Equity, diversity and inclusion at Point North
A place for everyone
At Point North, we’re dedicated to fostering an inclusive environment that values diversity and promotes equity.
We make sure that everyone—whether they are part of our team, a volunteer, a supporter, or a grant recipient—feels respected, valued, and supported.
Our Commitments
- Dignity and Respect: we treat everyone fairly and with respect, acknowledging individual uniqueness.
- Challenging Discrimination: we actively combat all forms of discrimination and unequal treatment.
- Overcoming Disadvantage: we address the needs of disadvantaged people to ensure everyone has equal opportunities.
- Inclusive Culture: we strive to create a welcoming culture that attracts and retains a diverse range of people.
- Reflecting Our Communities: our services are designed to be accessible and reflect our communities.
- Value Lived Experience: we seek out, value and act upon the voice of lived experience.
Our Standards
As part of our day-to-day work and embedded within our standard way of working, we will:
- Promote Equity: ensure fairness, inclusion, and respect in everything we do.
- Prevent Prejudice: maintain a culture free from bullying, harassment, and discrimination.
- Be Open: consult and engage with people to enhance our understanding of the needs and obstacles faced by our communities.
- Support Complaints: take all complaints of discrimination seriously and provide appropriate support.
- Uphold Legal Rights: protect the rights of individuals under relevant UK laws.
- Recruit Fairly: ensure transparent and accessible recruitment and development processes.
Staying Accountable
Our Board of Trustees and Management Team ensure that our approach to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is upheld and delivered in everything we do.
Training and support are provided to our whole team to make sure everyone understands and embodies our commitments.
For more information about our approach to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and our supporting internal policy, please contact us at info@pointnorth.org.uk
In practice
In practice, our commitment to creating an inclusive environment for everyone who encounters Point North includes things like:
- An open recruitment process where qualifications required are proportionate to the role and questions shared before any interviews.
- Neurodivergent training for our entire team, to improve our communication, processes and ways of working to accommodate everyone.
- A flexible approach to our working environment, offering hybrid working, working from home and a 9-day fortnight.
For people applying for a grant, we take an approach of ‘continuous improvement’ to support applications from as much of our community as possible, this includes things like:
- Investing in and improving the systems we use to process grant applications to reduce the administrative requirements for our applicants
- Making sure our team are available by email, on the phone or in funding surgeries to help people complete applications.
- Taking care and attention to only ask for the information we need, and not over-burdening our applicants.
- We’re part of a Flexible Funder programme, which requires us to be open, transparent and trusting in the way we distribute grants, read more here.
Make a suggestion
If you come across anything during your interactions with us that you think would improve our approach to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, we want to hear from you.
Submit on our Contact page here.
If you have applied for a grant or made a donation and have noticed areas we can improve, please let your Point North contact know.