When thinking about Equity, which is this year’s International Women’s Day theme, it’s important to think of how we can identify and remove barriers.

We need to ensure that everyone can access the right support, have the same opportunities and advancement to fulfilling lives. The term ‘equity’ refers to fairness and justice recognising that not everyone has the same needs, which distinguishes it from the term ‘equality’, which relates to everyone being the same.

At NIDAS we work within our values:

• Person-Centred
• Empowered
• Creative

We aim to work within these values with clients, our team, and our wider partnerships in which we work.  We feel this enables us to #EmbraceEquity by ensuring that we work in a person-centred way to meet the specific needs of everyone as this isn’t a one size meets all organisation. To achieve this, we do need to sometimes be creative, it’s important not to assume the needs of individuals. We ensure that we work together to fully understand and identify the needs of others, and by working in this way, we can guarantee that individuals feel empowered and validated.

NIDAS have decided to introduce a Neurodiversity Policy to highlight our commitment to #EmbraceEquity.  The aim of this policy is to outline NIDAS’s dedication to promoting equality and equity, whilst recognising and celebrating the diversity that exists among our local communities. We also recognise and celebrate the differences between us and that neurodivergent individuals may have perspectives, talents and skills that can be very beneficial to our organisation. This can be highly advantageous to enable us to show high levels of creativity and innovation, meaning we can stand out against other organisations.

By encouraging employees to bring their true selves to the workplace and providing the validation for them to do so, we can ensure that we don’t lose the creative and critical thinking skills that neurodivergent people often bring. To ensure that employees feel empowered and have the same opportunities within the workplace, we will be reducing any barriers they feel they might have and provide a bespoke support package.

Neurodiversity is a fairly new term recognising that there are a range of differences in an individual’s brain function and behavioural traits. Being neurodivergent in its simplest explanation means that the brain works differently from the average or “neurotypical” person. The term neurodiversity is a widely accepted term for neurological conditions, including but not limited to: autism, ADHD/ADD, dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia. However, by having this umbrella term it is important to avoid stereotyping and making assumptions by #EmbraceEquity.

We would love to hear how you are embracing equity this International Women’s Day.