Powered By Diversity Manifesto

We stand for equality - for everyone 

We believe that all people deserve equality of rights, opportunity and pay for everyone, regardless of identity or protected characteristic. 

For us, unless inclusion means everyone, it’s not inclusion.

We are against all stereotypes 

We don’t know about you, but we’re pretty darn sick of people assuming they know all about us before we have even met.

We aim to assume nothing and get to know the individual instead of relying on stereotypes.

We work at the individual level 

We strive to avoid assumptions and generalisations wherever possible.

We advocate getting to know an individual, so that we don’t have to generalise or make assumptions. 

We believe that gender is a playground

We believe that instead of a restrictive binary, gender should be an open playground upon which any individual should be free to move at will, as often as they like.

We believe that femme and feminine, masc and masculine should be a choice open to any sex, gender and orientation.

We don’t fear femme or femininity or see it as less-than or weakness.

We don’t demonise masc or masculine or judge people for any aspect of their gender expression.

We don’t make gender assumptions based on appearance.

We stand for transgender rights 

We strongly support the rights of those who identify as transgender, trans, non binary and all other non-gender or transgender identities to live authentically and safely as themselves, free from fear and judgement.

We respect all pronouns, gender descriptors, chosen names and all people’s rights to express their gender identity however they wish.

When we say “men” or “women” that always includes all those who identify as men or women, regardless of the sex they may have been assigned at birth. 

Whilst we welcome debate, conversation and curiosity, we do not tolerate trans exclusionary or non binary exclusionary behaviour, of any kind.

We love love 

We support all sexes, genders and orientations to love, be attracted to and parent in partnership with whomever they choose to.

We respect chosen identities

We don’t believe that people are their external characteristics, their protected characteristics or the boxes they tick on forms.

We believe that people are the identities they choose for themselves and who they choose to live as, however that is expressed. 

We are feminists

When feminism is defined as actively working towards equal opportunities, access and inclusion for all genders, all sexes, all races and ethnicities, all disabilities, all abilities, all orientations, all religions, nationalities, spoken languages and socioeconomic statuses, across the range of neurodiversity, then we are feminists. 

Exclusionary feminism of any kind just ain’t our bag.

We are anti-racist

We fight for equality for all races and ethnicities and we support those fighting racism in all its forms.

We support and signpost brilliant people in our Collective and beyond, working on anti-racism.

Those of us who have not experienced racism pledge to earn the title of ally by acting against racism in all its forms.

We capitalise the B in Black and leave w in white in lower case. We agree with the reparation sentiment in Ann Price’s words; 

Until the wrongs against Black people have been righted, we cannot embrace equal treatment in our language.

We are intersectional

Our work relates to all 9 characteristics protected by the 2010 Equality Act plus socio-economic status and single parents.

We support the inclusion of all people, beyond their core characteristics or how they identify.

We recognise the value of and celebrate the diversity of all people.

We are Global

Inclusion and sustainability are important to us as a collective.

We want to protect and fight for justice for people and the planet - for now and for future generations.

We believe that including sustainability and global citizenship in the conversation is key to a better future for us all.

We believe in helping people to make up their own minds 

We don’t tell people what to think. We don’t stuff people into moulds and we don’t crowbar people’s minds open.

Our aim is to open up the world of EDI so that everyone has access to all the information they need to come to their own conclusions. We do this through education, data, debate, stories and conversation.

When people decide for themselves. That is powerful stuff.

OUR VALUES

We believe in living to a set of core values.

Powered By Diversity was built off our own personal values, and these to extend to everything we do.

Our values are our code to live by, they keep us focussed, they help us to make decisions, they allow us to delegate in full trust

- and above all, they remind us what we are all working so hard for.   

KEEP A SENSE OF HUMOUR  

We laugh every day.

Our sense of humour has helped us out of some tough spots and some dark times in our personal and professional lives.

We believe that a good belly laugh has healing powers and we deploy our sense of humour whenever and wherever possible. 

FAMILY COMES FIRST 

We are doing this work for our families and the many families and individuals that will benefit from it.

Families show up in many forms and we respect them all; chosen, blood related, older, younger, pets…if you love ‘em, we love ‘em.

Our families are our top priority and their needs always come first.

We stand for the rights of all people to be able to put their families first.

LOOK AFTER THE HUMANS 

Powered By Diversity was built for humans. Humans come first for us, in every decision we make.

Be that our teams, our partners or the people in the organisations we are working with.

We will always put humans first in our quest to achieve our goals.

COLLABORATION OVER DUPLICATION

At Powered By Diversity we believe that we are only going to solve the problem of inequality and imbalance by working together.

Powered By Diversity is built on a bedrock of collaboration and sharing.

We think it’s pretty counterintuitive to get territorial about changing the world - we want everyone doing it!

There has been so much great work done already, by so many.

Our aim is not to duplicate it, our aim is to bring it all together and get it in front of the people who can benefit from it. 

SUPPORTING NOT SHAMING  

People come to Powered By Diversity for help in fixing this issue of inequality that we all care so much about fixing.

We’re not in the business of making people feel bad about the points they are not doing so well on.

We aim to support them in identifying and improving on them.

Whilst we deeply respect the activist space as an essential part of EDI, our role is to take those that are ready for change and guide them through it.

For that reason we’re not a pressure group and we don’t blast organisations on social media or engage with any type of online shaming.

We take online shaming as an opportunity to offer that organisation or individual help and support to do better.

We encourage everyone who speaks for us to take this stance.

WE DON’T FEED TROLLS  

Trolls love to feed on the negative emotion they raise. If we encounter a troll, we do not engage.

We ignore them, block them and move on. 

We encourage everyone who speaks for us to take this stance.

WE DEBATE RESPECTFULLY 

This debate gets heated at times - and that’s great - it shows passion.

As Powered By Diversity we have some debating ground rules:

We don’t insult, we don’t get personal, we gently correct and guide and if we get to the point where we really can’t say something productive then we’d rather say nothing at all.

There are more productive conversations to be had. 

ACT NOW

Why is Powered By Diversity different? We go way beyond the “Changing the World” chat.

Discussion is a great start - but, then needs to come action.

We’re all about the action.