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Press Release

UnLtd, Big Issue Invest and Social Value UK to launch free diversity, equity and inclusion toolkit for social entrepreneurs

Big Issue Invest (BII), UnLtd and Social Value UK (SVUK) are excited to announce a new partnership to co-develop a toolkit to support social purpose organisations (SPOs) to measure and manage their approach to organisational Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices, policies and goals.

The project has been funded by the Big Society Capital Ideas For Impact programme and the first iteration of the toolkit will be launched in April 2022.

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Toolkit (DEIT) aims to provide social enterprises and charities with the tools and guidance to assess and set plans for achieving their DEI goals. This open source toolkit will also support these organisations to embed inclusivity into their organisations by facilitating continuous learning and implementation plans.

This toolkit is being developed to support the sector with best practice on approaches to improving DEI within SPOs, as well as looking at how equitably services and products are being delivered to the communities they are working with.

The toolkit also aims to standardise the way we measure and manage DEI, building on existing frameworks and the work many others have done across the sector to improve inclusivity, push for diverse voices to be heard, and create space for genuine representation.

It builds on the work already being undertaken by UnLtd and Big Issue Invest as they work towards becoming an anti-racist organisation and creating an equitable sector.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

Mathu Jeyaloganathan, Head of Investments at UnLtd, commented:

“We know many social purpose organisations are committed to doing better when it comes to diversity, equity and inclusion but they don’t always know how to address their own blind spots and commit to action. We are going on this journey ourselves as organisations so we know there’s no quick solution. We are hoping this toolkit, co-created with social entrepreneurs who are doing it well is a resource that can do exactly that.”

We will be sharing more information on this early in the new year so please look out for more from us soon. If you have any questions on this project please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Rhea Fofana at rheafofana@unltd.org.uk or Chloe Tye at chloe.tye@bigissueinvest.com

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

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