We have marked the 50th anniversary of Pride Month with a celebration event designed to encourage conversation and diversity amongst our customers and colleagues.
This month recognises the work of LGBTQ+ people, promotes education in LGBTQ+ history, and raises awareness of issues affecting the LGBTQ+ community, such as homophobia.
This year is a special year as it marks the 50th anniversary since the first UK Pride march in London on July 1, 1972.
LiveWest joined in to mark this by hosting an afternoon tea party to celebrate LGBTQ+ communities.
The SAGE (Sexual and Gender Equality) group hosted the tea party, on June 16, to bring people together and create an inclusive event that celebrates the month of Pride.
Charlotte Bond, our SAGE group lead committee member, said: “The SAGE group wanted to put on some events through our office regions to see a coming together of colleagues and showcase our hard work towards promoting pride in the workplace.
“The tea party was a success and saw lots of colleagues get together to celebrate. We met lots of new faces and it was great to feel supported.
“We had the Hub put on some lovely food and we had our very own member, Fred, put his baking skills to the test, which went very well.”
The SAGE group are a group of colleagues who all have an interest in the LGBTQ+ community and making the workplace more accepting and visible.
The group currently has only representative from members who are within the LGBTQ+ community, but welcome allyship also.
Charlotte Bond said: “It’s important to highlight that we're is an inclusive employer who celebrates key dates within the LGBTQ+ community. It’s also important to us to show external agencies and customers that we are proud to celebrate this.
“The SAGE group meet regularly to discuss key dates we want to celebrate and raise awareness for.
Daniel Pritchard-Tagg, our SAGE committee member, said: “It’s great that LiveWest is celebrating Pride month and I thought it was a success for the business to get involved with it.
“I loved the turn out and the photos taken – we had fun outside.”
Jennifer Pulsford, our Inclusion, Wellbeing and Reward Manager, said: “The upward mentoring that the SAGE group provides LiveWest is so important to the success of our inclusion agenda.
“We ask them to look at ways we support colleagues and provide a service to our customers through the lens of their lived experiences, which has resulted in real and impactful positive change for those from the LGBTQ+ community.”
We joined housing provider, Coastline Housing, for a charity football match on June 24 at Cambourne College, with proceeds going towards Ukraine LGBTQ+ charities.
By recognising important campaigns, such as Pride month, we're proud to celebrate diversity and have conversations to help learn and make positive change going forward.
Charlotte Bond said: “We hope the SAGE group will help encourage everyone to feel they can be who they truly are in the workplace without any fear of judgement or prejudice.
“We hope we can promote to any newly interested applicants that this is a place to work.
“We also hope to reduce the number of colleagues who do not prefer to say on their sexuality as this would be a very positive achievement for the group and LiveWest. We want everyone to feel open to do this, not just in our work environment but in others as well.”