England Lacrosse are excited to announce the introduction of a bespoke Race Equality Project, in partnership with Sporting Equals, as a demonstration of our real commitment to promoting equality for BAME communities in lacrosse.
This comes after we initially signed the Sporting Equals Charter agreeing that greater progress, positive action, and outcomes were needed to ensure the organisation and the sport of lacrosse is able to create opportunities for, and benefits from, the wealth of diverse talent on offer.
Sporting Equals is an independent body that works to promote ethnic diversity throughout the sporting community and their Sporting Equals Charter directly encourages organisations to become an active part of delivering change in the physical activity sector.
Our bespoke Race Equality Project aims to deliver on six vital points, with Sporting Equals assisting us throughout:
Policy Review - Sporting Equals will carry out a review of selected key England Lacrosse policies, which will include a review of our recruitment policies, through a race equality lens and highlight areas for improvement.
Research Support - Sporting Equals will support and advise England Lacrosse in developing a regional inclusivity plan. Thank you to SEMLA for leading the way in this area as a trial region.
Report on Findings - This report will detail the findings of the policy review to provide England Lacrosse with policy recommendations for future implementation.
Manchester Project - Sporting Equals will provide campaign support to the Backing the Best campaign which is providing participation opportunities in Low Socio-Economic Groups (LSEG) wards of Manchester.
Recruitment Support - Sporting Equals will support England Lacrosse in its recruitment efforts to encourage applicants from diverse communities.
Marketing and Communications - Sporting Equals will provide document and training both from a national and local perspective to support inclusive communication.
As well as these more national points, we will also be working to promote our Race Equality Project on a regional level; this week marked the start of a series of meetings between Sporting Equals and the South of England Men’s Lacrosse Association (SEMLA) which focuses on increasing BAME participation in lacrosse.
England Lacrosse Chief Executive, Mark Coups, commented:
“England Lacrosse is committed to affecting real change within our BAME participation and workforce.
“We see working with Sporting Equals and creating this bespoke Race Equality Project as important steps towards achieving our goal of real change.
“We know this is a commitment that will touch every function of the organisation and will not be a quick fix.”
“Sporting Equals’ independent expertise will provide key advice on the actions we need to take to improve our sport and help us deliver on our commitment for change”.
The Chief Executive for Sporting Equals, Arun Kang OBE said:
“We are really pleased to be working with England Lacrosse and having them sign up as a Sporting Equals Charter partner.
“We are very happy to see such commitment from England Lacrosse to promote change within the UK sports sector to work with our organisation to make a more equal and inclusive space for sport and physical activity.
“We at Sporting Equals launched the Sporting Equals Charter in April 2019, as we felt that there was a need for our UK sports sector to commit to change and we know that we can support that change and indeed drive it.
“We really look forward to supporting England Lacrosse to assist them in becoming a more open, inclusive and diverse organisation”.
Further information about Sporting Equals can be found at www.sportingequals.org.uk.