We are excited to share the Inclusive Organisations Certification Scheme and project website we have been working on in partnership with Cazalla Intercultural (Spain), Grenzenlos (Austria) and Lunaria (Italy), funded by the European Union.
Marginalised groups of young people face systemic and institutional oppression, which can result in limited access to or exclusion from social, cultural, economic, and political engagement.
The project aims to address these issues in organisations and provides guidance on how to better support the participation and inclusion of young people facing various levels of discrimination and exclusion. It recognises the importance of representation and offers strategies to create a more diverse and representative organisational teams, including individuals who have experienced marginalisation.
It is focused at six main marginalised youth groups and their relative systems of oppression: LGBTIQ+ youth; young FLINTA*; young Romanì and Travellers; young people of colour, ethnic and religious minorities and young migrants; young people with disabilities; and youth at risk of poverty and social exclusion.
An inclusive organisation implements organisational practices that incur cultural and social acceptance, welcoming and equal treatment while valuing the perspectives and contributions of all people and integrate the needs, strengths, and viewpoints of marginalised communities into their programme design and implementation.
Certification Scheme
Within the project, Ljubljana Pride Association created the model for a Certification Scheme for Inclusive Organisations. The Certification Scheme is a multi-level comprehensive training and empowerment process of organisational strategic development for any organisation to become more inclusive for (young) people from marginalised groups.
The content of the Scheme is based on the ‘Inclusive Organisations – Manual for organisational development’ published by Ljubljana Pride Association.
The Certification Scheme consists of 3 levels of organisational development processes.
Level 1 focuses on organisations who are just starting the work of becoming an inclusive organisation and is open to any organisation / section of an organisation. Level 1 has 5 distinctive STEPS, as laid out in the graphic below (downloadable here).
Level 2 focuses on advancing and further developing this work with organisations who are already working within the area of inclusion of marginalised (young) people. Within this level organisations undergo a holistic strategic development and training, following the same steps as Level 1 but on the scale of the entire organisation.
Level 3 is an organisational strategy development process that ensures that the principles and values of antidiscrimination and inclusion of (young) people from marginalised groups are embedded in all levels of the organisation from its core documents, to its programmes, the budget, recruitment and staff composition, to project and activities, as well as volunteers and participants they involve. Level 3 is tailored specifically to each individual organisation.
Educational Material
To accompany the Certification Scheme the project developed many educational resources to be used throughout the organisational development process.
A-B-C workshops were developed on each of the six main marginalised youth groups focused on in the project. These workshops are designed to introduce basic concepts and knowledge, such as vocabulary, history and specific needs, specific to each group.
The team of non-formal education trainers from partner organisations has also defined a list of modules that, when conducted by specialised trainers or facilitators, can help organisations and companies develop their approaches and organisational structure in various areas related to inclusion.
These tools are free to download here
Are you a Slovenian organisation interested in the Certification Scheme?
Yes? Great! Contact us at info@ljubljanapride.org and we will start defining the certification scheme process together.
If your organisation is based in Spain, Austria or Italy then you can get in contact with our partners here and start your certification journey now!
Use the self assessment tool available on the website to help understand what your organisation has already established in this area and where you can still improve and develop.
Want to know more?
- Check out the project website www.inclusive-organisations.eu
Check out the Inclusive Organisations – Manual for organisational development here
This project was co-funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ programme
