Black Lives Matter
“Representation is so important. For some communities their only representation of people like them is their family members...I’ve always felt I’ve had to doubly prove myself.”
-- Connect programme participant, 2020
At Telescope, our mission is to empower everyone to become changemakers and collaborate, building links between decision-makers and frontline experts. We take a careful approach to our programmes, aiming to co-design in an inclusive manner with our participants, while recognising the complexity of power dynamics.
Our approach has been primarily focused on the power dynamic between frontline staff and policymakers. In London, we’ve seen that staff in frontline services tend more often to reflect the diverse society we live in. Despite this, we recognise that without undertaking specific anti-racist actions within our organisation, we will fail to empower as diverse a range of voices as we wish.
Black Lives Matter protests worldwide, as well as the recent government report revealing the unequal impact of Covid-19, have prompted us to take action, both as individuals and as a team. These actions are overdue, and are only the start of our journey. Examples include:
Individual anti-racist reflection & commitments, including working through Layla F Saad’s Me & White Supremacy;
Arranging and facilitating anti-racist workshops & other workstrands in the roles we hold alongside Telescope;
Review of our team experience and ways to expand on the limitations of our own perspectives, both through advisory board positions and other expertise sought.
We’re spurred on by the fact that, as a small social enterprise, we have the opportunity to build our systems and processes on a truly anti-racist foundation. This will ensure we continue to fight for equality and dismantle the deep-rooted racism and inequality in our society as we grow our business and our impact.
Going forward, we are scheduling a team session to set objectives & next steps for our organisational anti-racist work. Areas of discussion will include:
Reviewing company policies to ensure they are explicitly anti-racist;
Building diversity targets into our long-term strategy;
Ensuring that, when we are in the position to employ people, we will do so in a fair and anti-racist way;
Holding space for regular conversations about structural racism within the organisation;
Expanding our network of mentors, partners and collaborators to learn from and support Black and PoC business people in our community.
We are sure we will make mistakes along the way, but we will be open and transparent about our work and are always open to learning. We will continue to bolster our commitment to anti-racism throughout Telescope’s work and impact, both in our immediate social impact sphere and more widely, throughout the policies we hope to influence via our wonderful participants and their future work.
Inspiration:
Tackling Racism as Accountable Business Leaders, Anthea Kelsick, Co-CEO, B. Lab US and Canada
How to make your business actively anti-racist, Impactful
Our commitment to tackling racism at Wellcome, Wellcome Trust
Black Lives Matter: Our commitment to tackling racism, Centre Point
