Diversity Coffee Connect Session 4 – What does it mean to be an ally?

This event is in the past – click here to download the insights pack

‘It’s hard to be what you can’t see’  

Marian Wright Edelman 

The purpose of this Leading to Change programme is to provide a safe space for you to connect with other people in the system and to explore an equality, diversity and inclusion theme together through informal conversations. Prior to each session, we would encourage you to look at the equality blogs to help kick start the conversation.

The theme for this session is Allyship , we would like you to explore what it means to be an ally and enable others to feel empowered within your organisation.

An ally is any person that actively promotes and aspires to advance the culture of inclusion through intentional, positive and conscious efforts that benefit people as a whole. Being an ally doesn’t necessarily mean you fully understand what it feels like to be oppressed. It means you’re taking on the struggle for justice and equality as your own. (Masuwa and Sharma, 2020)

Prior to this session, to help inform our conversations, we would encourage you to have a look at our Equality blog, linked to the theme of this session. The blog should take approximately 5 -10 minutes to read:   

Blog: ‘You only aspire to what you see…’ Dr Gregory Ekatah is a Consultant Colorectal & General Surgeon, Scottish Government Clinical Adviser 2020-2022, Host of RCSED ‘Let’s Talk Surgery’ Podcast and Scottish Clinical Leadership Fellow Alumni (19/20)

Participants will be paired up in small groups and invited to have a conversation. Some questions to explore could be:

• Have you noticed times when you could have been an ally? 
• Have you taken this opportunity? 
• What impact do you think you could have by being an ally? 
• Do you feel confident to be an active ally within your workplace? 
• Do you feel you have the skills, language and behaviours to be an impactful ally? 

During the session we will put a feedback form in the chat for you to complete during the session. We want to understand what came up in the conversation and any insights that you have.