REDP training @ LASS

At the LGBT Centre, Wellington Street, this morning to deliver a half-day's training on equality, diversity and human rights to staff and volunteers of the LeicesterShire Aids Support Service (LASS). We in REDP received a half-day's training in HIV and Aids awareness from LASS last year, so here we are returning the service.

This is the first time we've ever done this: all four of the Core Partners jointly delivering a session together. And it is just four of us - Dee, Ian, Iris and me - without support on the spot from of any of the office staff. We have become perfectly comfortable doing this sort of joint presentation now, having honed our shctick over the last few weeks at out regional Involvement Events and we feel secure with one another, even if we have to think on our feet and make last-minute changes. Dee and Iris have been doing this sort of thing together for years, I'm a relative newcomer and Ian's the latest additon, but we seem to work well together as a team in public.

The aims and objectives of our session are: to review the equality focus of the organisation; identify the protected characterisitcs within the equality legislation; define the equality terms located within the legislation; indicate the development of action plans (organisational and personal). None of these are peculiar to LASS of course and could be readily adapted for just about any organisation with which we'd be asked to work.

My particular contribution to the day is to lead an hour or so on our "Good Practice Equality and Diversity Healthcheck". For today's purposes, we've split that into six parts, each being one section related to what we're being encouraged to call the "protected characteristics": age, disability, gender and gender identity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation. We distribute this to the attendees and get them to work through one section, in groups of three. Their responses to this form the basis of an Action Plan which will more firmly embed equality, diversity and human rights within their organisation.