June Community Conversation Follow-Up: Supporting Inclusion & Wellbeing

The June session in the SOA’s monthly online Community Conversations series focused on supporting inclusion and wellbeing. The session was introduced by Ken McDonald, the SOA’s Equality, Welfare and Diversity Director, followed by open discussion around aspects of inclusion that clubs and SOA might now focus on.

Ken set the scene by outlining what we mean by inclusion and what Scottish Orienteering wants to achieve. Key to this is developing an understanding of the barriers different people may face and proactively addressing these to maximise access, increase participation across the board, and drive wider benefits around the sustainability of our sport and positive experiences for everyone. Inclusivity is part of the bedrock of the Sport for Life strategy of sportscotland (our major funder), to support a more active Scotland and public health goals as well as Scottish sporting performance.

So what sorts of barriers might need to be tackled? Some examples include:

• Protected characteristics as defined in the Equality Act 2010 – e.g. age, sex, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, gender
• Income / wealth and access to suitable kit as well as travel
• Transport access – not everyone has access to a vehicle
• Fitness / ability
• Access to instruction / coaching – structures for welcoming and progressing newcomers
• Balance between recreation and performance.

Ken also told us about the Moving to Inclusion programme, which SOA has started in terms of its sportscotland funding obligations. It is a four year process, with components including an initial EDI self assessment (completed with SOA staff and volunteers), appointment of a mentor, actions including review of our equality policy, and engagement with the membership.

Some questions to consider include, what are the important areas to focus on to promote inclusion currently, and how can clubs make orienteering as welcoming as possible for all, whether for participation at events or getting involved as club volunteers? What good practice / adjustments have clubs tried out?
Some discussion topics included:

• How do we measure improvements in inclusion? There are lots of possible indicators, and of course it’s not all about targets for protected characteristics (orienteering is very good on age, for example!) Clubs won’t necessarily have the relevant participant data.
• Boosting inclusion means thinking about how to break down barriers, including access costs and sharing information in ways that reach new audiences – e.g.mindful use of language and avoiding jargon (describe what courses involve rather than just giving the colours), as well as placing publicity in suitable locations physically as well as online.
• How we market the sport is significant: orienteering has great opportunities for everyone regardless of fitness and ability, but do wider audiences understand that it’s not necessary to be able to run to enjoy it?
• Choosing event venues: how can clubs ensure they provide local opportunities to enjoy orienteering that are accessible to those without cars? Adding public transport information to entry details as a norm is a good start.
• Including families can be challenging for those with young kids on short courses who can’t be left on their own while parents participate. Developing club culture can really help, through encouraging members to attend events together rather than just as individuals, and provide event bases with tents to be more supportive to all and make it easier for families to then get together to help each other out in informal ways (this works for lift sharing as well).
• Data privacy, given that event results are published typically with participants’ full names, which may be raise potential safeguarding issues (e.g., for looked-after or care-experienced children). A suggestion was for entrants to use a nickname (contact the event registration official, or some entry platforms have an option to enter an alternative name).

Many thanks to Ken and Nikki for convening the session, and to those who came along. You can contact Ken via welfare@scottish-orienteering.org for any follow-up around inclusion and welfare.

The next Community Conversation will be at the start of September after the summer break – details will be posted on the SOA website, and information on the series is available on the SOA Community Conversation page. Contact Nikki via nikki@scottish-orienteering.org for any queries or suggestions of
topics you’d like to see included.