During March, we are celebrating our very own Disability Awareness month, raising awareness of disabilities and long-term health conditions, and promoting accessibility services.
As a housing association with a social purpose, we are taking proactive steps to be a positive example of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) best practice within our communities and the wider built environment sector.
We are committed to being fair and inclusive, supporting diversity, and providing inclusion for all our customers and colleagues.
As part of our EDI strategy, we embrace and celebrate each other's differences, making our services accessible to everyone, so our customers and colleagues feel they are valued, and their voices are heard.
We are providing more support to our customers and colleagues through our colleague network groups, and are diversifying our workforce, as part of our commitment to creating an inclusive environment.
In October 2021 we became a member of the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower initiative – an initiative supporting people with a hidden disability, making the invisible visible, and helping them get the understanding, patience, and assistance needed when going about their daily lives.
As part of this initiative, people living with hidden disabilities or long-term illnesses can choose to wear a green lanyard, decorated with yellow sunflowers. Wearing the lanyard is a way for someone to discretely show that they may require additional support - this support could be anything from help packing their shopping, to extra time when boarding a train.
Our customers may see some of our colleagues wearing a blue sunflower lanyard when they are out and about in their community.
As an inclusive organisation and a Hidden Disabilities Sunflower member, we have created our own LiveWest sunflower lanyard, which our colleagues can choose to wear. By creating our own sunflower lanyard, we hope to promote greater inclusion for our colleagues living with disabilities and long-term health conditions.
To find out more about sunflower lanyards, visit the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower website.