Apeksha Naik
9 Feb 2025
As we come to the end of Race Equality Week, we are reflecting back to our event at the start of the week, where we also celebrated LGBT history month, World Interfaith harmony week, Lunar New Year and National Apprenticeship Week coming up next week
Hear from our Co-Chair Apeksha about our Race Equality Event in Feburary...
"Feeling very inspired after hosting a Race Equality Week event today and celebrating other international days too including LGBT History Month, World Interfaith Harmony Week, Lunar New Year and National Apprenticeship Week coming up next week.
"Many of our amazing panellists interviewed by our fabulous panel hosts Sonia L Hazel and Odis Palmer referenced related topics and many more that were so thought provoking. The first panel included Felix Ng, Matthew Page and Vanita Patel and the second included 3 Executives Abu Siddeeq Anit Chandarana Ola Ogun as well as Annum M. from Youth Futures Foundation.
"We held break out groups talking about the themes that had come out of our RUI race and faith related events with the aim of continuing to take action to improve race equality across the industry. Faizza Rumani and I are already talking to Vanita Patel about some of the outputs including how we can work with the British Transport Police to make our industry safer for our colleagues, customers and communities.
" Julija Clapp MCIPD spoke about an industry mentoring programme that we are supporting to share across the industry with mentoring being a key theme mentioned at many of our events.
"We shared the 'Good Work' research conducted by Workwhile, supported by Youth Futures Foundation (YFF). Annum M. from YFF also shared some fascinating research conducted with young people about apprenticeships, but watch this space for more on that.
"Our 3 industry Executive panellsts reflected on this research and shared their own reflections of previous RUI race and faith related events.
"There was a huge team of people involved both in front of the camera and behind the scenes, in making this event a success other than my fellow RUI Co-Chair Odis Palmer and our third musketeer Dante Frederick, who continues to champion EDI and Wellbeing with us. I have thanked as many of them as I can find on LinkedIn, in the comments below. Thank you as well to Thomas Cave and the Railway 200 team for talking to colleagues about their thoughts on how the rail industry can use Railway 200 as an opportunity in the diversity and Inclusion space during the 200th year anniversary and beyond.
"Thank you also to our GBRTT Executive Leadership team including our Lead Director Rufus Boyd who always supports the work that we do.
"It doesn't stop there, so much has come out of today, including meeting new people who are joining our 'movement' as Anit called it. We will share outputs and next steps with our members as soon as we can. We look forward to continuing to work with you all to make a difference.
"Above is a photo of colleagues across the industry who joined us in-person at Waterloo and we also had around 50 colleagues online, all so engaged to support us to progress."