Mental Health Awareness Week will take place from 18-24 May 2020 hosted by the Mental Health Foundation with the theme of ‘kindness’. With this in mind we have chosen George Ezra as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the month.
Georgeis a singer, songwriter and musician. He first started supporting the mental health charity Mind after seeing friends and family affected by mental health problems. He then began experiencing anxiety himself after returning home from an intensive touring schedule and started encouraging his fans to donate to us throughout his UK tour in 2017. He has recently also opened up about his diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) on his podcast ‘Phone a Friend with George Ezra and Ollie MN’.
He has supported various initiatives including Time to Talk Day, Mind’s ground breaking partnership with the EFL and the Mind Media Awards.
George has held a number of fundraising shows for Mind at London’s Union Chapel and the Royal Albert Hall, raising over £170,000 to help fund vital services.
George was announced as an Ambassador for Mind in July 2019 in recognition of his outstanding dedication.
To find out more about Mental Health Awareness Week see here
World
Austim Awareness Day is on 2 April and with this in mind we have chosen Chris
Packham as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the month. Chris is a naturalist, nature
photographer, television presenter and author.
He
is particularly known for his work as a television presenter, which began in
1986 with the BAFTA-winning BBC1 children’s programme The
Really Wild Show and nature photography series Wild Shots on Channel
4.
Since
June 2009, he has co-presented the BBC Two nature programme Springwatch and its
sister programmes Autumnwatch and Winterwatch.
He
formed the production company Head Over Heels with producer Stuart Woodman,
making wildlife programmes for Discovery Channel, National Geographic,
and the BBC.
In
October 2017, he presented a documentary about his experience as a high-functioning
person with Asperger’s, ‘Chris Packham: Asperger’s and Me’ and at the same
time he became an Ambassador for the National Autistic
Society.
He
is vice-president of the RSPB, the Wildlife Trusts, Butterfly
Conservation, the Brent Lodge Bird & Wildlife Trust, The Wildfowl and
Wetlands Trust and Grace Secondary School (The Sudan) and a patron of many
others.
In
2011 he was awarded the Dilys Breese Medal, by the British Trust for
Ornithology, for his “outstanding work in promoting science to new audiences”.
In
December 2013, he was made an honorary Doctor of Science by the University
of Southampton, having originally graduated from the university more than 30
years earlier.
In
December 2014, Packham was voted “Conservation Hero of the Year” by
readers of Birdwatch magazine in association with the online
BirdGuides website for his work in publicising the illegal slaughter in Malta
of millions of migrating birds.
In
October 2016 he received a Wildscreen Panda Award for Outstanding
Achievement and in 2019 he was awarded a CBE for services to nature
conservation.
Would
you like to have a say in how the University:
Promotes equality, diversity and inclusion
Celebrates the diversity of its staff and students
Shapes its recruitment approaches to support diversity
Develops its training offer to support staff to advance their careers
Develops and delivers teaching and learning to students from diverse backgrounds
If yes, then how about joining
one of our Staff Networks. We are particularly keen for staff to join these
Staff Networks: Disability, Faith and Women’s Network.
Regular Staff Network meetings
will be held and will focus on planning work that helps promote diversity and
inclusion across the University. These networks will have a direct
communication channel to Senior Management through the Equality, Diversity and
Inclusion Committee.
Interested?
If you
are interested in being a part of any of these inspiring groups, please contact
Naseer Ahmad in the EDI Team on: n.ahmad@greenwich.ac.uk.
On 2 April it is World Autism Awareness Day and with that in mind we have chosen Rosie King as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month.
Rosie is a writer and public
speaker from Wakefield. She is currently studying creative writing at
university and wants to go on to teach and support people with learning
disabilities, as well as pursuing her career in writing, and speaking.
Rosie and her brother Lenny are
autistic and their sister Daisy has Kabuki syndrome. Rosie is passionate about
sharing their unique experiences of life and increasing public understanding.
Rosie has worked with the
National Autistic Society in various ways, starting when she was a teenager in the
Young Campaigners Group.
In the intervening years, she’s
spoken at Professional Conferences, led a Q&A on the Society Twitter
channel, and supported campaigns. Rosie has worked on many media opportunities,
including BBC Breakfast and the One Show.
Rosie is a passionate speaker who
offers a positive and thought-provoking insight into autism.
Parents and teachers should not “wrap girls in cotton wool”, an independent schools’ leader has said.
Girls were not victims and were stronger and more feisty than they were often given credit for, said Cheryl Giovannoni, chief executive of the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST).
Ms Giovannoni said girls should be encouraged to take the sorts of risks boys were more likely to take.
They should also be taught to say no and not always be willing to please. More
Oxford University is revealing the identities of more than 20 people whose portraits will be put on display to try to “promote greater diversity”.
It wants to redress the balance from the university’s walls being lined with pictures of “dead white males” by adding more women and ethnic minorities.
The portraits include broadcasters Dame Esther Rantzen and Reeta Chakrabarti.
Oxford’s head of equality Trudy Coe said it was “sending a signal”. More
