Equality and diversity have been important to me from a young age. I grew up in a diverse household, so being surrounded by friends and families from different cultural backgrounds was something to celebrate.

As I got older, I began to realise that lots of people from diverse communities were not represented positively in history and in society - especially the black community. These thoughts were exacerbated even more after the George Floyd tragedy.

In the weeks following his death, my students and I explored conversations and created a tribute for George Floyd and others around the world who have been subjected to racism.

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It was a starting point, and it made us look at how we could continue to bring about positive change. Wanting to do more, we created some training videos and students facilitated sessions on black history icons. Our work caught the eye of people associated with the European Social Fund (ESF), who granted us funding to support the work. 

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Thanks to the funding, the college has created a fantastic team of equality and diversity digital inclusion ambassadors who will help to embed black history into the curriculum at the college all year round. In addition to embedding black history within the curriculum, the ambassadors’ role will be to facilitate projects that incorporate the LGBTQ+ community, women’s rights, the traveller community, people with disabilities and many more under our nine protected characteristics.

We have also received support from the Association of Colleges (AoC) and I was recently involved in a podcast with it. The BBC has featured our work on TV and radio - and I’ve been featured in The Voice magazine. Along the way I’ve met OBE winners, leaders in education and celebrities. They have all given us such overwhelming support and feedback.

Through developing business and community relationships, we have opened up work experience opportunities for students who have had the chance to work with the photographer John Ferguson and teamed up with Ipswich Museum for an exhibition that will feature costumes from Black Panther, the Marvel film.

As far as we are aware, we are the first college in the UK to teach black history all year round. 

Our next step is to give back and thank community groups that are unrepresented in history in Suffolk and at a national level. For example, last week we hosted an event with the first-ever person from the Windrush generation to become a sergeant in the Royal Air Force. We wanted to project a narrative that young people don’t often see in society, and invited students from One Sixth Form College to attend.

This week, we have more events around the theme of “untold hero” stories to celebrate, being the first college to facilitate black history. We will hear some amazing success stories from the black community including authors, business people, DJs, a footballer, a model with her own clothes brand and two people (Alex Wheatle and Leroy Logan) whose stories were made into films as part of the Small Axe series created by the Oscar-winning film director, Steve McQueen. We will also have a performance from Wooden Roots, who performed in Black Panther, and have local food supplied by a company called Sweet P’s, a local Caribbean, soul-infused restaurant.

These amazing individuals we are celebrating have extraordinary careers. They are mostly local talent from the black community and they are helping to pave the way for others to dream big. Ultimately, we want to bring about positive change across the country and create a sustainable model that others can adopt.

Equality, diversity and inclusion: what can your college do?

So what advice would I give to other colleges? 

Reach out to your local community
Ask people to come in and talk to students as guest speakers. Communities have some amazing experts who are often overlooked - and they are often happy to come in (or talk on Zoom) to share their amazing stories.

Get your students involved in discussion groups
Let them teach you a few things and vice versa. Members of one group I know had never heard of the Windrush generation. So we were able to talk about this and now they are coming to the organised events about this part of our history.

Include everyone
Think about terms that we use in society - we often talk in education about “hard to reach” groups - but are they always so hard to reach, or are we the ones who are  unreachable? Do what you can to reach out to everyone.

Question what is regarded as the norm
Always look ahead and see if what you did last year can be refreshed and updated.

Don’t give up
If a door closes, another one will open. And once the door starts to open, things can really spiral in a positive way. That is what I have found with the upcoming events that I have organised and my own equality, diversity and inclusion journey. 

Our mission is to encourage other colleges across the UK to do what we are doing, and I’m incredibly passionate about this project. We’ve done so much in such a short space of time. But now the hard work really begins.

The great Nelson Mandela stated: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” This is what myself and the equality and diversity team are trying to achieve at West Suffolk College - and we hope others will work with us or on their own to help create an ongoing legacy.

Ellisha Soanes is the equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) coordinator and a lecturer in health and social care at West Suffolk College.