Inclusivity Award: Recognising commitment to diversity

This year saw fantastic results for student groups involved in the inclusivity awards! Being inclusive is a core part of The SU’s missions and values and it’s incredible to see so many Student Groups striving to make their club and society an environment that everyone can feel a part of.

The Inclusivity award aims to develop an understanding of the barriers faced by underrepresented groups and make meaningful adjustments to ensure these groups on campus feel a sense of belonging within our Groups on campus. Some of the work done this year includes putting on alcohol-free socials to welcome non-drinkers, adjustments of activities and equipment for students with disabilities, and collaboration with our Faith and Cultural groups to encourage BAME participation.

Volleyball welfare and inclusivity officer 2018-19, Martin Enev said “The Inclusivity award was a huge success for the volleyball club. We set clear targets and managed to follow them throughout the year. I am very happy that for every inclusivity event we got involvement from our current volleyball club members. They were more than happy to host, and join in with events, and did a great job in introducing newcomers to our club”

Another particularly impressive Inclusivity Award campaign came from Bath Jets Cheerleading. This year, they led a campaign called ‘Lift Girls Not Weights’ to encourage more male participation in the female-dominated club. Talking about their experience, Gemma Everson, Bath Jets Chair 2019-20 said: “Striving to achieve the gold inclusivity award, pushed Bath Jets Cheerleading to think more creatively about how to include as many people as possible in the club and ensure everyone felt comfortable and confident to give cheer a try! Our hope for next year is to continue and build upon the increased participation of boys that we achieved this year!! We were very proud to receive the gold award and aim to continue this fantastic achievement in years to come!”

No matter how diverse your student group is, there’s always the opportunity to continuously develop and make your club or society a community that everyone can be a part of:

“As the new Welfare and Inclusivity Officer for Mountaineering I come into a club already recognised for the work that has been done to create a more inclusive culture. Achieving the Gold Inclusivity Award last year is fantastic achievement and provides me with motivation to work with the new committee to ensure that we continue to improve BUMC, with the ultimate goal of making the club truly inclusive and accessible to all members of the university. This year we will continue to work with other societies across campus, such as Enable, to get closer to this aim and I am excited to start implementing new ideas from September.” – Matthew Pembery, Welfare and Inclusivity Officer 2019-20, Bath University Mountaineering Club

Huge congratulations to all of the clubs and societies that got involved with the Inclusivity Award last year; you can find a full list of all of the achievements below