Scotland’s national agency for sport, sportscotland, has today announced a new partnership with the UK-wide race discrimination charity, Sporting Equals, as part of an ongoing commitment to tackling race inequality in sport and physical activity.
The three-year strategic partnership will focus on five key areas:
- Building trust and capability within the sport system in Scotland to make a positive impact in tackling race inequality and champion anti-racism behaviours and practices.
- Delivering and sharing sector-leading research and insight, that explores diverse, challenging topics in sport, physical activity, health, race, and governance.
- Advocating for ethnically diverse communities when it comes to sport and physical activity.
- Influencing the public, media and political agenda through a powerful and collaborative communication plan.
- Empowering and working in partnership with communities to lead and deliver change for themselves.
Chief Executive of sportscotland, Forbes Dunlop, said: “Our partnership with Sporting Equals sees us take an important step towards tackling race inequality across Scottish the sporting system.'' ''Sporting Equals bring extensive expertise in this area and will play a key role in strengthening our approach to equality, diversity and inclusion.'' ''At the same time, we will also look to further develop relationships at a local level ensuring that we both learn from, and support, diverse communities.”
Chief Executive of Sporting Equals, Arun Kang OBE, said: “Having worked in Scotland before at a local level we are proud to join sportscotland in this vital work. We bring extensive experience in creating solutions and changing perspectives.'' ''Through our partnership we will work to improve race equality in Scottish sport.”
The partnership will strive to increase levels of knowledge, awareness and understanding of the issues within sport and to give sports, clubs and communities the confidence to identify and tackle race inequalities and racism.
Sporting Equals will use their expertise, developed through their existing partnership with Sport England, to devise a detailed annual action plan. All the tools and resources will be tailored to ensure that they meet the specific needs of the Scottish sporting landscape and its diverse communities.
In addition, sportscotland will work closely with Sporting Equals to ensure that inclusion is at the heart of policy-making across the sector. The partnership strengthens sportscotland’s commitment to ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion in sport and physical activity across the Scottish sporting system.
