Blackburn Rovers is committed to creating an environment of inclusion and trust in which people can work, attend and participate in football and other activities without fear, intimidation, victimisation, harassment or abuse knowing they are respected and valued as individuals.
This is forms the basis of the club’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Policy- ‘One Rovers – inclusion for all.'
The ongoing commitment is being met by:-
• Promoting and valuing diversity and inclusion;
• Tackling and eliminating discrimination;
• Raising awareness of standards and expectations, key messages and procedures to those who discriminate and those who consider they have been discriminated against; and
• Responding effectively and appropriately to incidents and concerns both formal and informal.
We're an equal opportunities employer and participate in ensuring BAME candidates are included in Academy recruitment;
We've delivered Playing for Inclusion awareness to senior managers and staff in mixed groups to demonstrate leadership, support and understanding from the top down.
We challenged each department to review their practices to identify under-representation and develop initiatives in response.
We created a series of posters as part of an awareness campaign to highlight the club’s commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, using ground regulations and increasing the scope of reporting mechanisms which are widely promoted via media channels;
We ensure wide representation of all members of our diverse community in our fans' groups and created our Community Integration Group/
The work undertaken has resulted in the club achieving the EFL Code of Practice for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for the past five years.
Our proudest achievement is the creation of ONEROVERS which unites and reflects our diverse community of fans. This is the culmination of our work with individual groups to demonstrate inclusion.
They are united by the Rovers. Although our work is ongoing throughout the season, we dedicate one match day each term to ONEROVERS and celebrate diversity and inclusion, including fans acting as player escorts representing individual groups.
This is Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. This is the football family; this is the Rovers family; this is ONE ROVERS.
We've signed the Code to ensure Blackburn Rovers is at the forefront of this initiative and to demonstrate our commitment to the wider footballing community and to further enhance our standing as in inclusive club and to continue the positive work already ongoing within our club and community to enable further opportunities for participation
The club is located in a richly diversified community and therefore we should embrace and pursue, wherever possible, a strategy to give opportunities to all sectors to reflect this diversity and build on our reputation as an Equal Opportunities employer and to send a message to potential employees that we reach out to provide opportunities and welcome everyone at the club.
The Code is a key policy to integrate in to our organisation’s culture and equality and diversity strategy going forward.
It will promote and generate fair representation of a multi-cultural society throughout the game at all levels and enable anyone whoever they are, wherever they’re from to have an opportunity to show case their talent and participate as part of an ongoing strategy.
