We’re delighted to share the news that we have been awarded the Silver Accreditation for LBGT Youth Scotland’s LGBT Charter.
Being awarded the LGBT Charter enables organisations to send a positive message, with confidence, that their organisation is a champion of LGBT inclusion where LGBTQ+ employees, volunteers, and service users will be safe, supported and included. The LGBT Charter makes a clear statement that equality and diversity are at the heart of their organisation.
We believe that as an organisation that works primarily with young people, we had a particular responsibility to ensure that all young people felt not only included in our organisation but also celebrated. While we have always felt that we were an LGBT inclusive organisation the charter has forced us to really look at what that means in detail – realising it is not enough just to know that we are. It has forced us to look at how the visibility of our LGBT work and how we better recognise, celebrate and support our LGBT young people and staff.
Over the past year, staff and our team of young champions have been working hard to update our policies and practice, provide staff training and resources, make our commitment to LGBT inclusion more visible in our spaces and online, created pathways to help participants access further support and developed a programme of campaigns and events in support of LGBT issues (amongst many other things).
In particular we’d like to recognise the contribution of our Young Champions; throughout, it was really important to us that young people’s voices were heard at the heart of the process. Their involvement has been inspiring, and created genuine change within PACE.
Whilst we are thrilled to have achieved accreditation, we will continue to develop this area of work and ensure that even when our charter journey comes to an end, our LGBT focused work does not. We hope that this is just the beginning of our journey to ensure that PACE is a safe space for all LGBTQ+ young people to be themselves, grow their confidence and achieve their goals.
You can visit our LGBT page for more information.
