Social justice and inclusion

Lou Mycroft's picture

The Identities Programme at The Northern College 2015

Last year, as The EDIF2013-14 Diversity Programme drew to a close, we knew it wasn't over.  Our thinking continued over the summer, and we were delighted to be able to continue the work into 2015.  Here is what we learned from The Identities Project:

IDENTITIES FINAL REPORT 

Screenshot showing the front cover of the final report of The Northern College Identities Programme  (2014/15) one of the Skills Funding Agency/ECU Good Practice fund Projects (2014/15)

“I’m a different teacher now.  I resist the labels; the pigeon-holing; the merging of ‘equality and
diversity’ into something meaningless, about ticking a box.  As Audre Lorde said ‘There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle, because we do not live single-issue lives.’”

Identities Programme participant

Dan Simons's picture

EDIF projects working with Forum for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Equality in Post-School Education

Yesterday, we brought together a group of colleges and training organisations leading Equalitydefinition and Diversity Innovation Fund projects, with members of the Forum for Sexual Orientation and Genderdefinition Identity Equality in Post-School Education (https://sgforum.org.uk/), to share resources and ideas, and to offer support. Excitingly, this year we have eight EDIFdefinition projects focussed on sexual orientation and gender identity equality, more than ever before. Details of all the projects are available at http://www.equalitiestoolkit.com/content/explore-edif-sexual-orientation-projects and http://www.equalitiestoolkit.com/content/gender-reassignment-projects.

 

I found it particularly inspiring to meet three of the learners involved in the projects. One young woman spoke eloquently about her experience of coming out as bisexual at school, and then as pan-sexual at college. She discussed the challenges of overcoming cyber-bullying and harassment, and her aim of setting up peer-to-peer mentoring and support groups to help others. This seemed to me a great model of learner involvement.