Last year Solace started the journey towards becoming an anti-racist organisation, making time and space for difficult conversations and agreeing actions that will move us closer to this ambition. Arising out of that initial work we publish again our Anti-racism statement which continue to work towards.
Solace is committed to challenging racism inside our organisation and the wider Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) sector. Solace acknowledges that racism, in all its forms, impacts our service users and is a barrier to women accessing help across our sector alongside impacting our colleagues in their day-to-day work. Solace understands that we have much work to do to tackle racism and make real and meaningful change in a transparent and accountable manner – we are committed to making change in this way.
In a year where the Covid-19 pandemic continues to disproportionately harm Black and Minoritised women, people and communities, and a year that has seen the largest mass mobilisation of protesters demanding racial justice through the reinvigoration of the Black Lives Matter movement, Solace is committed to doing the long-term essential work needed to become an anti-racist organisation. We want to especially acknowledge the exhaustion, hurt, and pain Black and Minoritised colleagues are feeling this year.
We are proud to sign up to the VAWG sector call to action to end systemic racism within the sector and are committed to working with this group as the work develops. The call to action is available at: www.endingracisminvawg.org