Case study
The Environment Agency, Diversity Week 2008
Each year the Environment Agency runs a national diversity campaign, examining the different strains of diversity, including disability, sexuality, age, gender and race. Diversity weeks’ aim is to increase staff awareness, understanding and support for diversity, and encourage Environment Agency employees to "think again” challenging any preconceptions or unhelpful stereotyping, which might lead to inequitable and unfair treatment of staff or colleagues.
As part of the national campaign, The Environment Agency’s Head Office in Bristol, organise a week-long programme of events during which it invites communities, internal and external groups and specialist organisations to contribute to the campaign. This year The Environment Agency retained Much Ado Events to assist in the creation and execution of Diversity Week 2008.
“Think Again” is the theme of Diversity week across the UK, so in keeping with that theme, Much Ado joined forces with the agency to invite a vast selection of presenters, speakers and theatrical productions into the Environment Agency to ensure that, for one week, staff and management alike were asked to ‘think again’ The week included a fantastic presentation about new communities in the South West including migrant workers, refugees and asylum seekers, run by qualified host Latif Ismail, who has spent many years working on migration issues with the Home Office, Local Councils and the National Crime Squad. The Arabic Sisters Association also joined the week, providing staff with a presentation on Islamic women in Western Society, which was delivered in a brightly coloured “Arabic themed” room, and offered some mouth watering Arabic delicacies.
Friday saw the week’s finale, with a provocative theatrical production, from The Garnett Foundation, which challenged the audience’s preconceptions of what it is to integrate into society, when you’re black, disabled, or male or female.
The Results
Much Ado Events, assisted in the creation of the event, ensuring that each strain of diversity was presented in an engaging and informative format, from local communities and foundations, ensuring the audience left each session, challenging their own and others preconceptions, and therefore “thinking again”.
Head of Communications Planning & Development, Robin Chatterjee, said of the campaign
"The Environment Agency is committed to increasing its diversity and ensuring that its staff and customers are treated fairly and inclusively, so Diversity Week is a really important internal communication campaign for us.
Much Ado Events were valued partners in making our programme of events happen. They helped develop a creative and sensitively-positioned programme that would really engage our staff. Following that they helped promote, organise and land events, working closely and responsively with key Environment Agency staff. They were very reliable and showed good attention to detail. And to cap it all, the whole programme was planned and implemented in less than a month. Feedback from our staff has been overwhelmingly positive."
Robin Chatterjee, Head of Communications Planning & Development. 07/03/08