Longhurst Group Director chairs anti-racist organisation event with David Lammy MP
14 June 2021
Our Director of Community Investment, Charmaine Simei, recently chaired an event with David Lammy MP.
Entitled ‘How to be an anti-racist organisation and what that means for the housing sector’, the session was held by the Racial Equality Group, of which Charmaine is co-Chair and was set up by The Centre for Excellence in Community Investment.
This was the first in a series of events that the Racial Equality Group are hoping to run across the year and they were delighted to be joined for this, their first session, by the Right Honourable David Lammy, MP for Tottenham.
The event was well attended, with over 300 delegates from across the country tuning in to focus on how organisations can be anti-racist and what this looks like in practice for housing associations.
Charmaine said: “It was a great honour to chair such an event, on what was the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death.
David Lammy is one of the most prominent parliamentary campaigners addressing racial disparity and social injustice within the UK today. His body of work is both extensive and inspiring.
“I’m delighted with how many organisations from across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales attended the event - from front-line staff, to finance and development colleagues to CEOs and Board members.
It was an endorsement that the sector is still committed to push for change and improvement, and that the statements made last summer are still ‘live’ documents.
“I was very proud of the sector that day, coming together, to listen, be uncomfortable, but ultimately to learn.”
This comes on the back of the news that we were recently awarded our conditional Investors in Diversity accreditation at the National Centre for Diversity FREDIE awards.
The Investors in Diversity Award is recognised as the national equality standard and shows that we put the FREDIE standards at the heart of everything we do.
In addition, we were placed at number 21 in the Top 100 Most Inclusive Workplaces 2021.
We’re very proud of this fantastic achievement which is the result of a lot of hard work and effort put in by everyone, especially colleagues in our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group.
If you would like more information about the Racial Equality Group, please email adam.chester@hact.org.uk.