• DIVERSITY & INCLUSION.

Introduction

Scottish Squash is committed to promoting equal opportunities. We have a clear vision, mission and shared values and at the heart of our strategy is our aim to ensure that everyone is made to feel welcome in squash and there are no barriers to participation. We are committeed and will continue to work with diversity & inclusion partners to make this possible.

What follows is an overview of the equality action plan, and we would encourage you all, whatever your role and involvement with the sport, to actively engage with this plan and together we can work collaboratively to the benefit of Squash in Scotland.

Our journey so far

Scottish Squash aspires for Squash in Scotland to continue to develop and be representative of all within Scotland. We’ve taken significant steps in our work focused on diversity & inclusion throughout previous strategic cycles.

The current strategic plan, ‘Together for Squash in Scotland‘ (2023-2027) sets out three ambitions which we are striving to achieve by 2033. One of those is ‘Ambition 50:50′ as we aim to work towards having more equal and diverse representation of people involved in squash in Scotland in all different capacities.

To help challenge and review the sports work across diversity & inclusion, Scottish Squash engaged positively, during previous strategic cycles, with the Equality Standard for Sport achieving the intermediate level in 2021. We will shortly be engaging in a new framework, Moving to Inclusion to continue to challenge and review the progress been made.

The sports equality action plan is informed and shaped by our equality monitoring and input from a range of partners. Currently, that plan focuses in particular on making squash more accessible for women and young people.

Women and young people are significantly underrepresented in squash in Scotland; therefore, these are priorities for intervention. However, Scottish Squash recognises that, beyond this, a wider range of communities experience barriers to taking part in squash and we will continue to understand those and put measures in place to ensure everyone can enjoy taking part in the sport across Scotland in the short, medium and long term.

We recognise that in order to make sustained progress we can’t work alone and collaborative and partnership working is critical. We’re pleased to be supported by a range of partners and working groups in this area, some of which are highlighted below.

Diversity & Inclusion External Working Group

Our external Diversity & Inclusion Working Group advise and provide guidance against our equality action plan and act as champions for diversity & inclusion within Squash in Scotland. The Board Equality Champion, Director of Development and a Club Development Manager all attend working group meetings.

Meet the members of the external Diversity & Inclusion Working Group:

Shona Clark

Hakim Din

Jonathan MacBride

Vivek Pandya

Sue Strachan

Equality Monitoring 2023 – Toolkit

To gain a true reflection of those that engage with squash in Scotland, everyone needs to play their part. You can play your part by completing the equality monitoring survey and encouraging others as well.

The toolkit below aims to help clubs share appropriate information with their members across a varity of channels.

Social media is unavoidable. Today, almost everyone is a member of at least one platform. Besides their wide reach, what’s great about social networks is that most of them are free to use and present an inexpensive way to promote campaigns.

What to post

Scottish Squash have opened their Equality Monitoring Survey 2023. By completing the survey you’ll be contributing to ensuring that squash in Scotland is inclusive and welcoming to all. The survey will help to identify underrepresented groups and potential inequalities which can then be addressed in a targeted way throughout the squash community.

Let’s support squash in Scotland to be inclusive and diverse! Link to the survey below 👇

[Link]

Email and WhatsApp are powerful and inexpensive channels for encouraging word of mouth and asking your current members to complete the Equality Monitoring Survey.

Copy and paste our suggested wording below.

Email/WhatsApp Example

Subject: Squash in Scotland Equality Monitoring Survey – Please complete and share.

Hi,

The Equality Monitoring Survey 2023 is now open!

The survey seeks to gather data on the profile of the squash community in Scotland in terms of equality and diversity. This insight can then be used to engage underrepresented groups or tackle potential inequalities throughout the squash community.

To gain a true reflection, everyone needs to play their part so let’s get behind this and encourage club members to take part.

The link to the survey is below, and it should take you less than 10 minutes to complete.

[LINK]

Supporting Information & Policies

‘Together for Squash in Scotland’ (2023-2027) Strategic Plan

Equality Policy