Tracy Allison, West Kent’s Chief Executive said, “Black History Month gives us an opportunity to celebrate the rich culture of our colleagues, residents, and communities. This year’s theme is ‘action, not words’, which resonates with me as I have been challenged over the last year to become more of an ally, both personally and professionally. Both the board and I are clear that we want to focus on taking action to make a difference on how we deliver our services and work together with residents to listen and act upon their feedback. Our work on this is being overseen by our equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) group made up of both staff and board members."
"The work of the EDI group has been at the forefront of change for West Kent, from changes to internal and external policies, through to understanding our diversity data better. This has been supported by our partnership with the Housing Diversity Network (HDN), who have helped us to analyse the DNA of West Kent from an EDI perspective. One key example of this would be our Resident’s Engagement Strategy, which is all about better understanding and celebrating the diversity of residents and using their feedback to tailor programmes fit for all. By working strategically through our EDI plans with HDN we are better able to tailor our services to staff, residents and communities to be more reflective of the society we would like to live in, rather than the one we currently are.”