Equality Workshops

How can I learn more about what offensive, insulting and abusive language and behaviour is, as highlighted in the RESPECT Codes of Conduct?

Simple - we have developed the equality workshops as part of the RESPECT education programme.

The equality workshops have been designed to do two things:

• To support the growth and retention of new and existing players and workforce by helping people understand how they can make their club or league accessible to everyone e.g. women and girls, disabled people, ethnic minorities and emerging communities.
• To help people involved in football identify what language or behaviour is offensive, insulting and abusive e.g. racist, homophobic, sexist or abuse relating to disability. This supports the RESPECT programme by making clear, what is and what isn't acceptable and what action people can take if they experience something that is offensive, insulting or abusive.

The equality courses have been designed to:

• Raise awareness of barriers to inclusion
• Generate ideas to address challenges
• Encourage inclusion by under-represented groups
• Develop positive action/interventions/programmes to address under-representation
• Identify offensive, insulting and abusive language and behaviour
• Help people to appreciate differences and similarities

This is not about:

• Political correctness or extreme over-the-top measures
• Telling people what they can and can't say
• Positive discrimination

Who are they aimed at?

The workshops are aimed at anyone involved running football in Counties, Districts, Leagues and Clubs e.g. administrators at county, district, league and club level; volunteers; parents, coaches, referees, managers and players i.e. you!

How are they run?

All the workshops are interactive and informal and tutors draw on participants' experiences and knowledge as well as developing learning through small group activities and in presentations.

How many workshops are there?

There are three main workshops:

• Equality
• Disability Equality
• Race Equality
• And an online workshop

What workshop should I choose to go on?

This will depend on your own circumstances however we recommend the generic three-hour equality workshop which will give you a taster across many different communities and the sort of abuse they may receive.

If you have a particular interest in learning more about racism and race equality then you could go on the race equality workshop and the same with disability.

There is also an online workshop which will be available towards the end of 2013 which you may prefer to do.

How do I book a place on a workshop?

All workshops are run by your County FA so please look at their website for details of when workshops are running. Workshops typically cost in the region of £20 and for this you get a student resource pack which gives you masses of information to keep and refer back to in the future.

The online module will be free, however it's something you do on your own so you may prefer to attend the interactive workshop with some colleagues where you can get into some really interesting discussions.