Equality of opportunity is at the heart of The Economist Educational Foundation’s purpose as a charity. We exist to help young people succeed regardless of their background. The Black Lives Matter protests this summer are a call for all of us to step up and take much stronger action to tackle racism. We are committed to taking real and long-term action.
What we are doing now
Educating ourselves: We are educating ourselves to understand more about structural and institutional racism and how it plays out within charities and the education system, where we are best placed to make a difference. In July our Chief Executive is attending training on racial diversity in the charity sector.
Educating young people: This summer we have published two packages of educational resources about racism for 9-year-olds and upwards. You can find them here.
What we commit to doing on an ongoing basis
Role models: We will provide Burnet News Club students with opportunities to interact with inspiring, diverse role models on the online Hub, including Black people who are leaders in their fields from science to the arts, business to politics.
Diverse voices on current affairs: We will present young people with diverse perspectives and voices on current affairs. When creating our educational resources, we will always work with and draw on the expertise of people who have relevant and lived experience of the topics.
Supporting young people to learn about racism: Racism runs through so many of the topics that we cover in our educational resources and the Burnet News Club. We will continue to educate young people about racism and how it shapes current affairs.
Building a team that reflects the racial diversity of the young people we work with: There are eight of us on the Foundation team. All of us are white. One of our Trustees, and our Company Secretary, are Black. Having an inclusive hiring process is a priority for us and we are seeking expert advice to ensure that, as we grow, we build a team that comes to reflect the rich diversity of the young people that we work with. We will work with organisations such as Creative Access to seek more applications from BAME candidates.
Holding ourselves accountable: Each year, we will publish the specific actions that we commit to taking in the coming year to tackle racism and we will report on whether we achieved the previous year’s goals.