Equality and Diversity Policy

Aims Friends of Sutton Green is open to all local residents Our events are inclusive of all people irrespective of their youth, age, infirmity or disablement, social and economic circumstances, ethnic origin, religion, belief, creed, sexual orientation, or gender.

Accessibility All our events are held in venues that are accessible to wheelchair users. We are committed to ensuring anyone is able to attend our activities, so we will assess our access requirementsto ensure this is the case.

Diversity The Friends of Sutton Green aim to organise a range of events and activities to suit the interests and meet the needs of a wide variety of people and to be open to new ideas.

Inclusion and Respect Everyone should be made to feel equally welcome and included at all our meetings and events. Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, or otherwise offensive and inflammatory remarks and behaviour are not acceptable. These constitute harassment and have no place in Friends of Sutton Green.

Dealing with Discrimination and Harassment If anyone feels they have been discriminated against by any Committee member of The Friends of Sutton Green or harassed at an event they should raise this with the Committee. The Committee will investigate the complaint, listening to all members involved. (If the complaint is against a Committee member that person will not be part of conducting the investigation).

If the complaint is against an individual, this person will have the opportunity to express their point of view, accompanied by a friend. The person making the complaint will also havethis opportunity.

If the complaint is against The Friends of Sutton Green, the Committee must work to ensure that such discrimination is not repeated in the future and must inform all relevant people how they propose to do this.

Any decision to exclude a person from the organisation due to discriminatory or harassing behaviour will be made with reference to The Friend of Sutton Green's constitution. The Friends of Sutton Green will support people who feel they have been harassed or discriminated against and will not victimise or treat them less well because they have raised this.

This policy was adopted at a meeting of The Friends of Sutton Green on 22nd October 2020. It will be reviewed at least every 2 years.