Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Sharpham

Our statement

We recognise that celebrating diversity, difference and relatedness is at the core of creating healthy communities and ecosystems.  We acknowledge that we have inherited habits, cultures and views that will sometimes result in unconscious bias, and we strive to uncover and undermine these.  Our programmes provide opportunities to cultivate mindfulness and compassion as ways to dismantle structures within ourselves, organisations and communities that may lead to marginalisation, alienation and suffering.  

Mindfulness has a special role to play in helping to undermine discrimination because the practice can help to foster

• a greater understanding and awareness of the interconnectedness of all life

• our ability to see and appreciate different perspectives and experiences

• compassion for ourselves and others

• a greater awareness of our own inherent prejudices and bias

Strategy

In this reporting year, we:

• Recognised where we could do better as an organisation and we identified priority areas and groups of people to work with: young people, team-training around gender identity and racial equity 
• Developed inclusive and welcoming words that are read out at the beginning of Sharpham Trust retreats in all of our venues

Identity, including gender, sexuality and ethnicity

In this reporting year, we:

• Launched a retreat at The Barn for a BIPOC audience, which filled up and led to further sold-out retreats. These retreats - a rarity in the UK - are now a regular part of our programme
• Recruited new leaders of colour to the team 
• Developed and applied an inclusive gender identity statement for men's and women's retreats
• Planned and launched our first Sharpham House Ease of Being retreat for LGBTQIA+ people - and it was almost full
• Organised and hosted our first ever focus group for our BIPOC audience to feed in ideas and observations
• Offered race-awareness training to our staff and mindfulness leaders
• Developed a proposal and budget for trustees to engage a consultant to help us communicate and interpret the colonial heritage of Sharpham House and Estate including art work and artefacts, books and our libraries

Faith & belief

In this reporting year, we:

• Hosted a mixed Christian and Muslim retreat for St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace - a Christian charity that works with people of all faiths and none, and has a multi-faith team and board of trustees

• Continued to emphasise that our retreats, courses and our natural burial ground at Sharpham Meadow are open to people of all faiths and none