One of London’s biggest college groups is setting up a community grant fund to promote diversity and reduce racial inequality. 

At London South East Colleges Group, grants will be awarded to staff and students to set up projects that will tackle all types of inequality, initially focusing on racial inequality. The projects may include mentoring, sports events, industry placements, festivals, speaker programmes and arts and cultural activities.

Bids for grants will be assessed by the groups’ new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Grant Fund Committee, which is currently being set up.

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Staff have been asked to put themselves forward to be part of the committee, which will represent the group’s diverse community. The projects selected will be those that will have the greatest measurable impact on learners’ and communities’ lives. 

LSEC’s group executive director of strategy, communications and organisational development, Louise Wolsey, said the group was determined that the grants programme would make a tangible difference. 

“We really want this not to be tokenistic. The initial staff response has been phenomenal - it’s become really clear that people absolutely were behind this idea and wanted to be part of the solution to find a way through this agenda to address racial inequality,” she said.

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“Organisations benefit from being diverse in talent. We want all of our students and all of our staff to achieve their potential and it’s a mandate for us to do all we possibly can to enable that, and to reduce inequality.

“We want this to be a staff- and student-led approach supported by the overall management team in the college. This isn’t a one-hit wonder for a news story, this is a long-term programme of change and a response to an absolutely critical agenda. By 2030, we plan to have funded at least 300 projects or activities, and in the first year we will fund at least 20.”

Writing for Tes, principal and chief executive of the London South East Colleges Group Sam Parrett said: “In addition to this grant programme, our new committee will help us to make more, positive changes throughout our business. Early suggestions have included ensuring we offer a more diverse range of literature, feature black history more significantly in our curricula and invite more mentors and speakers from BAME backgrounds to engage with all our students. These are all achievable and important steps forward.

“We are looking to partner an organisation to help us monitor and look at the impact of our work - ensuring that it is moving at a fast enough pace and addressing the issue of systemic and structural racism in the way we anticipate.” 

Kirsti Lord, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “It’s great to see LSEC leading by example and putting into place meaningful and tangible actions that have the potential to make a real difference to the lived experience of their black staff and students.”