Ideal time commitment: approx. 10-15 hours per month; flexible.
Responsible to: Representation and Inclusion Trustee.
Bi Pride UK’s mission is to create spaces where people who experience attraction beyond gender can be freely visible and celebrate themselves and their identities. It’s not enough to be ‘welcome’ at a Pride. We make up a very large proportion of the GRSD (Gender, Romantic and Sexual Diversity) community – many stats actually say we’re over half the community – and we deserve to be visible and celebrated in our own right.
There are many ways to make this happen, and we work in many ways to bring this change about:
- Outreach work with other Prides, LGBT organisations and bi organisations – our consultation work with local Prides, the UK Pride Organisers Network and local and national LGBT organisations works in a tailored way to make sure that bi-inclusion is a top priority and is being done well.
- Organising a high-profile annual Bi Pride event – from September 2019, Bi Pride UK made history with the largest ever gathering of bi people recorded. A performance stage, a panel stage, stall village, street food, and over 1,300 attendees. After going virtual with the BiFi Festival for 2020 due to Covid-19 and running a virtual Pride event in 2021, we are looking forward to being back in person in 2022.
- Building a strong online and virtual community – just as important as the rest of our work is making sure that people hear about it! People need to know what resources and spaces exist for them, and how they can connect with other people like them.
The role:
We are seeking a volunteer to act as the Head of Inclusion and Access, leading a team of volunteers who will support the rest of the organisation identify and overcome barriers that marginalised or excluded communities may have to participation in designing, delivering and benefitting from the work that Bi Pride UK delivers.
The Head of Inclusion and Access will be responsible for managing the inclusion and access team, and will ensure that access for marginalised groups within the bi communities is an embedded focus within all areas of organisational and programmatic delivery. They will work with the Volunteer Management team to recruit a team of volunteers to comprise the Inclusion and Access team, and will work closely with the Heads of each Bi Pride UK team to identify areas of need for improvement in representation and participation and organisation-wide strategies for addressing these. This will include helping the events team with building access features into Bi Pride UK events and ensuring that the Bi Pride UK team is fully briefed and trained to be able to support volunteers and participants with a variety of access needs and from a range of marginalised communities.
Day-to-day responsibilities of the Head of Inclusion and Access will include:
- Developing and leading on Bi Pride UK’s representation, inclusion and access strategy;
- Supporting the Trustees to identify systemic and structural barriers to participation within Bi Pride UK;
- Recruiting, managing and supporting a team of inclusion and access volunteers;
- Working with the volunteer management team to identify and meet any relevant training needs;
- Working with the events team to build inclusion and access into the core of any Bi Pride UK event;
- Working with other teams to develop methods for evaluating the charity’s ongoing work in this area.
Our team volunteers remotely from anywhere in the UK, with some travel required occasionally (primarily for our flagship Pride event in London in September). Our Trustees and Heads meetings take place via conference call on the third Monday evening of every month. All reasonable expenses incurred are reimbursed, including travel, lunch at away days and other all day events, and some childcare costs if required.
Volunteer specification:
- Interest and passion for tackling discrimination against and improving the visibility of people in the UK attracted to more than one gender;
- An understanding of the needs of people and communities in the UK attracted beyond gender;
- Commitment to the aims and objectives of Bi Pride UK;
- Experience of volunteer and/or people management in a not-for-profit context;
- Strong understanding of marginalised communities, power dynamics and privilege;
- Experience of challenging entrenched and/or unconscious biases in an organisational context;
- Some understanding of access as it relates to an event management context;
- Strong project management, organisational and administrative skills;
- Strong experience of developing collaborative relationships with internal stakeholders;
- Ability to self-motivate when working remotely;
- Strong written and oral communication skills.
Applying
The position is open to anyone over the age of 18. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds, especially minority groups such as applicants of colour, trans and non-binary applicants and disabled applicants. Bi Pride UK is aware of the barriers that can be faced in gaining traditional work experience, particularly for BAME, disabled and trans people. We will give weight to this and encourage people when applying to consider caring responsibilities, including parenthood, volunteering, and other non-paid experiences and responsibilities when making their application.