National Inclusion Week: Take Action and Make an Impact

By Julia Fountain-Booth

Train strikes, gale force winds and torrential rain couldn’t stop members of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s LBGTQ+ Network joining colleagues from the other emergency services to march with Pride in Brighton this summer.

National Inclusion Week (25th September to 1st October) is a perfect time to recall these memories and this year’s message of Take Action, Make Impact.

Just as the weather ranged from wet to sunny (eventually!), we were struck by the diverse drawing together of MCA people from across the south coast showing off a variety of ages, professions, locations and backgrounds.

Children and partners supported by joining in the fun too, and HM Coastguard volunteers marched side by side with full-time MCA employees.

Here’s how people remembered the event in August:

Linda Tetley, Deputy Station Officer:

“It was great to be given the opportunity to be involved in the biggest pride event in Europe and to mix with not just Coastguard Rescue Officers like myself, but also meet people, however they identify, who work in the varied roles within the MCA as a whole.”

Ben Craig, Press Officer:

“It felt very special to hear people in the crowd so delighted to see HM Coastguard marching past with MCA colleagues and the other emergency services. I’ll be back next year – hopefully in the sun.”

Scott Cruickshank, Coastguard Rescue Officer:

“I did love meeting some more members of my Coastguard family and as always I was made to feel welcome and a part of the team from the moment I arrived – well, from the moment I joined the WhatsApp group!”

Reflecting on Pride month, I’m struck by how lucky I am to work in a place where there is a network, support for staff and volunteers, and it feels okay to be different.

It’s a contrast to when I came out. Family and my friends where surprised and I had no one to talk to about my experience, feelings and fear. At work there were no avenues of support, and it was embarrassing when my partner was misgendered or I was assumed to be straight.

I’d have to constantly ‘come out’: to colleagues, visiting the GP, and every time someone just assumed my partner was my friend. I reacted by changing how I dressed to look ‘less straight’.

Those memories raise good questions in the light of National Inclusion Week’s message of Take Action Make Impact.

What else can we do as a network to be there for staff? And what do we need to do as a network – and as an agency – to take action on inclusion and commit to making a difference?

I look forward to what the next six months bring as an agency and as a network. As co-chair of a network, as a gay woman, and as someone who wants to drive change, this is my commitment:

“I commit to always having my virtual office door open; open for anyone to come in and talk, seek advice or simply be there in someone else’s time of need.

I know that I won’t always have the answers and, as an agency and a network, we still having ‘growing’ to do, but I commit to do that for all those people who felt like I did or will feel like that in the future; I will be there just so they aren’t alone. As a network co-chair, I commit to giving our LGBTQ+ staff a voice.”

Let’s be the change that we want to see. Let’s make an impact.

Inclusive Employers

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