give a higher overview for bigger groups of people (70>)
‘Bottom up’
School Programme
We work with Primary School children to help them navigate gender, social and familial stereotypes. It’s a 10-week programme with a 45-minute class each week, focusing on building children’s self-esteem, self-confidence, conflict resolution skills, challenging stereotypes, understanding healthy relationships, building communication skills and helping them to feel connected to their families and community. It’s aligned with the KS2/KS3 PSHE and Citizenship curriculum.
These are free to schools, funded by our corporate workshops and sales of our conversation cards.
Objectives
Schools
Engage primary school pupils before societal stereotypes are fully ingrained to reinforce the fact on an individual level that everyone deserves an equal chance for success - and that includes the pupil themselves.
Empower primary school pupils to give them the confidence to freely express themselves and be able to process positive and negative thoughts, perceptions and feedback constructively so build a resilient generation ready to fulfill their full potential
Educate participants about how they can contribute to building equality
Enable primary school pupils to have meaningful conversations with their friends and family - and understand that a conversation is as much about listening and channeling other people's opinions as expressing one's own
Corporates
Engage invested individuals and empower them to drive meaningful conversations with their team and beyond
Empower individuals to address equality, diversity and inclusivity internally by creating an engine and safe space for conversations
Educate participants about how they can contribute to building equality
Enable organisations to demonstrate how much they value their staff through EDI raising activities
OUTCOMES
SCHOOL PROGRAMME
Quantitative
3 schools
60 hours
180 Pupils
83% of students reported feeling more confident in themselves, their identity and their strengths
70% felt able to challenge negative thoughts
76% of pupils felt they had become more respectful of others opinions since taking part in the workshops
Qualitative
Teachers Feedback
‘The kids had their first session today and I just wanted to tell you how impressed the teachers were!’
‘The content was pitched perfectly and Sarah was amazing - really engaged the children and made them feel relaxed. This meant they were able to talk openly and honestly’
‘Thank you for providing what is shaping up to be such a positive experience for our children’
‘It’s fantastic how your program opens conversations for children’
‘It’s wonderful how much the children have taken out from your workshops, we’re only a few weeks in and we’re noticing they’re already taking a step back and think about things before they say them’
‘The children have really come out of their shells when talking in an open group. In the beginning there were a few who would sit quietly and watch but as time has gone on they’ve realised there are no judgements and they are now starting to join in with the others.’
CORPORATE WORKSHOPS
Quantitative
4 x workshops
60 attendees in total
25 attendees trained to lead sessions in the future
12 trainer sessions delivered
Empowering the company to deliver the learnings and not have to rely on Together Equal if they didn’t want to
4 x All hands
800 attendees in total
Qualitative
‘Brilliant session, thanks, really helped me learn about myself and my bias etc’
‘Gave me confidence to speak up for others in allyship mindset’
‘Felt special to be a part of a company that championed inclusivity in such a practical and supportive way’
‘I feel it’s easier to talk to my colleagues’
‘Felt I had a recognised validity in the company as everyone is encouraged to speak up and be heard’
‘Thank you, I’ve learned a lot about myself as a human being today’
‘All the sessions were recorded so I could go back and refresh my memory when it came to leading my own session’
Participant Recognition
1 x participant nominated for ‘Ally of the Year’ in the Black Tech Awards 2023
LEARNINGS
Schools
Our school program, while aligned with KS2 PSHE curriculum, is an enrichment activity, not ‘free teaching’. We need to make this clear with schools. To that point we have explored a ‘train the trainer’ scenario which we will be piloting at the end of 2022. Feedback expected summer 2023.
CORPORATES
Offering
We initially launched with a proposition where we could help businesses to create meaningful, sustainable, actionable, measurable EDI programs. We offered strategic consultancy to help businesses to develop a robust EDI strategy and framework for execution but soon realised there was no product market fit. What people teams need are simple, accountable, off-the-shelf solutions which enable them to easily address EDI in the workplace. This is why we have created a ‘menu’ of off-the-shelf workshops which they could pick and choose from, which can be delivered in a timely manner.
Amplification
We need to find a long-term solution to measure the additional workshops run by people we have trained so we can have better visibility of our impact.
2023-24 OBJECTIVES
Repeat success of 4x corporate workshops over 12 months
Extend primary school programme to reach 240 pupils 2023-24
Build brand awareness
Increase site traffic by 26%
Build pipeline of incoming requests for school/corporate information (currently all opportunities created are outbound)
Triple sales of conversation cards YOY
Accounts available on Companies House
