Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
Care4Calais (C4C) provides direct aid to refugees in France and in the UK. We support through on-the-ground assistance, and advocate for safe passage to the UK and refugee rights on arrival. We work alongside people seeking asylum to ensure they can access daily essentials, and fill gaps where state support is not provided. We are here for everyone attempting to navigate the complexities of claiming asylum in the UK – providing access to justice and practical, welcoming support. We also communicate to the public the need for action in support of refugees. Our vision is an inclusive society where refugees have a safe home and a bright future free from inequality.
Care4Calais is made up of people who are explicitly anti-racist and are committed to expelling all forms of racism from society and the refugee sector. We acknowledge, however, that as a charity we have much work to do in order to live up to our shared anti-racist values. We acknowledge there is systemic racism embedded within the charity sector, and we have unwittingly contributed to it in actions and words.
As a charity we are still evolving, and in undertaking our future work, we are focused on making diversity, equity, and inclusion part of everything we do—from how we raise funds and recruit our workforce, to how we work as a respectful community, including lived experience within our decision-making processes.
We recognise that conversations around diversity, equity and inclusion are intersectional; anti-racism forms one of the key focuses for the examination of our work, not least, as we see the impact racism and racist structures have on the people we support. Our work will include examining and challenging our policies, practices, communications and systems. We long to foster a workplace and charity which is safe for, and supportive of, all our staff, volunteers and those we work alongside, and we are committed to fostering a supportive work environment for people of colour and people with lived experience of displacement.
Moving forward we commit to reflection, learning and most importantly action.
Immediate pledges include:
- Anti-racism and unconscious bias training for all staff and trustees within 2 months of this document’s publication. We will use this training to inform our communications and processes.
- Recruitment drives for staff and trustees to be focused on increasing diversity of skills, backgrounds and lived experience, with immediate effect. We pledge to publish the demographics of staff and trustees within 3 months of this document’s publication.
- With immediate effect, place our DEI work as a priority when examining and challenging our policies, practices, communications and systems – so as to counter the inherent power imbalance found in our sector. For this work to feed directly into the creation of the charity’s Values Statement (which will be created by staff and volunteers).
- We pledge to publish updates to this statement every 3 months.
We also have a long and non-exhaustive list of other goals we wish to achieve. But coming from a place of humility, we look forward to using insights and knowledge gained through training to ensure our further aims are expressed and enacted in appropriate and helpful ways. We will also be working closely with people we support, volunteers and staff, on our approach – recognising that the views of those with lived and/or personal experience are central. The mechanism for sharing ideas and feedback internally will be given to staff and volunteers. For external suggestions please click here. We shall update this statement and share our learning.
We are encouraged and emboldened by the unified enthusiasm with which these plans have been called for, and met with, across the charity – we thank everyone for their invaluable input, solidarity and support.
This is a working, living document which should change and grow as we do. The spirit of this statement is to declare the important journey we are beginning, and to hold ourselves accountable to improvement.
All Care4Calais staff have contributed to this statement.