Unpacking why we need Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DEI) in sport & community engagement !

With an increase in demand for equity initiatives for underrepresented groups and funding from federal and state bodies, I think it’s important to unpack why we need DEI – Diversity Equity and Inclusion for people to understand the need and significance of inclusion initiatives in our communities.

DIVERSITY is the characteristics and qualities that differentiate people from one another. It’s important to acknowledge that each individual is unique.

EQUITY which is very often confused with Equality, is the recognition that all unique individuals do not have the same levels of access when they start their journey and we as a society need to intentionally cultivate opportunities for groups that have been underrepresented historically to reach a place of Equality

INCLUSION is about removing existing systemic and community practices that create hurdles for individuals to participate in community activities like sport.

In this article I am going to focus my attention on the country where I work and reside, Australia. Let’s take a quick look at Australia’s diversity in population.

• Australia is home to the world’s oldest continuous cultures.  Timely to mention where 14 October 2023 was a significant day for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people where Australians voted in a to “A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice that would give independent advice to the Parliament and Government. This referendum did not pass ! The Voice FTFCulturalDiversity-large.jpg (1075×1253) (humanrights.gov.au)

• We know that Australia has a multicultural community and data suggests a need for drastic measures to support this diversity. In the state of Queensland, net overseas migration made the largest contribution to population growth in Queensland in the 12 months to 31 March 2023 of 56.5% followed by net interstate migration of 25%. (Queensland Government Statisticians Office)
• According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia is in 2021 27.6% of the Australian population were born overseas. Please refer to the graph below to review the growth in the proportion of people who were born overseas since 2006.

To throw some light on the inequities in gender representation – with 50.2% of the Australian population being female (Australia population (2023) live — Countrymeters) latest statistics from WGEA report suggests that there are significant gaps in representation of women in leadership roles with only 22.3% women CEO’s in Australia across all industries and that every industry has a pay gap that favours men WGEA-Gender-Equality-Scorecard-2022.pdf

The reason I present you with this data is because I truly believe that data driven initiatives and programs lead to sustainable change and the community needs to prioritize inclusion and promote progressive values to have a respectful and inclusive society. In community sport and engagement this is crucial as we face challenges in the volunteering or even succession planning at club levels. DEI as a viewpoint needs to be a topic of discussion for all levels of an organisation across all departments, to have a sustainable impact, whether that is sport development or facilities and infrastructure.

With a significant growth in multicultural communities over the last two decades and the need for representation from underrepresented groups, noting that 19.1% of the Queensland population or just less than 1 in every 5 Queenslanders have a disability, it’s time we break down systemic barriers, collaborate and share best practices to foster unity in this diversity. (Disability Statistics Queensland Government)

Change in any form or removing barriers in community engagement is met with resistance or backlash mainly because of unconscious biases and stereotypes! So how do we overcome that as a society ?

Look out for more on Unconscious Biases and Stereotypes in my next article !