Over the last year, – our staff team and Board members have been reflecting on how People Voice Media and as team members we can address systemic racism and be actively anti-racist. It is clear to us that simply not being racist is not enough.  We carefully looked at the make-up of the people who work at and lead our organisation, and the project partners we have and who is generally involved in our work – and the numbers spoke for themselves. At all levels there is an over-representation of white people involved. We recognise this needs to change and we agreed to commit at a team and leadership level to do work in this area, although we didn’t know where this work would lead us. 

Using the framework above has helped us to think about how where are we now and as the people who make the organisation where we would like to and recognised as actively anti-racist. Whilst we have never denied racism is a problem is a society, we had previously not fully acknowledged our role as an organisation in not actively and strongly enough seeking to dismantle the structures than perpetuate systemic racism and in being actively anti-racist. We have been in the zone of ‘not being racist’ and offering ‘equal opportunities’. We now see that this passivity is part of the problem and have and will continue to make moves both internally and externally to address this.

Our aim is to reach the Growth Zone and remain consistently in it. Yet our experience of becoming anti-racist is that it is not a linear journey with an end point. Parts of what we have been doing is situated in the learning zone – educating ourselves, having the uncomfortable conversations – and within the steps we have taken as individuals and as an organisation we are seeing glimpses of the growth zone – we have begun to surround ourselves with others who think and look differently than us. 

Reaching the Growth Zone doesn’t mean our work will stop. Being actively anti-racist is an on-going process. Therefore, rather than have an anti-racist policy or set of pledges that are static, we are instead going to:

• keep consistently reviewing what we are doing in this arena
• seek feedback and input from others on what we do
• be transparent about our work in this area and open ourselves up to accountability and challenge from ourselves, people in and external to our network and the general public. This blog post is the start of this. 

So, what changes have we been making and currently working on? 

• Working on including anti-racism work as a core part of our Community Reporting training and aligning anti-racism to our core purpose and values.
• Take responsibility for anti-racism in the spaces we have created (or are a part of) by actively challenging instances of racist behaviour, both conscious and unconscious, and not leaving it to others to do.
• Recognise and acknowledge the lack of diversity within our own team and seek to address this. (We’ve made a great deal of progress here at a leadership level via the Board and also in our Freelance Crew).
• Recruit people of colour, LGBTQ+ people, and other minority groups not only on projects related to their identity. (Again, hopefully you have seen some changes here already as well).
• Represent more clearly the diverse communities we work with in our communications and resources. Ensuring that we represent the people we work with in the visual content we gather, use and share. (Another area that we’ve had feedback that people have seen a different already). 
• Widening these discussions to include the Community Reporter Network, seeking critical reflections and challenge, and input into how we become actively anti-racist.

What next?

We want to be transparent and accountable for our work at becoming actively anti-racist, and so that we are not in ‘our own bubble’ we feel it’s important to share what we our doing with people. To do this we will:

• provide regular updates through blogs like this on our actions, progress, and commitment to anti-racism
• have anti-racism work as an item on our agendas at all team meetings and Board meetings
• continue to create spaces for anti-racism conversations to happen in both 

             internal and external meetings.

The feedback and input we’ve had so far at a recent Community Reporters’ catch-up has been positive and powerful, with people saying how important it is to have a place of support and solidarity for people to come together to discuss, offload, and support each other. This input has directly fed into a piece of work we are developing to support people from Black and minoritized backgrounds in co-production environments, which are indisputably very white spaces.

How can you help us?

We welcome critical reflections and challenge, as we are aware that we will mistakes on this journey. This will help us to transition from the ‘fear zone’ when you share these with us!