As our LBGT Youth Scotland Charter  journey is starting to come to an end, our Artistic Director Jenni Mason, took the opportunity to reflect on what our journey has been like, what we have learned along the way and what we would do differently if we were starting over.  We hope it might be useful for anyone considering doing the LGBT Charter themselves.  

We originally decided to do the charter as part of a wider EDI review of PACE in which we examined all aspects of our EDI work. Staff had previously raised concerns over not feeling equipped to support LGBT young people within PACE so we felt that doing the charter would be ideal way to address this and review all aspects of our work, with a particular focus on LGBT young people and staff.  

We didn’t know what to expect when signing up so we were glad to be partnered in a cohort with YTAS and Eden Court who were also undertaking their journey at the same point. If you can share your charter journey with others – it really helps as you can offer each other advice and support and share learning along the way.  

Our first staff meeting at the start of our charter journey was really interesting. There was a real passion amongst all staff for PACE to be as inclusive an organisation as possible and to ensuring that LGBT young people felt seen, supported and celebrated within PACE. But…there was also a nervousness, a fear of getting it wrong or doing or saying the wrong thing and that seemed to be impacting the action that we were taking both individually and collectively. We knew we were an inclusive/LGBT friendly organisation – but that was no longer enough and we knew we had to do better. We knew that doing the charter would force us to step out of our comfort zone and start turning thoughts into actions. This is one of the greatest parts of doing the charter – it forces you to stop thinking (or overthinking) about things and take action to make positive change across your whole organisation. And so our Action Plan was started and our charter journey began.  

One of the areas that came out strongly from that first meeting was that we wanted to get young people involved. PACE is their organisation and we wanted to put young voices at the very centre of our charter journey so we decided to form a young champions group. If you are doing the charter and work with young people, I think it’s an essential part of the journey. We appointed an LGBT charter lead, Senior Drama Practioner, Murray Keir to help build and steer the young champions group and the wider charter journey. Our first meeting with our young champions was enlightening to say the least – seeing our organisation through the eyes of young people is always incredibly useful and it was invaluable to hear their experiences, thoughts and ideas. They fed into the staff action plan and also created their own!  

One of the key areas of weakness identified by the young champions from the early sessions with young people was visibility. It was interesting to hear them say that they knew PACE was an LGBT friendly organisation (because they knew staff etc) but did the outside world know? Did those that that had thought about getting involved know? Did those that were new to the organisation know? Did our audiences know? Did our partners know? Did our members know who to turn to if they had issues or concerns? Did young people see themselves in the stories that we told? Did we celebrate the LGBT young people that we work with? As such our key action was to ‘GET VISIBLE’ – on our website, our social media, our spaces, though our staff, our events and our programming. It is not enough for us to say or know that we are LGBT inclusive organisation – we need to show the world that through action and we need EVERYONE to see it. We knew we needed to shout loudly about the work that we are doing.  

Now for the positives. What was really reassuring about the consultation from the staff session and the young champions meeting was that we were already doing way more than we thought. Our staff are passionate, kind and motivated to make our organisation as LGBT inclusive as possible, young people said they felt safe and welcomed at PACE, they knew it was a place where they belonged. They liked that we included LGBT stories in programming (although it would be good to see more). Staff already wore pronoun badges and pronoun sharing was already a part of sessions and groups. Young people said they felt comfortable being themselves and would be too happy to approach staff if they had issue. This really inspired us as it we felt we were in good starting position to build on this, shout about what we already doing and take action to do more.  

The charter helps you to look at all aspects of your organisation from policies and procedures to visibility online and in your spaces. It allows staff to take part in online training sessions and come together for a group training workshop which helps everyone feel more confident tackling LGBT issues and making meaningful change. There’s also so many fun bits like organising events and campaigns.  For us getting young people involved was the best part as they brought a real energy to the process. You can check out our separate blog for our charter highlights, challenges and top tips!  

As our charter journey comes to an end – it’s nice to reflect on how far we’ve come and how much the changes we are making are having an impact on our organisation and our young people. It’s nice to look back and see how far we’ve come and to reflect on the meaningful change that has happened over the last 18 months! A lot of small steps add up to some pretty big changes! We know that this is not the end of our journey and in the years ahead we will continue to work to improve our organisation to ensure that it is as LGBT friendly and inclusive as it possibly can be and that we support and celebrate all our LGBT young people and staff going forward.  

If you are just starting out – good luck – it will be worth it in the end!