Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Sharpham

16th April, 2025
by Katie Tokus | 4 Min Read
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Equality, diversity and inclusion are paramount at The Sharpham Trust

We are committed to providing an inclusive environment for all, here at The Sharpham Trust.

We recognise that inequalities are woven into the structure of society and that there will be barriers that might prevent access to our programme.

Although we don’t pretend to have all the answers, we are on a learning journey to ensure that our retreats and courses are widely accessible and that people who come to Sharpham feel welcome, safe and accepted for who they are.

See our Equality and Diversity page here and below, how (in this reporting year) we moved forward on our commitments to making The Sharpham Trust a warm and inviting place for everyone below.

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Equality, diversity and inclusion are paramount at The Sharpham Trust

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

Areas of work

We're working to embed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the following areas of our charity's activities and this work continued throughout 2024-25:

  • Strategy
  • Public relations and communications
  • Age
  • Disability
  • Identity, including gender, sexuality and ethnicity
  • Faith & belief

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

Public relations and communications

In this reporting year:

  • We ensured our equality and inclusion webpage was more visible on our website and easier to find
  • Our Communications Officer underwent training around improving communications with young people
  • Reviewed our website's imagery to ensure pictures used are representative
  • Commissioned content advertising our LGBTQIA+ retreats
  • Promoted our LGBTQIA+friendly weddings 

Age

In this reporting year:

  • We were successful in attracting funding to plant 5000 trees on the estate, incorporating young people
  • Hosted a new, free and sold-out tree-planting retreat for young people at The Coach House
  • Continued to promote 75% bursaries for young people to come on Barn, Coach House and Woodland retreats
  • Recruited younger teachers and coordinators to the team

Disability

In this reporting year:

  • We focused on neurodiversity and inclusive practice and resources at our Practitioners' Gathering
  • Offered retreatants with more complex needs the chance to bring an accompanying enabler free of charge

Identity, including gender, sexuality and ethnicity

In this reporting year,

  • Developed and applied an inclusive gender identity statement for men's and women's retreats
  • We 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,

  • 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