First Regional Sports Trust to get Rainbow Tick

Sport Hawke’s Bay becomes first Regional Sports Trust to get nationally recognised Rainbow Tick

Sport Hawke’s Bay is the first regional sports organisation to receive the nationally recognised Rainbow Tick certification for its work towards diversity and inclusion. The certification acknowledges that Sport Hawke’s Bay provides a safe working environment for the Rainbow community.

Sport Hawke’s Bay CEO Mark Aspden said the organisation has a vision to ensure everyone in the community has a life-long love of sport and physical activity.

“We want to make sure that when we say community, we include everyone in Hawke’s Bay.

“Maintaining a work environment that is inclusive and welcoming for all underpins our effort to encourage people from all walks of life to be more active, more often”.

Michael Stevens, Rainbow Tick Programme Manager says, “We sought to be proactive in promoting well-being by reducing workplace discrimination against people from LGBTTI communities.”

“As part of the network of Regional Sports Trusts we commend Sport Hawke’s Bay for their leadership in this area. Sport is a central component of many New Zealanders’ lives, and their efforts to signal that they intend to be a clearly inclusive and welcoming organisation to all who wish to participate shows forward thinking and genuine leadership in this field.”

Sport Hawke’s Bay has led conversations with a number of regional sporting organisations over the past 12 months. In 2018, Sport Hawke’s Bay worked with Hawke’s Bay Netball on the topic of being inclusive of transgender athletes and helped develop a policy which was adopted by the Board and implemented for the 2018 season.

“To assist in getting more people, more active more often, we have created a new role of Inclusion Manager which will be filled in the coming weeks. This role will be a leadership role, focussing on the disability, diversity and inclusivity space,” Mr Aspden said.

The Rainbow Tick organisation was formed three years ago to lobby for LGBTTI rights in the workplace and has already recognised numerous corporates for their inclusive policies along with the NZ Rugby Union which was the first national sports body to receive the Rainbow Tick in 2017.

For more information or to contact Michael at the Rainbow Tick please visit www.rainbowtick.nz

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