Race Equality Matters is pleased to announce that Sported have been awarded The Big Promise solution Trailblazer status!

Actions speak louder than words. The Big Promise is a commitment to action, not just words. Individuals make a public commitment, which is measurable and to which they will be held accountable, to create a positive change. Participants choose from seven meaningful actions devised by our ethnically diverse community, forming a bridge between lived experience, investment, and decision-making.

69% of people have said The Big Promise will have an impact on race equality in their organisation and 78% say it will help make race equality everybody’s business. Additionally, 66% agreed that it was effective or highly effective in comparison to other DEI initiatives tackling racial inequality.

As well as now being successful Bronze Trailblazers, which you can read about here, Sported have also been awarded Trailblazers for The Big Promise solution. 100% of our Trailblazer judges agreed that they had successfully run The Big Promise and shown evidence of it and from the evidence, 80% of them said it was the type of organisation they would like to work for.

The Big Promise

Sported understood the importance of being committed to actions and not just words. Following on from Black History Month and the commitment they had made through pledges, they decided to continue the momentum of not only raising awareness further around race, but also taking steps for meaningful cultural and behavioural change.

To maximise staff engagement, the team running The Big Promise sent regular emails out to explain what it was, asking people to complete it and following up on it to ensure staff were getting involved. This was as well as the SLT taking the lead to complete their pledges first, which were shared internally and publicly, including through newsletter to thousands of members. This explained what they had done in Race Equality Week and how it could be useful for others to do the same.

The team also shared their personal experiences with staff to help make the issue of race equality more relatable and they asked colleagues to reflect on some of the activities and actions they were learning during Race Equality Week. Feedback from staff included: “I always have hope that the more educated we become, the more hope there is for the future” and “thank you for today’s task, which really resonated with me. I have the confidence to ask people how to pronounce their name but this has only been in more recent years… Still work for me to do and thank you for bringing it to my attention.”

Impact:

In a survey conducted, 86% of staff who completed it had taken part in Race Equality Week activities and this was the same for the SLT. When asked how The Big Promise had impacted staff and whether they felt more comfortable about topics on race equality, 100% of those who responded said yes. Furthermore, 100% of the SLT had completed The Big Promise and their progress was being tracked and held accountable. One-to-one conversations were planned or held with individuals who were not engaged to understand reasons why and rectify this.

Our Trailblazer judges liked the fact Sported publicly shared some of the pledges made and were impressed by the SLT buy-in and involvement, leading by example which no doubt helped increase engagement across the rest of the organisation. One commented that it was “an overall strong application” and they gave “excellent answers” to questions such as “why their organisation chose to run The Big Promise”, which explained their reasons well. It also “detailed the continued momentum gathered from running it.”

Follow Sported’s Lead: Become a Trailblazer

If your organisation is driving change for race equality and you can demonstrate impact, endorsement from ethnic background employees and share future plans; register your interest for the next round of Trailblazers on our website.