A “long overdue” project has been launched by UK Sport to improve gender diversity across elite sport.
It aims to more than double the number of high-performance female coaches by the Paris Olympics in 2024.
As it stands, 10% of coaching positions across UK Sport-funded British Olympic and Paralympic programmes are held by women.
The government agency aims to increase that to 25% within four years as part of a new leadership programme.
Paula Dunn (Para-athletics) and Mel Marshall (swimming) will be among a group of leading coaches who will guide other women as part of the scheme. More
20 November is Transgender Day of Remembrance and with that in mind we have chosen Annie Wallace as our Diversity Champion of the Month.
Annie is an actor from Aberdeen. A former National Youth Theatre member, she graduated from the Manchester Metropolitan School of Theatre in 2004 and has appeared in many theatre productions. As well as being a performer, Annie writes and records music and is a skilled sound recordist and designer.
Annie is a patron of Mermaids a charity supporting trans and gender diverse children, young people and their families. Mermaids started small but has now evolved into one of the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ charities.
On 29 October 2015, Annie made history by becoming the first transgender person to play a regular transgender character in a British soap opera when she debuted as school headteacher, Sally St. Claire in Channel 4’s Hollyoaks.
Since starting in Hollyoaks, she has been regularly listed in the prestigious Rainbow List, Pride Power List, Diva Power List, and the USA OUT100, as one of the country’s most influential LGBT people.
She is a staunch supporter of transgender children, young people and their families. Her advocacy has seen her appear on Celebrity Mastermind, with Mermaids as her charity of choice.
October is Black History Month and also on 16 October it is World Food Day. With that in mind we have chosen Marcus Rashford as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the month.
Marcus is a professional footballer who plays for Manchester United. He was bought by his mum who often struggled to afford food to provide meals for Marcus and his siblings.
The issue of food poverty for families and children had always therefore been something that Marcus was very keen to help with and he has been working with the charity FareShareUK to raise money to supply meals for 3 million vulnerable people. During the coronavirus lockdown the government insisted that food vouchers for families on free school meals would not be extended outside of term time so he decided to act.
He wrote an open letter to all MPs calling for the decision to be reversed. The letter drew on his own experiences growing up relying of free school meals and food banks. He asked that the government make the U turn to protect the lives of the most vulnerable which was not about politics but about humanity. In June 2020 it was confirmed that he had been successful in his quest and the government changed their mind and extended the scheme through the school holidays.
He has now formed a taskforce with some of the UK’s biggest food brands to continue the work to reduced child food poverty and backed proposals from the National Food Strategy, for an independent review of UK food policy. Marcus is confident that the group could help change lives for the better and is hoping that with a bigger team of experts he will be able to help more children.
We’re proud to be a signatory supporting this Stonewall campaign, along with over 100 other companies to urge the UK Government to make progress for the trans community.
As an inclusive university we fully support the public statement to say trans rights are human rights. We’re proud to show our support for trans people in our university community, and more widely in our local communities and across the UK.
You can consider writing a letter on behalf of your organisation to the Prime Minister and Women and Equalities Minister to outline your concerns about recent press reports, show your support for trans equality and urge the Government to give trans people the support and recognition they deserve. A template letter is included should you wish to use this.
You can find out more on Stonewall’s website and social media.
Khadjou Sambe, Senegal’s first female professional surfer, trains near her home in the district of Ngor – the westernmost point of the African continent.
I would always see people surfing and I’d say to myself: ‘But where are the girls who surf?'” says the 25-year-old.”I thought: ‘Why don’t I go surfing, represent my country, represent Africa, represent Senegal, as a black girl?'”
Reuters photojournalist Zohra Bensemra has documented Sambe’s training and her coaching of other girls and women. More
Youth Mental Health Day is on 7 September and with that in mind we have chosen Bella Ramsey as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month. Bella is an actress. She made her professional acting debut as the young noblewoman Lyanna Mormont in the series Game of Thrones; she is also known for playing the leading role of Mildred Hubble in the 2017 CBBC television series The Worst Witch and she is currently the voice of Hilda in the Netflix series Hilda.
Bella started acting as a hobby at the age of four, through Stagecoach Theatre Arts‘ Loughborough branch, which she attended for seven years, she then went to The Television Workshop, where she began auditioning for professional jobs with her first credited role being in Game of Thrones.
Bella is an Ambassador for the Young Minds Charity, a charity whose aim it is to make sure young people are given the best possible mental health support and the resilience to overcome life’s difficulties. She became an Ambassador because she is passionate about talking about mental health and destroying the stigma surrounding it and she wants to use the platform she has been given to have to help.
A Muslim woman who became an “unlikely spy” for Britain when she was dropped into occupied France during the Second World War has been honoured with a blue plaque at the site of her family home in London.
Noor Inayat Khan, dubbed “Britain’s first Muslim war heroine in Europe”, served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE) during the conflict.
Khan was born in 1914 in Moscow, but her family quickly moved to Bloomsbury in London’s West End at the outset of the First World War.
They then moved to France, where she looked after her mother and siblings following the death of her father.
However, in 1940, the family fled occupied France to Falmouth in Cornwall, where she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force and trained as a radio operator, despite her Sufi pacifist beliefs.
She was recruited to the SOE – which was set up by Winston Churchill – in 1943, and was then sent back to France as an undercover radio operator.
In October that year, she was arrested by the Gestapo – the secret police of Nazi Germany – after she was betrayed by a French double agent, who was reportedly paid to hand her over.
Khan was questioned by Gestapo agents, who managed to imitate her over the radio so as not to arouse suspicion, but she escaped along with other members of the SOE.
She was recaptured nearby and taken to a German prison, where she was shackled and interrogated. She refused to cooperate, and managed to scratch carvings of her address on to her bowl so other prisoners could identify her.
After 10 months she was taken to the Dachau concentration camp, where she was executed with three other women.
The English Heritage tribute will mark the London family home which Khan left for Nazi-occupied France.
Shrabani Basu, Khan’s biographer, is unveiling the plaque on Taviton Street in Bloomsbury.
“When Noor Inayat Khan left this house on her last mission, she would never have dreamed that one day she would become a symbol of bravery. She was an unlikely spy,” she said.
“As a Sufi she believed in non-violence and religious harmony. Yet when her adopted country needed her, she unhesitatingly gave her life in the fight against fascism.
“It is fitting that Noor Inayat Khan is the first woman of Indian origin to be remembered with a blue plaque. As people walk by, Noor’s story will continue to inspire future generations.
“In today’s world, her vision of unity and freedom is more important than ever.”
The plaque will be unveiled at the address that Khan etched on to her bowl while in prison, with a virtual ceremony broadcast on English Heritage’s Facebook page at 7pm on Friday.
Khan’s plaque comes after English Heritage admitted the number of women represented by the scheme is “still unacceptably low”, with only 14% of London’s 950 plaques representing women.
The charity said that “if we are to continue to see a significant increase in the number of blue plaques for women, we need more female suggestions”.
12 August is International Youth Day and with that in mind we have chosen Dante Marvin as our Inspirational Diversity Champion of the Month. Dante is a Young Ambassador for Variety, the Children’s Charity and Variety North West.
Dante was born with brittle bone disease and scoliosis. He has spent most of his young life in and out of hospital for treatment, including painful rod replacement surgery in his legs. But refuses to let it get him down. He tells everyone he meets: “There are no disabilities, only abilities.” It sums up the indomitable spirit of a youngster who inspires everyone he meets with his remarkable zest for life.
Dante first became involved with the children’s charity Variety when his mum Rachel asked for help to buy a new wheelchair. During the home visit, Dante dazzled the assessor with his optimistic outlook and she asked him to speak at an event.
His motto was a key mantra of his speech, which was such a success he now speaks regularly to audiences of adults to raise awareness while encouraging them to dig deep for the cause, helping to raise £30,000 for a Sunshine Bus.
Dante also visits other seriously ill and disabled children in hospital, not only bringing light and laughter to the wards, but also identifying children who could benefit from Variety’s support. He petitions the charity on their behalf for equipment such as lightweight wheelchairs and he’s even been known to do it when undergoing treatment himself.
His message to others is be resilient, be brave and never give up and just because you are disabled, you are no different to anyone else. Never forget that.”
This information is the first of many steps to start deeper and more honest conversations about race to encourage our students and staff to listen to the BAME members of our community, hear their experiences, and recognise how we all can do better, as individuals and as an organisation. More
