Testimonials

Our Commissioners under a Quality Review of our services recommended that Mk Act required up to date training in regards to Equality and Diversity.  As it had been a while since we had carried out diversity training within the organisation, the whole organisation was required to undertake it, so all Trustee’s, Staff and Volunteers were invited. 

Natasha from Diverse Matters worked with us to assess our needs as an organisation and tailored the training to meet our needs. The training session was up to date, interactive and engaging. All the feedback from the team was positive and they loved Natasha’s training style which was informed, open and fun!  One member of staff said to me “I was dreading going on Diversity training but it was a really great session and I learnt a lot”.  I cannot recommend Natasha highly enough she is a real expert in her field backed up with years of experience and makes Diversity and Inclusion relevant to the work that you are delivering.

We have worked with Natasha a number of times over the last four years. On two occasions, Natasha designed and delivered training for Suzy Lamplugh Trust’s staff in equality and diversity. Natasha has a rare ability to make this subject fun and light-hearted and she puts people at ease with her excellent sense of humour. On both occasions, this meant that even those less familiar with the subject matter enjoyed the training – and all learnt a lot from it.

More recently, Natasha conducted a valuable analysis of the monitoring data captured by the National Stalking Helpline. She gave helpful suggestions on how to improve our service in order to reach a greater number of underrepresented groups. One of Natasha’s strengths is that she is able to provide advice and expertise at both a strategic and a detailed level. So as well as give us guidance based on our monitoring data, she has also offered a number of practical strategies which we can use to improve the diversity of our board.

Whenever Natasha has worked with the Trust, she has provided us with a swift, professional, and personalised service. I would highly recommend Natasha’s work to any charity looking for quality and proficiency.

Natasha (Tash) leads on EDI issues for Victim Support a large national charity dealing with people made vulnerable due to the impact of crime or other forms of harmful behaviour.  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.

As Director of Engagement and Enterprise at Victim Support, I have worked with Natasha Broomfield Reid for two years.

She is excellent at training executive leaders in a supportive way, with high impact. Natasha guided our senior leadership team and Trustee Board, and supported two Directors including myself to champion on equality and diversity across the organisation.

She is hugely knowledgeable, well connected and a real expert in her field. She is excellent at working in partnership and collaborating with other organisations. Not only is Natasha hugely committed to the causes and organisations she works for, she is also organised, pragmatic and gets the job done.

It is without a doubt that Natasha's leadership, tenacity and guidance led to Victim Support retaining its top place as the best charity in the Stonewall Workplace Index and remained in the top 20 overall and top charity in the National Centre for Diversity top 100.  This is no mean feat.   

I highly recommend Natasha.

In my role as a Locality Director and Senior Management team member I saw Tash deliver a step change in the approach to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion across the whole organisation regularly reviewing activity to ensure the organisation met the needs of all victims and witnesses.

She is able to provide high quality advice and professional support on all aspects of EDI to all employees at every level including a Board of Trustees an Executive Team and volunteers.

She is driven to ensure she has the most up to date knowledge and levels of expertise around legislation and can translate equality legislation into practice to ensure organisations meet statutory requirements. Tash will carry out research and produce high quality reports and recommendations. She will develop strong relationships with key stakeholders and decision makers to ensure high standards are achieved, developing new policies and processes and sharing best practice.

Tash is a person bursting with enthusiasm and passion for all aspects of Equality Diversity and Inclusion. This coupled with her high levels of expertise and knowledge means she is a great person to work with and she would be an invaluable person to have within any organisation.

Mencap and Victim Support worked together on developing referral pathways for victims of learning disability hate crime when Tash managed the national hate crime network. The network also looked at policy and campaign priorities for all strands of hate crime, and how the work of different organisations could complement each other.

Tash is an experienced chair and facilitator and worked with partners to campaign and address the needs of victims of hate crime. She is approachable, professional and able to get the job done. Her passion shines through in the work she does.

She has several years' experience of working in the hate crime and Diversity and Inclusion sectors, and this was hugely beneficial when developing and steering the group.

I would not hesitate to work with her again.

Tash delivered a great training course which showed her in depth knowledge and experience of diversity and inclusion. Her enthusiasm for the subject is infectious and she brought the issues to life with some practical and interactive examples. She made us really think about diversity and what we can do as a management team to make it much more than the tick box exercise that it was in danger of becoming.

Natasha is an Advisory Friend and supporter of the IEDP. Within this role, Natasha has supported us with critique and feedback regarding our activities, facilitation and planning of seminars and generally using her Diversity and Inclusion experience and skills to support overall activities.

We have found her to be knowledgeable, supportive and always willing to help. 

I have worked with Tash  at Victim Support as a colleague and then with the Motor Neurone Disease Association as a client for well over a decade. I saw Tash take a grip on Victim Support and lead it to be arguably the leading charity on embedding EDI as part of its culture and strategy. She did this in a wonderfully inclusive and engaging way, communicating with all stakeholders in a way that was non-threatening, understanding and enthusing.

Tash is passionate about EDI, but she is also pragmatic. This blend allows her to find practical, business-friendly ways to help organisations realise the strategic benefits of diversity in a very harmonious manner, that the whole team can buy into.

An example of the practical way Tash helped us at MDNA, was by helping us create tools for volunteers and for managers to help the organisation attract, welcome, engage and retain disabled volunteers. These tools are widely regarded by our team as being extremely practical guides that help them anticipate and address needs in a jargon free manner.

Natasha has delivered several training sessions as our representative, one at extremely short notice. The feedback we have received from these sessions has been, positive with delegates indicating that their awareness and understanding of the subject (general disability awareness plus more specific reference to autism and neurodiversity) has been improved. We have had repeat business as a result of Natasha’s presentation and delivery which expresses the importance of being able to make adjustments for customers and employees without “scaring the horses”. The aim is to make delegates routinely disability-smart.

Natasha’s flexibility and ability to be accommodating for hosts and delegates has been demonstrated to us. We have benefited for our association with Natasha and I do not hesitate to recommend her services.

We have found the experience of working with Diverse Matters, a very helpful process. We are at the start of formalising our whole organisational EDI approach, so this was a timely piece of work for us. The research methodology used was clear and robust. The report generated from working with Diverse Matters was clear, well-structured and very informative. It build into it sector wide practice, highlighted our good practice and challenges and then structured through key organisational areas how we could make improvements. i.e policies, L&D, procurement etc. This report will then inform the basis of our work plan for this area, so it has got us off to a very positive start, that would have taken quite a lot of time and without the expertise internally for us to have done this, without this support.

We recently had some queries in relation to sensitive transgender matters and approached Diverse Matters for some advice. They responded immediately with both telephone and email guidance which was pragmatic, tactical and helpful. They asked searching questions in order to ensure full understanding of the situation and context and, in my view, are clear subject matter experts in the field. I would not hesitate to use their services again and would recommend them to other organisations when dealing with such matters.

I have known Tash for almost 20 years now, through our work in various charities and community groups where our paths have often crossed.  I explained that I was involved with the West Midlands Ambulance Service BAME Network and she told me that she could support me through her consultancy Diverse Matters,  I knew immediately that I had a powerful ally in my new role.

I have always known Tash to be intelligent and dynamic, charismatic and supportive, and when I asked for help she was there. I admit that I am new to the field of networks, and so Tash has been instrumental in not only providing me with guidance towards setting up the WMAS ONE Network (the name of the WMAS BAME Network), but also helping me to understand the significance of why staff networks are so critical to an organisation.

Tash was a guest speaker for the launch of the WMAS ONE Network. Her ability to get the message across about the power of staff networks is second to none, and not only have I received great feedback about her presentation on the importance of staff networks but I have also heard her quotes being repeated by my WMAS colleagues.

As I am new to this role and still learning the steps, I know that I am fortunate to have Diverse Matters to guide me on this journey.

Natasha from Diverse Matters has supported us with two events over the last six-months looking at Diversity and Inclusion, specifically neurodiversity and ethnic-diversity. She has delivered talks to over 100 of Thales’ HR professionals to raise awareness, challenge and generate new thinking. Natasha is knowledgeable, engaging and motivating – she has a great style and really works to capture the audience and get them involved. Natasha also works really collaboratively with us to explore our objectives and design a session that’s aligned to these.

Natasha delivered an engaging training session on equality and diversity for our new trainees. She tailored her training excellently so that it accurately reflected our programme and gave the trainees exactly what they needed. Her enthusiastic and warm manner helped the trainees feel comfortable about sharing their opinions, asking questions and taking part in discussions. She really made us think hard about diversity and what it means for us!

We found our diversity training really helpful. It was a great balance between open and honest discussion (on sometimes difficult issues), and a structured approach to improving our policies, practices and thinking as a company.

We left with a clearer view of what bits we’re doing right, but also where there’s room for improvement, and how to get there.

"Tash took on the role of Chair for the Royal Academy of Engineering annual D&I event. She did this in a professional manner, linking the different sections of the event together with ease and managing the Q&A sessions efficiently and effectively. Tash used her expert knowledge in D&I to add to the day. Her light, airy style worked effectively to keep the day running smoothly."

We first came across Natasha at the 2019 NCVO Conference, where she led a Panel Session on the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We were blown away by her passion, insight and shining track record, so subsequently invited her to speak with our team about these crucial matters.

Natasha’s training session proved immensely useful to us. Her warm personality, tailored recommendations and mindful approach prompted a whole host of new ideas and left each team member feeling empowered. Natasha left no stone unturned – from recruitment to campaigning, she equipped us with the tools that we need to enhance our current operations. We can’t wait to put our knowledge into practice!

Animal Equality is a leading animal protection organisation; we fight for a world in which animals are respected and protected. Compassion, determination and effectiveness are at the heart of all that we do and we’re genuinely committed to encouraging equality, diversity and inclusion amongst our workforce, volunteer base, suppliers, supporters and all others whom we engage with throughout our work. We hope to inspire people from all communities to discover the joys of plant-based living!

We’re so grateful to Natasha for all that she does and for the support that she has given us. Here’s to a more equitable and just society for all!

All the training we have received from Diverse Matters has been delivered brilliantly by Kyriacos. The subject matter was appropriate and can be applied to what we currently do in our work.

Everyone in the room engaged well and behaved themselves:)

Natasha delivered an EDI session with all our staff at the charity Gingerbread in November 2019. We support single parent families and so the agenda of EDI both within our office and with the families we support is absolutely crucial.

I cannot speak highly enough of Tash’s knowledge, experience, skill base and understanding of this subject matter as well as the research she did on our charity creating very much a bespoke training session. Her delivery was excellent and really well thought out including engaging slides, encouraging conversation around this topic as well as thinking with us about how we can move EDI further forward within our charity.

I recommend this organisation and training without any hesitation at all and would encourage you to experience a session with Tasha. You won’t be disappointed and will learn and gain so much insight and appreciation of the EDI agenda. Keep shining a light on this vital topic Diverse Matters J

Diverse Matters Diversity and Inclusion audit was instrumental to guiding our EDI practices at CoppaFeel! and Natasha's realistic, considered and tailored suggestions were increasingly helpful to our strategy. Her infectious nature also made the process a delight.

Tash ran session for our board on diversity and inclusion. She delivered it with a winning mixture of expertise, energy and enthusiasm, and openness that meant that everyone really engaged in the discussion. Thanks Tash!

Diverse Matters undertook an audit of our marketing materials and gave us confidence in what we’re doing well as well as targeted and tangible areas for improvement. At short notice, Natasha provided feedback on an internal procedural document and, again, gave constructive advice and considerations.

Natasha is skilled at offering her professional expertise in a way that encourages others to ask questions without worrying they’re saying the wrong thing. This makes her an invaluable sounding board and guide to improve EDI in all organisations.

I had set out to establish our inaugural EDI Champions group and planned a session on unconscious bias to launch them. Tasha was recommended to me by a Colleague that had attended some of her unconscious bias training in the past and so we met in a coffee shop local to my organisation. Any doubts I could have had were immediately blown away by Tasha’s candour, enthusiasm and genuine interest in what I was trying to do. She designed a bespoke training session that slotted in exactly with my aims and intentions for the EDI Champions and I considered myself empowered to be working with her.

Following planning sessions Tasha had my group hooked on every word, hungry to learn more and take action. Individually, they have all since approached me to talk about changes they have made in their departments to challenge their unconscious biases.

Beyond this, I now consider Tasha a fantastic ally and great friend to the organisation. She vey kindly looked over my new EDI Strategy and gave some pointers that have enriched the document enormously. It is an enviable talent to deliver criticism in a positive light, and even more special to leave somebody feeling energised and confident afterwards, as Tasha has left me. I am certain that this won’t be the end of our work together

The fundamental nature of the work that we do is rooted in a strong sense of social justice however we are very aware that our industry does not currently reflect the demographics of the overall population and we are keen to do all we can to encourage change. In order to improve our awareness of diversity and unconscious bias within the office we asked Natasha to provide a tailored training session for all of our staff. Natasha brought a huge amount of positive energy to a very engaging training session which has opened an ongoing dialogue amongst our staff at the same time as providing us with the necessary knowledge and confidence to progress our aims. I am very happy to recommend Natasha, the feedback from all of our staff was very positive and Natasha’s experience and knowledge was invaluable to us.

Tash recently delivered training to support our new Inclusion Champions, to prepare for the launch of this as a new initiative.  The course content was tailored to us as an organisation and as a group of individuals.

Tash has an exceptional level of knowledge that is delivered with a relaxed, engaging, energetic and passionate delivery style which supports a positive learning experience for all.  We thoroughly enjoyed our training and have some fantastic initiatives to work on that we identified during the training.

Our mission is to provide safe and dynamic intimacy education and training to the arts industry. We are aware that currently the personnel within the intimacy industry does not reflect the demographics of the entertainment industry of whom we serve. We reached out to Natasha at Diverse Matters who provided insight and advice as to how to make this work more accessible. Natasha was wonderfully welcoming and incredibly helpful as she guided us through the process. I have no hesitation in recommending Natasha as someone who can provide expertise and encouragement to further positive change. Thank you Natasha! 

Natasha quickly got to grips with our business and sector to deliver EDI development with content relevant to our employees. She empowers people to learn something new in the EDI space and more importantly get individuals to reflect on their own lives.

Working with Diverse Matters on an audit of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion within our organisation has been highly beneficial. Tash took time to understand our context and requirements and designed and delivered bespoke questionnaires and interviews at all levels of the organisation. Information was fed back in a detailed written report and oral presentation for board and a summary document with key recommendations for sharing more widely. We are using the findings of the EDI audit as the basis for ongoing EDI improvement.

Tash recently delivered D&I training to our editorial team as part of our wider learning and development efforts. Tash's session was engaging, sensitive and thought-provoking and allowed the team to ask questions and engage with the content. Tash was welcoming to all and her thoughtful, considered and tailored content and conversation has helped the team to incorporate these lessons into daily reporting. We also left the session with a checklist of longer-term initiatives to work on. 

As part of our continued commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion within the ThirdWay Group, we had the pleasure of inviting Natasha Broomfield-Reid as our guest speaker to deliver a presentation to our teams, on the importance of equality, diversity and inclusion within organisations.

We had a great response to the presentation and our teams found the session both informative and engaging. Our teams particularly enjoyed the interactive session which enabled everyone to get involved and feel part of the session.

Natasha really engages her audience throughout her presentation and her passion for educating people on equality, diversity and inclusion really shines through.

We would like to thank Natasha and the Diverse Matters team for their guidance and support, and we look forward to working with Diverse Matters in the near future as we continue our ThirdWay Make a Difference journey.

We are a large membership organisation and we knew we needed to improve on how we respond to Equity Equality Diversity and Inclusion. Tash and her team worked with us to undertake an audit, they reached out to so many levels and segments of the organisation to get a clear understanding of where we are with our EEDI journey. The Audit and subsequent action plan and supplementary documents has meant we have been given a really clear path on the practical things we need to do to improve EEDI.

EPAA signed a long term partnership with Diverse Matters which commenced in September 2020 and is set to continue to the end of 2022. Diverse Matters deliver high quality training on all aspects of equality, diversity and inclusion for our members. The partnership has been a huge success for us and our members are very much enjoying the training. Each session has been highly engaging and relevant content, of which our members can take back tangible resources and tips to their leadership teams. It is fair to say DM virtual training sessions are some of the best attended out of all that we offer our members!

As a small charity, with a fast-changing and growing workforce, EDI was not something that we had seriously thought about apart from some of the basics such as a policy and within recruitment. We had not paid much attention to ourselves and how we think about this subject and how it influences the type of workplace that we are.

When speaking to Diverse Matters, it quickly became obvious that they were listening to us and trying to understand us as an organisation. The solutions offered us flexibility and were budget friendly. Most of all they considered our workforce and how we were working during COVID.

The actual training sessions were really well received by employees at all levels. It has kickstarted many more conversations amongst us and has become just a starting point for us in the EDI journey. Thanks to Donna and her responsiveness and excellent training style we are on a great path towards become a much more representative and inclusive organisation.

 Over 2021, the MS Society undertook research to understand as much as possible about what we needed to do differently in terms of equality, diversity and inclusion and how we could improve across all areas. Part of that research was about speaking to audiences that we traditionally don’t engage well and are under-represented in our work, services and people – in other words, understanding the views of people we wish to serve better. We knew that, to do that research well, we’d need external support – because otherwise we were unlikely to elicit frank and critical responses. This is where Tash, Hanan and Paul at Diverse Matters came in. The Diverse Matters Team interviewed people in a mix of focus groups and 121s, provided a thorough report, and then helped us communicate this across the organisation. As news of our work with Diverse Matters spread, other teams have also worked or are planning to work with Tash – for example, with EDI training.

From the start, Tash was enthusiastic, professional, accommodating and flexible – which is just what you need when the programme landscape is ever changing with emerging needs. What really stood out for me though is her no-nonsense, common sense approach and her ability to provide reassurance and support. To understand EDI, organisations need to do some real soul-searching and be prepared to have uncomfortable conversations. At times, that felt very difficult – we were all conscious of language, our tone of voice, micro-aggressions – and Tash was there to tell us that we can only ever be honest and that this goes a long way. It was refreshing and helped pull us out of ‘analysis paralysis’ back to the key issue – we just needed to get going and make improvements!

Huge shout-out also to Hanan and Paul for providing meticulous research insights and project management, and overall being caring and conscientious colleagues.

We really felt the benefit of working with Diverse Matters and I’d recommend them to any organisation in a heartbeat.

I just wanted to reach out to say thank you to the DM team for the trainings provided across our 9 locations.

I would also like to make a special mention for Pam – from the teams I have seen where she delivered the sessions the feedback from the teams – engaging, thought provoking, and felt very ‘safe’ to share their own experiences and being able to contribute to the discussions. I also attended one of Pam’s sessions and must say I think she is not only knowledgeable but the ability to convey these complex topics to our teams from all differing backgrounds was most impressive. I think she is a real ‘asset’ to the DM team.

Natasha and her team have worked with SafeLives over the last 2 years to help us to develop our equity, equality, diversity and inclusion policy and procedures. This has included developing and delivering training to staff, supporting SLT in developing strategy and working operationally with HR and project management to support changing our processes. The expertise they have brought has been really useful and the opportunity it has provided to have a ‘critical friend’ has helped us to have difficult conversations internally which is essential if we are to really work in a way that is compatible with our EEDI commitments.

We have been working with Natasha and Diverse Matters for the last 12 months, and I could not praise them enough.  Having initially undertaken a comprehensive organisational EDI audit, examined all associated policies, and facilitated listening groups, Divers Matters then delivered a range of training sessions on EDI themes such as unconscious bias, white privilege and micro-aggressions, as well as a session on Board responsibilities.

Natasha's approach is excellent; she manages to introduce an element of humour and fun whilst maintaining a thoroughly professional approach, and this encourages staff to open up about their thoughts and feelings on the subjects discussed.  The audit itself really helped create focus for our new EDI strategy and action plan which now contains practical ideas and measures to help us improve in key areas.  The training sessions were both informative, thought provoking and engaging and our team has really benefitted from Natasha's experience, knowledge and expertise of the subject.

I would be happy to recommend Natasha and her team to any charity looking to undertake further work in this important area. 

We have now been working with Diverse Matters for over a year in order to help our organisation focus on improving race inclusion.

The trainers are excellent and the course delegates have gained a greater depth of knowledge and understanding from attending the sessions.

Tash and her colleagues have all been extremely helpful, especially given that we have requested a degree of bespoke tailoring.

We are exploring further development and awareness raising for our people, a more in-depth race inclusion option plus the introduction of LGB & T sessions, so look forward to continuing to work with Tash and her team this year.

The Diverse Matters team ran a series of ‘Dignity at Work’ virtual workshops and developed a Manager's toolkit to support our Call It Out Campaign’, embed our new policy and expected ways of working for managers.

Natasha and Angela were experts in creating a safe environment where people felt able to share their experiences and create some very powerful and lasting messages.  We loved the concept of ‘Being an Upstander’. Their lived experiences, empathy, sense of fun and practical approach was the perfect solution for us.   

Donna delivered an informative and engaging workshop on diversity and inclusion. Donna was encouraging and warm which helped to create an environment in which everyone felt comfortable and able to participate. We have received positive feedback from those that attended the workshop, who have said that they found the material thought provoking and powerful. We would certainly recommend Donna and Diverse Matters to anyone looking for a D&I workshop. 

We worked with Diverse Matters to conduct an audit/equality analysis of our systems, processes and ways of working. We are delighted with the extensive research they undertook from surveys and interviews to workshops with team members with lived experience. This led to the delivery of an in depth report that has helped to shape our organisation’s anti-racism plan. We are now well into the delivery of this plan and looking forward to working again with Diverse Matters to under take a review of our progress.

Working with Diverse Matters has been extremely valuable and critical in guiding us and helping to build momentum internally. Thank you

We found working with Diverse Matters to be a really beneficial experience. The course we undertook was a really important moment of reflection, growth and development for our diverse team at the European Cricket Network. 

Holding such an event and having a huge amount of theoretical and practical input from the teacher provided us with very valuable takeaways to improve how we communicate, operate and grow together as a team.

We thank Diverse Matters and can highly recommend their understanding and delivery of the topics which helped our team grow and develop.

Royal Holloway approached Diverse Matters following positive feedback from colleagues at a separate institution. This feedback related to a Race Awareness session carried out by Barbara Brown and Aubrey Maasdorp.  We met with Barbara and Aubrey to discuss requirements and content for our own Race Awareness and Race Inclusion course, which was intended for our senior leadership population.

The sessions were designed to provide reflective space for leaders to understand race equality and learn practical tool to challenge, influence and support thinking regarding anti-racist practice. These were pivotal conversations and we feel privileged that Diverse Matters was available to facilitate them. All colleagues who attended were engaged and feedback was overwhelmingly positive, including around how thought-provoking and inclusive the sessions were. We are also very grateful to Adam Nelmes who provided robust administrative support throughout.

We really enjoyed the training and appreciate how it had been tailored to be relevant to our business. The trainer was really knowledgeable and kept us all engaged using various training techniques to keep us interested. It was a thought provoking session and we look forward to implementing what we learned.

The training we received was so valuable and useful for our work at the Trust. The trainer Natasha was brilliant. She was engaging, really knowledgeable and didn't make it feel like your basic diversity training that most people find boring. There was time for us to discuss our thoughts and share our experiences which I believe is really important in training like this.

We also had some really thought  provoking conversations that I know will impact the staff to take more care when working with people of different backgrounds and cultures as all of us learned about our own unconscious biases. The whole session left you with lots of food for thought and I would absolutely recommend to others.

The session from Diverse Matters was a beneficial session that generated important conversations. We look forward to continue to evolve and improve our ED&I approach.

Having worked with Diverse Matters at my previous organisation, I knew they were the perfect fit to support the start of our EDI journey. Designing and agreeing the content was made really easy.  Donna and Aubrey helped initiate thought provoking conversations but always kept the material practical and relevant. There was a palpable excitement within (and following) the sessions that has resulted in buy-in at all levels, and significant momentum. Diverse Matters combine that technical proficiency with the human factors that have really helped us bring EDI to life for our staff.

We enlisted the support of Tash and Diverse Matters to give direction and guidance on our Inclusion & Diversity strategy. Tash held a very informative, interesting and engaging training session to all our UK employees. Helping to educate them on matters surrounding race and unconscious bias.

Both sessions have been really well received with lots of practical content. Natasha was great and made the session accessible for all regardless of where they were with their learning. Hoping that we have the opportunity to continue further learning with Diverse Matters.

Diverse Matters has delivered fantastic training for us - bespoke to our needs and context and exactly what we were looking for. We have had fantastic feedback on the training, our trainer Lex, and the impact of the sessions. We are already looking to book in additional sessions and are thrilled to be working with Diverse Matters.

Great work by the team at Diverse Matters. Really engaged with the learners and clearly spent a lot of time on planning the brief. The team came out of the sessions with a greater understanding of not just the now, but also a great historical context explaining why. Great stuff, looking forward to using Diverse Matters in the future.

I reached out to Natasha, to ask her if she would be a panelist for a lunch and learn session about the Equality Act 2010 and was met by such warmth, even waiving a speaker fee to support our organisation as a charity.

Natasha made the process of collaborating incredibly easy and was flexible when a family emergency meant we needed to postpone the session.

During the session itself, Natasha was informative, personable and captivated our audience with her incredible ability to connect with people. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to collaborate with such an inspirational person and was in awe after seeing Natasha in action.

Couldn’t recommend enough!

Natasha is a thoroughly engaging trainer who brings a wealth of experience and innate insight into her subject matter. She is also personable and entertaining, putting our delegates at ease and making sure everyone felt safe to ask questions that they might otherwise have not. Would definitely recommend and will be bringing her back to Livv Housing Group soon.

Really impressed by our interactions with Diverse Matters at each step in the process. You engaged closely with us from the outset, to ensure that you understood our organisation and our needs. Aubrey facilitated two excellent sessions, where his skills, experience and empathy created the protected environment we needed to engage in open discussion and meaningful learning. We’re keen to retain an ongoing relationship with Diverse Matters as we continue on this journey as an organisation.

I just want to thank you both for producing this amazingly thorough, detailed and thoughtful audit report. I’ve spent this morning reading the findings and recommendations cover to cover and I am so hopeful that they become the blueprint for the way forward. We really needed this work done for us and I am really grateful.

We had an engaging and informative INSET day delivered my Diverse Matters, as part of our wider initiative, to grow, develop and improve our staff understanding of racism in schools and to give them confidence on how to tackle situation and scenarios that arise. Natasha was superb, tailoring her session to the needs of our school and responding accordingly to our demographic and culture. 

When we started our EDI journey as a school, it appeared daunting at times. Natasha and her team at Diverse Matters really engaged with us to understand our needs and offer a unique and bespoke proposal that would not only benefit the staff but our whole school community. Staff training in September 2023 focused on being an effective upstander and having difficult conversations, challenging both microaggressions and more harmful speech. Natasha and her team (Angela and Aubrey) were very authentic in their delivery and offered staff  easy ways to initiate these difficult and often uncomfortable conversations by guiding us through some scenarios and communication strategies, that helped break down barriers and facilitate productive dialogue. We were encouraged to ask questions and they listened to our concerns and experiences.

The practical strategies and techniques provided equipped us with the tools to confidently stand up against discrimination, ensuring that we can contribute to creating a more equitable learning environment. Whilst we had specifically looked at race and racism, the skills learnt, and suggestions could easily be applied to any situation involving diversity characteristics that need swift intervention. We really appreciated the engaging, warm and non-judgmental delivery of the training that enhanced knowledge of good diversity and inclusion practice in a school setting. We are looking forward to the next stage of training our students in dignity and respect at school. 

Diverse Matters offer excellent services from start to finish. They convince through their expertise, professionalism and care as well as a high standard of work. I highly recommend their EDI, Unconscious Bias and Cultural Awareness Training. It is insightful, engaging and was perfectly delivered by Angela. Thank you so much for supporting us on this!

We have worked with Natasha on various occasions for internal training at Charity People and have found her style to be passionate, down to earth, easy to work with and clear in her communication methods. We wouldn't hesitate to recommend her or her company. Thanks Tash, keep up the great work!

Diverse Matters provided us with an excellent and comprehensive EDI Audit which will provide an excellent foundation on which to further develop our work in this area. They were efficient, easy to work with and provided us with excellent insights that will really help us improve our practice.

Diverse Matters delivered an excellent training session on Conscious Inclusion and Neurodiversity Awareness. It was a well delivered, thought provoking session which was engaging throughout. It scratched the surface of a huge topic so we hope to come back to Diverse Matters for some future training.

Over the last two years, Natasha and her colleagues have delivered high-quality, thought-provoking and practical sessions for us on race, disability, gender and sexuality, inclusive language and equality impact assessments to help our staff develop a better understanding of equity, diversity and inclusion. They consistently combine expertise and lived experience to facilitate meaningful discussions about protected characteristics, intersectionality and, importantly, actions we can take to be more inclusive. The benefits are far reaching. Not only do we feel we are a more inclusive workplace, we have a better understanding of many of the issues facing our diverse service users. 

Additionally, Diverse Matters has provided consultancy services, reviewing our Equality Impact Assessment template and guidance, our monitoring template and guidance and our menopause policy. This has helped us take a considered, inclusive approach to our policies and processes.

Natasha is flexible, warm, honest and professional in her approach. She's taken the time to understand our objectives and priorities to ensure training is as impactful as possible, while also making reference to our internal processes, policies and resources where relevant. We are hugely appreciative of the Diverse Matters team for their expertise, enthusiasm and support.

I wanted to say thanks so much for the informative and insightful training session.  Everyone agreed it was really useful and the team commented on how much we valued your expertise, skill and approach as a facilitator. It was perfect for our group - thank you for enabling such in depth conversations as well as delivering the valuable content we needed.