31 January 2022
We have partnered with John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, the Southampton UK City of Culture 2025 Trust and organisations from across Southampton to make an Inclusion Pledge. By committing to our pledges together we are unified in our aim to make Southampton an actively Inclusive City.
GO! Southampton pledges
Governance & organisational change
We pledge to include more diversity on our board and in our theme groups.
Workforce development
We pledge to introduce inclusivity training for our members and set targets for more diversity on the team.
Audience & Programming/Delivery
We pledge to audit diversity within our membership and reflect City of Culture diversity ambitions in our programme.
Access & Participation
We pledge to focus on inclusion in our next 5-year plan and focus on improving disability access to city centre. We will also ensure we introduce a diversity statement for all our events.
Opportunities for co-design with new & different partners
We pledge to develop and deepen our relationship with Unity 101 & Spectrum.
GO! Southampton has created a board working group on the topic of equality, diversity & inclusion chaired by Ram ‘Kelly’ Kalyan of Unity 101 Radio. It includes the existing board members who best represent the diversity of the city. It seeks to implement the commitments in the Inclusion Pledge and also to consider wider initiatives to make the organisation and its membership more equal, diverse and inclusive.
Across Southampton, organisations have come together to create meaningful and change-making Inclusion Pledges. The pledges have been created from a series of Inclusion Workshops launched early in 2021, by Southampton 2025 Trust with John Hansard Gallery, the University of Southampton as a response to the wider consultation for the UK City of Culture 2025 bid process.
All participating organisations took away from the process the skills and learnings to begin the development of meaningful pledges to actively promote inclusivity throughout their organisations. Visit www.southampton2025.co.uk for more information about Inclusion Pledges.