‘Collective Anti-Racist Efforts’ (CARE) is an emerging project of the BAME Staff Network that aims to create community formations and safer spaces for BAME staff and students, as well as white allies, to collectively address institutional and interpersonal racism at the University.

It currently comprises the BAME Staff Network and its Advocacy Corps (BSN/AC), the LSU BAME Student Council (LBSC) and the Allied Anti-Racist Advocates (3A). 

The CARE leadership training will be a year-long programme facilitated by external organisation, Citizens UK, and will train two small core teams of predominantly BAME staff and students in Community Organising and support them to run an ‘Anti-Racism @ LU’ listening campaign for the institution. 

What is Community Organising? 

Community Organising is a collective method for social justice change that is rooted in three principal values: 

1. Power: We can achieve change by building our own power/capacity through numbers of people involved and negotiating with other power holders 
2. Self-interest: We act in the common interests of ourselves and those around us, out of respect for people, their dreams and where they are. 
3. Leadership Development: Never do for others what they can do for themselves. To do so is to deny their agency and power. 

These core teams will be trained in community organising principles and methods, with a particular emphasis on building the method into the culture of our organisation through institutional development.

They will also have an early view into the outcomes of the Race Equality Charter (REC) Bronze work and the plans for LU Race Equity Strategy (LURES), and share the information with the University community more widely through the ‘Anti-Racism @ LU’ listening campaign.

This listening campaign will gather staff and student feedback and prioritisation of work on the REC outcomes and LURES plans. Through this campaign, the core teams will recruit new leaders amongst BAME staff, students and white allies, to form sub-groups of BAME staff, students, and white allies located within Schools and Departments.

The resulting formations will work collectively with the rest of CARE to shape the LURES action plan, negotiate effectively with relevant decision-makers, and enable tailored changes in their Schools and Departments, in order to tackle systemic inequalities affecting BAME staff and students.

This is a fantastic opportunity to be part of something new and progressive that will potentially have a huge impact on the fight to eradicate institutional and interpersonal racism at the University now and in the future.

The Citizens UK training ethos is that community leaders are made, not born– which is why they invest so much time and effort into leadership development and training. They also believe that people learn best by doing, and the training will focus on putting the theory and the skills into practice.

Dr Angela Dy, Advocacy Lead for the BAME Staff Network commented:

“As part of the University’s commitment to being an anti-racist institution, it is vital that we empower BAME staff and students to set agendas and create change, no matter their job title or seniority. This leadership training is an important step towards this, and the BAME Staff Network are very happy to be working with the University’s Organisational Development team to make this happen.”

Places are limited, with each core group consisting of 12 people per cohort; however, there will be many other ways to get involved, such as through the Listening Campaign. 

The cohorts will be selected via a short application form, and participants chosen by the Citizens UK lead and the BAME Staff Network Advocacy Lead, according to the following criteria:

• The ability to work with others and to be self-motivated
• Explicitly anti-racist commitment and approach
• Distribution of representation in terms of BAME/white allies (aiming for 75/25% split) and across Schools, Departments, job families and grade levels

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Expressions of interest are open now with a deadline of 5pm, Monday 31^st May.

You can apply here.

You can read more about the time commitment and learning methods here. The first two training sessions will take place online from 11am-4pm on 30 June and 1 July.

If you have any additional queries, please contact Nadine Skinner n.e.skinner@lboro.ac.uk or Kate Mugglestone k.mugglestone@lboro.ac.uk in Organisational Development.