Making Your Club More Inclusive

Herefordshire Cricket recognises the vital role clubs play in not only delivering grassroots cricket, but also in creating a welcoming and inclusive environment across the county and helping grow the game.

This page is designed to help clubs create a more inclusive environment and provide easy access to ECB toolkits covering Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI).

CREATING A CLUB FOR EVERYONE

This toolkit is used to assess how a club can start Raising the Game. It is designed to support discussions and actions within a cricket club than can help create an inclusive environment and create a Club for Everyone.

The toolkit is broken down into three parts to help clubs have focused conversations that start with the basics. Clubs are encouraged to progress through each part at their own pace:

Part 1: Tackling Discrimination 

Would our members recognise discrimination and know what to do if they experience of observed it?
Would officials and volunteers at our club know what to do if they observed discrimination or it was reported to them?

Part 2: Welcoming & Inclusive Club 

Have we taken steps to make our facilities accessible and welcoming to everyone?
How welcoming is our club to various ethnicities and religions?
Do our female members receive equal opportunity and feel fully integrated into our club?
Have we created welcoming and safe spaces for the LGBTQ+ community?

Part 3: Diverse & Inclusive Leadership 

Do we have diverse representation on our committee and involved in the management of our club?
Do we have mechanisms that ensure we monitor our progress and continue to be an inclusive and welcoming club?

How to use this toolkit

Individually read and reflect on the questions provided. Schedule meetings to discuss the questions as a group, focusing on one of the three parts each time. 

Through the discussions, develop actions/next steps and assign owners. 
Update the club’s EDI action plan and communicate plans with club members. 
Hold each other to account for actioning the plan by reviewing the questions on a regular basis. 
Tip: If you aren't able to answer a question without making an assumption, seek out someone who can help you understand the answer. We want to avoid making assumptions at all times, and ensure all voices are heard and represented.

DEVELOPING AN INCLUSIVE TEAM CULTURE

This toolkit is used to help team leaders/managers align their teams on how to solve equity, diversity, and inclusion challenges. This is intended to be run as a 1-2 hour workshop and can be used at any team level.

The workshop is made up of three activities:

A 30-minute discussion on why inclusive environments are important and how we can begin to create them.
Creating an action plan to bring the favourite ideas from the previous activity to life.
Identify the inclusive behaviours we want our team to commit to as part of Raising the Game.
The toolkit includes a Facilitator Guide for club officials running the workshop and some Suggested Slides and Materials.

How to use this toolkit

Read the facilitator guide and tips on how to run the workshop.
Adjust the workshop slides and timing to suit your team’s needs.
Schedule and run the workshop using the suggested material.
Capture thoughts and feedback from the team.
Send out actions following the workshop.
Use this method to solve other challenges in your team.
CONVERSATION GUIDE, EDI CONTENT HUB

This toolkit is used to help leaders have conversations with team members around understanding different lived experiences, leveraging videos they have seen on the EDI Content Hub (login details can be found in the toolkit slides).

Learning about other people’s experiences helps individuals gain a perspective and understanding of challenges/barriers others have encountered, reducing stereotyping and bias to create a more inclusive environment.

How to use this toolkit

Set up or repurpose a team meeting to discuss learnings from the EDI Content Hub.
Give yourself and the team a week or so to watch, and reflect on, a video (either preselected or any video of their choice).
Before the meeting, review the conversation guide and be prepared to answer the questions on the video you watched.
During the meeting, quickly share your feedback/reflections first, and then go around the room, using the questions in the guide to ask others to share their reflections.
After the meeting, ask your team for feedback on the session and if there are any volunteers to ‘host’ next.
Set up another team meeting to repeat the exercise, aiming to set a monthly or quarterly date.