Through a wide range of presentations and interactive techniques, we provide practical diversity and integration training for staff in organisations, schools and universities.
We offer information and advice on issues related to diversity for parents and carers linked to schools and work to support all institutions in building a climate and curriculum that more fairly reflects our diverse society. We lead groups of young people and teams of adults to celebrate their differences and seek the commonalities between them.
For all organisations we specialise in providing opportunities to meet refugees and other migrants, and to hear their stories. These first hand experiences help them discover that positive views on diversity develop personal well-being and build cohesive, creative, achieving, healthy communities.
What we offer
Our training model is enhanced by a wide range of creative and interactive activities based around diversity. These are aimed at demonstrating the inclusive values that unite all humanity. Through presentations and workshops we help organisations generate new knowledge and understandings and generate strategies to sustain a supportive, motivated, creative workforce. Our training will provide participants with a broad introduction to inclusive cultures and show how these contribute to secure, dynamic and cohesive teams.
“Education that develops cultural understanding and recognises diversity is crucial for the future well-being of our society”
UK Qualifications and Curriculum Agency, 2007
We challenge corporate management theories that suggest everyone can be competent in everything or that faults, failings and weaknesses are the growth points in an organisation. Instead, we help both organisations and schools to capitalise on strengths and differences in thinking and experience. To achieve this, we focus on creating a more humane and humanising working environment that invests in every kind of diversity.
We offer tools to identify and genuinely invest in each other and search for opportunities to discover the unique strengths and motivational stories represented in every life. Our experience is that the interventions we offer help create a more inclusive working culture and generate a sense of belonging which leads to personal satisfaction + collaborative consistence + organisational success resulting in increased individual and institutional strength.
Among the benefits we see in organisations that fully embrace diversity are:
A greater sense of community
Improved cooperation
Reduced feelings of isolation and alienation
A thriving sense of creativity
An ethos of service and support in the community
A recognition of the strengths and perspectives of all staff
Increased capacity in individuals
A more fulfilled workforce
"A Diverse Workforce Is a Valuable Source of Innovation. An Inclusive Culture Is an Incubator for Innovation."
Donald Fan, Senior Director, Walmart
Our unique arts-based and practical approach to diversity training is often informed by the personal and values-based stories shared by participants (see video below). This personalised approach can be tailored specifically to any organisation’s needs. It includes opportunities to explore through conversations with people from diverse backgrounds the implications and opportunities of inclusion and participation in a values-led ethos.
“With guns you can kill terrorists, with education you can kill terrorism.”
Malala Yousafzai
The students in this video represent 13 different countries. Some have escaped violence, threat, persecution and poverty and sought safety in the UK as unaccompanied minors. Others are from economic migrant families seeking greater financial security or are the children of refugees - all need to build fresh understandings of trust and responsibility within a new langauge and culture.
Education4Diversity training for business organisations
We offer three negotiable options:
Purchase a bespoke staff diversity training package involving presentations, arts based and practical activities exploring diversity and workshop opportunities for discussion, decision-making and planning. (Cost between £600 and £1000 a day).
Receive free and negotiated staff diversity training involving presentations, practical activities and workshop opportunities for discussion, decision-making and planning, on condition that you sponsor diversity training in one or more local schools (cost between £600 and £1000 per school).
Donate to Education4Diversity to support us in helping build a more cohesive, socially healthy and caring society through our work in schools and other organisations.
Contact us on: Education4Diversity@outlook.com
Education4Diversity work in schools and other education settings
with thanks to Groundswell Arts
For schools we offer five negotiable diversity education options:
Assemblies, conference inputs, one-off lectures on refugees, migration, diversity for schools and other educational organisations. We are happy to include parents, carers, governors and others in such inputs. (cost £250 plus travel)
Staff Development diversity or refugee/ forced migration training (2 1/2 hours) involving presentation, workshop activities and structured discussion on curriculum (cost £350 per presenter plus travel )
School diversity workshops (whole day) involving presentation of new knowledge, arts inputs, story, age-appropriate practical activities and discussion (cost £1000 - £1500 plus travel)
Education conferences (whole or half day) involving opportunities to gather new resources, meet and'/or hear the stories of recent refugees, arts inputs, workshop activities and presentations on current issues (cost £1000 - £1500 plus travel)
Regular curriculum or extra curricular inputs (throughout a six week term) including staff and student training and mentoring and subsequent interaction with small groups of young refugees and unaccompanied minors in sport and/or arts activities (in association with the Naznin Coker Foundation, cost on application)
Training for parents and carers (one-off after school or evening sessions) designed for parents/carers wishing to know more about background and opportunities of participation in projects initiated by Education4Diversity (£250 plus travel)
Contact us on: Education4Diversity@outlook.com
Recent projects
2019 - 2020 we worked with sixth form students at Gravesend Grammar School and The Langton School in Canterbury on the Integration of Young Refugees within UK Communities Project funded by The Naznin Coker Foundation. On a weekly basis students host a group of 8 -12 local unaccompanied minors (refugee young people under 18, living under UK protection but without family or other legal guardian) for Wednesday afternoon arts and sports activities. E4D has provided curriculum and diversity training for all school staff, background instruction and mentoring for school students and will provide continued mentoring and support to both citizen and unaccompanied young people throughout the project. The whole school curriculum has been influenced by these weekly contacts. Now English, maths, science, history, geography, PSHE, religion, philosophy and PE regularly use examples that illustrate and celebrate our global inter-connections.
The IYRUKC project is seen as a pilot for the successful integration of young refugees across the UK. We see the development of inclusive, values-based, welcoming, active, student-led contacts between newly arrived migrants and local schools, as essential to building a humane, respectful and fair society. Regular feedback from all participants will help us develop an integration programme that can be rolled out nationally. We would love to hear from schools interested in establishing regular and fruitful contacts between young refugees and their students.
2019-20 we devised and led a Responding to Refugees module for year 1 students involved in Canterbury Christ Church University Education Studies degree. During the module students had opportunities to meet with representatives of charities working for refugees, some current young asylum seekers themselves and using Skype, interact with refugees from one of the biggest refugee camps in Africa. The 20 students on the course visited local sites that showed evidence of refugees and migrations of the past and learned about the vocabulary, law, and process and experience of gaining status as a refugee. This highly popular module will be repeated in 2021 and we hope that modules at a higher level will be offered later in a degree course. Here are some typical responses from students:
‘I have come to realise there is a lot that I didn't know about migration and refugees. Before I was ignorant about the issue, and that was mainly down to media involvement as well as not being interested in researching what is going on in the world. I have drastically changed my mind and found that I care about what happens in the world, especially with refugees and migrants. Out of all the people I know, they seem to be the most strong. Everything they go through and suffer from, I applaud them and the bravery they face every day.’
‘Talking to these refugees has shown me that they are no different to any other person their age. Their life isn't all about how they came to this country, but just their life in the UK. They learn just like us, like sports and generally have good lives. One refugee said coming to the UK was like coming to Heaven. This was a real eye opener…’
2021 throughout the pandemic we worked with TAKEDA, an international pharmaceutical company, on a series of bespoke on-line diversity training sessions. Each 3-hour interactive session was shared with a different team within the organisation. We took separate groups of medical, marketing, research and communications staff through an entirely new approach to diversity training. This approach was based upon helping participants discover the diversity within and between themselves and using insights from other cultural starting points to demonstrate the basic humanity we all share.
2022 and 2023 we restarted our face-to-face training with ‘Humanising Diversity’ staff development sessions at Infant, Nursery, Junior and secondary schools in London, Kent, Buckinghamshire, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire and Sussex . We used the collision of global crises that include: declining bio-diversity, climate change, massive human migrations, conflict and growing inequalities to illustrate why humanity so desperately needs the creativity and hope that arises from nurturing and celebrating human diversity .
“It provided me with lots of first hand experiences about how diversity affects us all — fantastic!”
“…the session definitely has started discussions amongst our staff and those conversations are still continuing..as a school we are using it as an introduction to a wider conversation about diversity within the school and in the wider curriculum…”