Case studies

Victim Support is a national charity within England and Wales that supports people affected by crime. The organisation gives people the emotional and practical help they need to recover from the impact of crime.

The Brief

Due to changes in funding streams, In 2015 Victim Support restructured which resulted in the redundancy of the Head of Diversity and Inclusion.  However, to ensure that Diversity and Inclusion practice was not lost in ensuring diverse victims needs and staff and volunteers were supported effectively, they commissioned Diverse Matters to carry out a consultancy role and continue to carry out the activities as agreed in the Diversity and Inclusion strategy on a part time basis. 

Service

Consultancy

The consultancy role was carried out with agreed hours by the organisation to ensure that Diversity and Inclusion plays a key role.  The consultant carried out activities including writing service delivery policies and toolkits, line manager guidance documents, working towards EDI accreditations and awards and ensuring the agreed targets in the Diversity and Inclusionstrategy were achieved.

Diverse Matters supported Victim Support to be reaccredited for the Leaders in Diversity accredited  by the National Centre for Diversity, win the Business Disability Standard award for ‘Know How’ for their work in supporting victims with mental health issues, maintain the highest placed charity in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index in 2016/2017 and the highest placed charity in the National Centre for Diversity’s Top 100 (no 9).

Client feedback

The consistent application of EDI policy is fundamental to us as a charity.  It ensures that we reflect the demographics of our beneficiaries and is critical to our reputation.  Natasha has ensured that EDI is prominent throughout the organisation and is reflected in our operational practices by ensuring we have current policies in place and validating our performance against those. She has also ensured that we are recognised for this investment by securing external recognition and awards.