Update: Strategy to Address Racism Against People of Colour

As part of our Strategy to Address Racism Against People of Colour, Scottish Civic Trust issues six-monthly updates on our anti-colour-based racism work. This ensures that we are transparent about our progress and helps to sustain a sector-wide commitment to addressing racism against members of People of Colour communities.

About the Strategy

In response to the worldwide Black Lives Matter protests of summer 2020, Scottish Civic Trust prepared a Strategy to Address Racism Against People of Colour.

The strategy considers our role in addressing racism against People of Colour communities from three key perspectives:

Redress: As an employer, how can we address racism against People of Colour in our work practices and projects?
Reinterpret: As the owner of the Tobacco Merchant’s House, how can we reinterpret our building’s history equitably?
Support: As a national heritage charity giving advice to over 127 small trusts and charities across the country, how can we set an example for addressing racism against People of Colour and what advice can we give to others trying to do the same?

Progress

In the past six months, we’ve completed the following actions outlined in the strategy:

Continue to support BPOC community groups to explore the heritage of their choice through co-design and co-delivery of activities:
- Supported groups to deliver events as part of Africa Day and Black History Month.
- Supported African and Caribbean over-60s to visit Robert Burns Farm Museum.
- Supported African and Caribbean Women’s Association to explore the heritage of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh.
- Published African and Caribbean Elders in Scotland’s book of oral histories, One Life Two Cultures
- Supported storytelling event on Heritage, Power and Wellbeing.
- Delivered a session for United Nurses (Healthcare Staff of Colour) to explore public history and heritage activities specifically looking at NHS / healthcare ties to Colonialism and Empire.
- Delivered three history walking tours of Glasgow City Centre for African and Caribbean heritage groups with European Capital of Sport 2023 funding, delivered in partnership with Outdoors For You.
Supported the publication of an inclusive volunteering toolkit, including a glossary of terms related to diversity, equity, inclusion and race.
Secured funding in partnership with the University of Aberdeen for the project Aberdeen in Africa, Africa in Aberdeen, to explore and decolonise University collections and Aberdeen cityscape, resulting in public outputs as part of Doors Open Days 2024.
Offered two My Place Marketplace heritage advice surgeries to community groups in the Borders, Fife, Angus, and Glasgow to develop strategies to increase diversity and inclusion.
Progressed discussions with the University of Glasgow’s Beniba Centre for Slavery Studies to apply for a funded PhD studentship to support research that will contribute to the reinterpretation of the Tobacco Merchant’s House.

The recent progress we’ve made is in addition to the actions we completed previously:

Organised a conference about race and heritage in Scotland.
Compiled and released a Scottish heritage anti-colour-based-racism reading list.
Created a dedicated anti-colour-based-racism section on the Scottish Civic Trust website.
Collaborated with Heritage Open Days on an inclusive events toolkit, which includes tips for how heritage organisations can partner with marginalised groups to research and share their heritage. This was distributed widely throughout the 50 participant countries of the Council of Europe’s European Heritage Days programme.
Participated in an Equalities and Diversity training session with the West of Scotland Regional Equality Council. All staff, our Director, our Chair and a few trustees were in attendance.
Partnered with Thistles & Dandelions, a heritage knowledge, skills and confidence-development project for minority-ethnic women, to host a workshop to demystify architectural jargon that can be a barrier to engagement with the built environment.
Attended the Roots Scotland community cafe at the West of Scotland Regional Equality Council, where our staff met with BPOC community groups. As a result of this meeting, our Mentoring programme will be working with two BPOC organisations (Thistles & Dandelions and African and Caribbean Elders in Scotland) to support their heritage projects. Our Diverse Heritage and Doors Open Days project officers also connected with the African and Caribbean Women’s Association.
Drafted research and artwork briefs for the Tobacco Merchant’s House reinterpretation project.
Partnered with Make Your Mark to compile a database of BPOC groups that heritage organisations can contact about partnerships and co-creating projects.
Funded and supported BPOC groups to put on events for Doors Open Days 2021 in September. African and Caribbean Elders Scotland (ACES) delivered an intergenerational storytelling event to an international, online audience of 35 people. African Caribbean Women’s Association (ACWA) launched their new publication New Shoots Old Roots (Volume 2), to an international, online audience of 30 people. Both sessions were recorded and shared on Scottish Civic Trust, ACES and ACWA channels.
Recruited a new Heritage and Administration Officer using inclusive hiring practices. As specified in our strategy, we drafted a skills- and experience-based job description, posted the opportunity on diversity-specific job boards, avoided referral hiring and circulated the opportunity to BPOC organisations and equality networks and reviewed applicant CVs with photos, names, genders, and dates removed. The system was successful in supporting a more diverse range of applicants to reach the final stages of appointment, with two of four candidates taken to interview being of a minority ethnicity.
Applied to Scotland’s Year of Stories events fund to work with BPOC communities on digital heritage projects. Unfortunately, this bid was unsuccessful.
Contributed to a funding application submitted to the AHRC by Dr Richard Anderson of the University of Aberdeen for Aneath Aiberdeen: Slavery, Empire and Public History in North East Scotland. The project seeks to build capacity across Aberdeenshire in schools, community groups, and local history groups to explore and share the impact of slavery and the slave trade in their immediate locality. Unfortunately, this application was unsuccessful, but we are still in contact about offering similar, albeit scaled-down, activities for September 2022.
Supported Empower Women for Change, an organisation that empowers diverse minority ethnic women through advancing their leadership and active citizenship in all aspects of life in Scotland and internationally, through our My Place Mentor programme. Our My Place Mentoring Officer is supporting them with strengthening their financial resilience, revisiting their strategic plans and mission, developing a strong case for support and identifying funders sympathetic to covering core costs for the organisation.
Undertaken a literature review of current research and information about The Tobacco Merchant’s House and its owners in preparation for the Tobacco Merchant’s House reinterpretation project.
Explored grants and funding for the Tobacco Merchant’s House reinterpretation project.
Delivered two talks on the importance of partnership working to make the heritage sector more diverse and inclusive of marginalised people.
Supported African and Caribbean Elders in Scotland (ACES) to secure 2 grants for their oral history project, totalling in excess of £12,000.
Co-hosted a Refugee Festival Scotland (17-26 Jun) event in partnership with Glendale Women’s Cafe, bringing together first and second-generation immigrants and women long-established in Pollokshields neighbourhood of Glasgow with refugees and other recent arrivals.
Re-established pre-pandemic work with Glasgow Disability Alliance’s BAME network and delivered 2 co-designed community mapping sessions.
Hired a second staff member, Phoenix Archer, as Diverse Heritage Events Officer in response to increased project funding.
- Recruitment for this position and for the Trust’s new Director utilised inclusive hiring practices. As specified in our strategy, we drafted a skills- and experience-based job description, posted the opportunity on diversity-specific job boards, avoided referral hiring and circulated the opportunity to Black and People of Colour (BPOC) organisations and equality networks and reviewed applicant CVs with photos, names, genders, and dates removed. The system was successful in supporting a more diverse range of applicants to reach the final stages of appointment.
Supported BPOC group ACES to deliver 3 different live online storytelling events celebrating the stories and experiences of African and Caribbean over-60s in Scotland as part of Doors Open Days, Black History Month, and International Men’s Day.
Phoenix Archer (Diverse Heritage Events Officer) sat on an expert panel for a Make Your Mark event on removing class barriers to heritage volunteering.
Delivered a session at a networking event for BPOC community groups at the Community Wellbeing Centre in Wester Hailes.
Delivered a session with U Belong Glasgow at the Transmission Gallery to explore the impact of showcasing BPOC heritage storytelling and how this affects wellbeing in different environments.
Met with United Nurses (Healthcare Staff of Colour) to explore public history, increasing wellbeing and heritage activities specifically looking at NHS / healthcare ties to Colonialism and Empire.
Offered two My Place Marketplace heritage advice surgeries to community groups in Wick and Hawick to develop strategies to increase diversity and inclusion.
Created an informal network via WhatsApp for members of African and Caribbean heritage groups based in the North of Scotland.

The next actions outlined in the strategy are:

Continue to support BPOC community groups to explore the heritage of their choice through co-design and co-delivery of activities; continue to support BPOC groups to apply for funding to undertake cultural heritage projects of their choice. Expected within next 6 months.
Securing funding for the Tobacco Merchant’s House reinterpretation project. Expected within the next year.
Hosting a placement from Next Step Initiative’s Sustainable Development Education Programme, which seeks to create more opportunities for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people to access and engage with the Scottish heritage sector. Expected within 2 years.
Investigating the possibility of using Doors Open Days venues year-round as cheap or free venues for BPOC community groups’ events. We will aim to pilot this with a few venues and groups within 3 years, depending on interest and capacity.
Working with partners to establish a forum or network in the Scottish heritage sector to discuss anti-colour-based racism. We will aim to have this forum operational within 2 years, depending on interest and capacity.

Other aspects of the strategy that have not yet become relevant, but we still remain committed to doing are:

Undertaking a robust investigation of any reports of colour and ethnicity-based racism in the workplace.