Ethnic Minority Staff Members:  Use Your Voice to Make Change

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quick links TO FIND OUT MORE

- Introduction
- How to share your story
​- What is Sleeping Giants (the organisation gathering your stories) and who are the people involved?
​​​- I’m worried about taking part.  What will you do to help me feel safe enough to share my views
​- Help us gather more views

What is Sleeping Giants and who are the people involved?

Sleeping Giants is a small Dumfries and Galloway based social enterprise with a key focus on equality and diversity, participation and engagement, and research and evaluation.  You can find out more about us here: www.sleeping-giants.org.uk

Because we are local and have equality and human rights at our heart, we are passionate about challenging discrimination, addressing inequalities, and making Dumfries and Galloway’s communities and workplaces fairer and more inclusive.

We are experienced in working with a diverse range of people and communities, including people of colour and those from other ethnic minority backgrounds. We also have experience in professionally and sensitively gathering the views of NHS staff members who face inequalities and have successfully delivered research projects on behalf of NHS Dumfries and Galloway’s Women’s, LGBTQ+ and Disability / Neurodivergent Staff Equality Networks.

For this important piece of work, we have brought together a diverse team with the right mix of skills and experience to enable the voices of ethnic minority staff to be heard.  

Grace cardozo

Our Managing Director

Grace founded Sleeping Giants around the same time as she was independently appointed by the Scottish Government as a Non-Executive Member on the board of NHS Dumfries and Galloway.  Her role on the board was to hold NHS leaders to account for their decisions, through the lens of her own lived experience, and her 25+ years experience working in the community and equalities sectors.  During her 8-year term, she both encouraged and challenged the Board to strive for equity and inclusion in every decision they made.
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Grace is of Scottish and mixed-Jamaican heritage and is blessed to be Mum to a wonderful Black-Scottish teen.  Despite having experienced discrimination herself because of different aspects of her identity, Grace is acutely aware of her privilege and for almost 30 years, she has worked hard to be an advocate and an ally for others who struggle to have a voice or access their rights. 
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In this project, she will undertake interviews, group discussions and outreach with participants, and will have overall management oversight of the work. 

Dawn
​Kofie

Our Engagement Associate

Dawn has worked on a freelance basis with Sleeping Giants since May 2023 as a mentor to three women from the Empowering Women Panel.  She has many years’ experience in the public and third sector, as well as five years working in policy for the Scottish Government.

As a Black British woman who has lived in Scotland for 25 years, she understands the issues that affect those who are marginalised and experience racism and discrimination. She was part of a reverse mentoring programme at the Scottish Government where she was paired with a white, male colleague from the Senior Civil Service to help increase his awareness and understanding of issues facing people of the global majority. 

She is committed to gender equality, anti-racism and anti-oppressive practice and has identified ways for colleagues in previous workplaces to explore bias and stereotypes in an accountable way.
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In this project, she will undertake 1:1 and small group interviews with participants and help us plan and reflect on our work as part of our project team.

annie
​wild

Our Senior Capacity Building Officer

In her current role with Sleeping Giants, Annie takes the lead on our community consultation and evaluation work and supports other elements of our capacity building services to community sector organisations, helping build their skills and confidence.

She has a background in social research, and her approach is practical and engaging, regularly using creative methods to enable a range of intersectionally marginalised people to have their say.

Annie led an engagement project we undertook which supported marginalised women who are part of the Empowering Women Panel to gather the views of their peers, helping to inform Scottish Government policy and the work of the First Minister’s National Advisory Council on Women and Girls.
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In this project, she will undertake 1:1 and small group interviews with participants and will help design our engagement tools.

Dr Lorna Bell

Our Research Associate

Lorna is a highly experienced researcher with over 20 years’ experience of delivering research and evaluation projects.  Her career began with her doctoral studies in social capital and community involvement, and she went on to work in academia, local government and the NHS before becoming setting up her own research company. With methodological expertise underpinned by rigorous academic training gained through a post graduate certificate in research methods, she is a skilled qualitative and quantitative researcher.

Lorna has a long and well-established freelance Associate relationship with Sleeping Giants and has been part of the team on a wide range of projects over the last five years, including the LGBT+, women and disability staff engagement projects for NHS Dumfries and Galloway.  She also supports Sleeping Giant’s work with the Empowering Women Panel and on the Neuroaffirming Workplaces project.
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In this project, she will undertake take a lead in designing our ethical framework, our engagement tools and in analysing and writing up the findings.

angharad storrie

Our Administrator

Angharad has been instrumental in supporting the information, travel and other access needs of ethnic minority and other marginalised women to make sure they are able to take part fully and safely in the activities of the Empowering Women Panel.
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She is a trusted first point of contact for our Panel members, and works tirelessly to make sure their needs are met. 
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In this project, Angharad will be person you contact when you get in touch if you would like to arrange a meeting to share your story, or if you would like more information or to discuss your needs.  
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Thank you for reading this information and we look forward to hearing your views and sharing them safely and anonymously with your employer to help tackle racism and to make your workplace more accessible and inclusive for ethnic minority staff members.