LGBTQ+ Archives - St Gemma's Hospice

St Gemma’s ranks in the Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers List for the fourth consecutive year

January 9, 2024Blog Latest News

At St Gemma’s, we value diversity in all its forms and the richness this brings to our organisation. So we’re delighted to have moved up the Inclusive Top 50 UK Employers list, now ranking 23rd (silver standard accreditation).

Over four years we’ve moved up from 44^th to 23^rd, which demonstrates our commitment to our ongoing work to improve across all strands of diversity – including age, disability, gender, LGBTQ+, race, faith and religion.

We would like to thank our employees representing different groups across the Hospice, from our Involve and LGBTQ+ groups to our Multicultural Network, for their dedication to improving inclusivity.

LGBTQ+ inclusion is an area we have focused on, with staff taking the lead and collaborating to learn what best practice looks like and how best to meet everyone’s needs.

We are proud of the team’s ongoing efforts to make St Gemma’s more LGBTQ+inclusive, such as celebrating Leeds Pride each summer, introducing Pride badges that staff can choose to wear and the optional inclusion of pronouns in email signatures.

Read more about this at www.st-gemma.co.uk/blog/pride-month-2023

Our Multicultural Network is run by staff for staff, and regularly organises celebrations and events across the Hospice.

From supporting our Muslim staff and volunteers throughout the holy period of Ramadan, to putting together events to celebrate Africa Day, Jamaica Day and Black History Month, their contribution and commitment to championing diversity at St Gemma’s is outstanding.

We are proud to be part of Inclusive Employers and we encourage and welcome applications from all candidates, regardless of age, gender, disability, race, religion or sexual orientation.

View our latest vacancies online and learn more about the benefits of a career at St Gemma’s.

Pride Month 2023: Reflecting on a Year of Progress

June 20, 2023Blog Latest News

St Gemma’s Hospice welcomes everyone regardless of people’s age, gender, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or diagnosis. Over the past year, LGBTQ+ inclusion is an area we have focused on, with staff taking the lead and collaborating to learn what best practice looks like and how best to meet everyone’s needs.

Back in June 2022, we celebrated Pride Month with a Pride-themed ‘catch up with cake’ for staff. This informal get-together was an opportunity for colleagues to come together and kick-start conversations about how we can make St Gemma’s more inclusive.

In August, we joined the Leeds Pride parade. This was well attended by staff, and St Gemma’s presence at Leeds Pride got a great response from other attendees.

During the staff wellbeing week last October, Dr Ellie Kane gave a talk about transitioning. This access to knowledge helps colleagues to better support each other, and also informs patient care and how we support the needs of our LGBTQ+ patients and families. Caring for everyone who needs us is, and always will be, central to the ethos of St Gemma’s.

We have implemented the optional inclusion of pronouns for staff to use in their emails. Including pronouns allows staff to show solidarity and create an environment where colleagues can be comfortable sharing their pronouns, and there is no obligation to where people don’t feel comfortable doing so.

Moving into 2023, we have introduced Pride badges that staff can choose to wear to show they are a listening, friendly, and responsive ear. Before wearing the badge, staff take a pledge to be an ally, signposting people in need to organisations and local contacts who can provide more specific assistance, and commit to speak up and call out hate.

While all St Gemma’s staff and volunteers are here to support anyone in need, we hope wearing the badge will allow anyone, including patients, to feel more comfortable approaching a colleague and discussing LGBTQ+ topics.

Along the way, colleagues have met to discuss how they would like LGBTQ+ issues to be represented and we have created a staff network open to everyone, encouraging people to learn and ask questions. We recognise that not everyone is comfortable in group settings and have also devised a digital suggestion box below where staff can raise anything they would like the group to discuss.

This Pride Month, we held another Pride-themed ‘catch up with cake’ to celebrate the progress we have made together and look forward to joining the Leeds Pride parade in August. Our chain of charity shops have created fantastic Pride displays in their windows; our shops are long-time supporters of Pride Month, representing inclusivity in their communities.

We are so proud of our team for their collaborative efforts to make St Gemma’s more inclusive. This work has been recognised with a 31^st placing in the Inclusive Companies list, and will continue long into the future.