Five years on
In the five years since George Floyd's murder, it is legitimate to ask if anything has changed. The Guardian conducted a review of forty years of major reports into how to tackle racism in the UK to assess whether the over 600 recommendations made for changes in a wide range of contexts e.g. education, criminal justice, business, across 12 reports had been implemented.
Their analysis revealed that only a third had, with hundreds of actions being either ignored completely or put in place for a while before quietly being shelved.
It's shameful.
Professor Cantle, whose original work into community cohesion was published in 2001 following disturbances in some Northern towns, reiterates his call for a national strategy on cohesion, something that retells our national story of who we are today and who we want to be as a society in the 21st century. I agree with this.
Lord Woolley recalls the conversations he was involved in during the second half of 2020, being all of a sudden focused on how to fix racism rather than endlessly having to prove it exists. Sadly, the optimism didn't last. The Sewell report, published under the Johnson government, which claimed there was no evidence of institutional racism, even as Black people were disproportionately dying of Covid.
Here are reflections from Shabna Begum of the Runnymede Trust, recalling the vision of a more equal world that the Black Lives Matter movement allowed to be seen. A vision of liberation for all.
Yet, in 2025, we're in a place where politicians are being elected with mandates to dismantle diversity and equality work. Shabna calls on us all to remember that vision.
This week I've been developing leadership competencies for different levels of leader within an organisation, from frontline practitioner to board of trustees, tying in the values that the charity holds dear and exploring how those values inform ways of working for different job roles.
It's so important that organisational values don't just sit as a random list of words somewhere but are actually used for meaningful action and help to guide choices. I based the work on something I implemented when I headed up fundraising at VSO a while ago but I've brought it up to date and tailored it for my client.
It's been a very interesting piece of work and now I've got a template which can be adapted. Drop me a line if you'd like it
Day of the Week 📆
Five years of photographing George Floyd Square
What am I reading? 📚
I highly recommend A Bookshop of One’s Own: How a Group of Women Set out to Change the World, the story of Sister Moon, the iconic women's bookshop, written by one of its founders.
What am I watching? 👀
If you haven't watched Race Across the World, I recommend it. Pairs of friends, couples, sisters, brothers compete to reach different checkpoints overland with no access to phones, computers and a very limited budget.
This series they're travelling across Asia and I'm already planning a visit to some of the places they've passed through. We're rooting for Melvin and his brother, not just because he used to perform as an Elvis tribute act, Melvis.
What am I listening to?👂
"With equity, everyone wins"
Bami Adenipekun, an equity consultant with lived experience of breast cancer, shares her experiences and discusses equity and representation in cancer care in this podcast episode from Macmillan.
Joy-giving things 🗑️
There was a mobile rubbish collection up the road so we took our wheelie bin for a walk
And here's what my dad bought me for my birthday!
Wishing you all a great weekend. I think I might do some shredding.
Lucy
I write this newsletter because I believe in sharing progressive ideas that help us work towards a truly equal world.
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Thank you!
ChangeOut is created by Lucy Caldicott. You can find more about my work at ChangeOut.org. If you’re looking to have a chat about culture, leadership, purpose, equity, or a facilitated team discussion about any of those things, get in touch. You can also find me on Bluesky, Instagram, and, LinkedIn.
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