22/09/2025
National Inclusion Week is an annual event that takes place in September every year.
This year the theme was "Now is the Time" a useful prompt for organisations of all sizes to stop and think about how the embed inclusivity into their organisations day to day business.
For charities and community groups this is of particular importance as many are community-based and serving diverse populations, ensuring inclusion is part of service design has the benefit of improving your reach and impact as well as your status as trusted and safe services within the community.
Alongside recognising the vital role inclusion has on outcomes and impact there can often be the corresponding recognition of tight budgets and staff at capacity but inclusion does not need to be time consuming or costly. Here are some simple low-cost ways to start making inclusion a natural part of your charities culture.
1. Start with Conversation:- talk to your team including trustees and volunteers about what inclusion looks like for them and create a safe space where people can raise concerns or ideas in confidence.
2. Review your policies and procedures:- Aside from having a clear policy on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion you should also look at policies such as safeguarding, recruitment and volunteers through an inclusion lens, are their hidden barriers?
Make sure your language is accessible and that different formats are available for your audience as appropriate.
3. Be open, transparent and proud of inclusivity:- Let people know about your approach to inclusivity so they feel confident in access ing your services or volunteering with you. Add a inclusivity statement to your website and literature that communicates your approach without anyone needing to ask!
4. Make meetings inclusive: - Take simple steps like providing meeting papers in advance to allow everyone time to review and prepare, avoiding jargon, providing a glossary of acronyms and unfamiliar terms and checking venues are accessible to all.
5. Provide Training and Awareness:- Share free online resources this can include from trusted sources like the Essex Safeguarding Adults and Children's boards or NCVO
6. Reflect diversity in your community:- Use images and stories that reflect your local community in your promotion and consider accessibility in promotional activities such as clear fonts, adding alt test to images and checking colour contrasts.
