By Roberta Fusco, head of influencing at ACEVO
This is the second blog in a three-part series. We recommend reading the introduction and part three for the full picture.
Momentum matters
Back in October 2022 when we started the Home Truths 2 programme at ACEVO, we knew we had to bring anti-racism into the heart of our mission and go beyond thinking about diversity alone. As a joint effort with colleagues from Voice4Change England and ACEVO and under the expert direction of Dr Sanjiv Lingayah, our challenge was to take Home Truths 2 from an idea and bring it to life. The intention was to create a multi-strand programme of activity to support senior leaders and embed anti-racism and race equity into our work and organisational practice at ACEVO. The energy and urgency from across the sector to take meaningful action felt powerful and there was no time to waste! But systemic change is not progressed through moments of attention.
Taking anti-racism to heart
The need and responsibility to make tangible progress and to connect anti racism to the purpose of civil society and its leadership is as urgent now as it was in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020. But many have witnessed and felt the shift in attention away from anti-racism in these times of ‘permacrisis’. Home Truths 2 encourages and supports leaders to view race equity as a core part of who we are and what we do in civil society.
As Frances Brown, in her latest video for Home Truths 2 says, the task is to move beyond the performative toward the transformational and this is where courageous and consistent leadership must step up.
Learning and unlearning
Over the past two years of bringing Home Truths 2 to fruition, we’ve worked differently as a project team and often uncomfortably, to learn and unlearn, to listen and highlight voices that do not always get mainstream platforms. We used our respective networks to bring together community in safe spaces and to take care of ourselves and our peers through the process. From re-writing standard freelance contracts to better reflect anti-oppressive practice, to delaying the start of the Further Faster element of the programme to ensure that it was expertly, fairly and equitably designed, to the co-development of the Anti Racist Companion Journal, we aimed to use our power to embed anti-racist practice in how the programme was delivered. We also acknowledge that we didn’t always get it right and we learned along the way.
Sustain focus
ACEVO’s CEO, Jane Ide, alongside other mainstream sector leaders embarked on the year long programme of personal learning and reflection on anti-racist leadership practice through the Further Faster thread of the programme. The cohort members are now working to bring all that they learned into their leadership practice in their organisations. And for ACEVO, like many others, this is not the work of moments and quick fixes but will need sustained focus.
The latest ACEVO strategy places anti-racism and race equity at the heart of our values, our thinking and our work, as an overarching commitment, rather than a time bound initiative. We’re working through tangible actions, which include a total revision of our EDI Action Plan that was published in 2020 and ended with the previous strategy. Team away days presented whole team training on a range of inclusion and anti-racist practice. Operational plans will reflect and embed anti-racist practice in our projects as we go forward. At every step, ACEVO will ask how we can use our power to make change.
Keep on moving
We know we won’t always get it right, we know we will need to continue to be open to learning and unlearning and to coming under just criticism when we get it wrong or don’t move fast enough. But we also know that stopping is not an option. Our society depends upon it. If our aim is social justice our mission as leaders cannot fail to include anti-racism as a driving force.
To be anti-racist is a continuous practice. The insights, resources, and connections built through Home Truths 2 form a foundation and launch pad for further action. Change comes from sustained attention, courage to confront uncomfortable truths, and a commitment to act—personally, collectively, and institutionally.
And so, we will keep on moving.