CAW Antwerpen

CAW Antwerp strives to be a safe place for employees, clients and visitors alike. The Structural Racism Process Group was established in 2020 and today, the group is led by senior member of staff Ann Van Pelt. “Two colleagues drew my attention to the issue of structural racism within our organisation. A team was quickly put together to help tackle the issue.”

“We hired an external organisation to carry out a scan on the subject of racism. One hundred anonymous surveys and twenty in-depth interviews – based on a random sample – showed us that colleagues experience structural and casual racism in our organisation.  We needed a clear anti-racism policy, because we are against all forms of discrimination – both inside and outside our organisation.”

Need for external process support

“Our process group grew quickly," says Ann. “We initially came together because we shared the same emotion – an unpleasant feeling. But there was also a sense of activism within our group, which led to a whole host of different action items. And that’s where we lost sight of everything.”

IDEWE came out as the best partner for us following a market survey.

The structural racism process group needed professional guidance. “IDEWE came out as the best partner for us following a market survey. We joined forces with prevention advisor Koen van der Dood.”

14 September 2022: New milestone for the process group

Koen van der Dood joined the group in 2022. “We met with the management for the first time last year on 14 September. That was a milestone, and a new start for our team. We agreed on mandates: the process group would prepare work on advisory policy, while the management and policy team would make the decisions. We decided on the next steps, which involved developing our vision and creating an action plan.”

“To implement the action plan, it was important to have a mandate and support from our management team and the policy,” stresses Ann. “We had very insightful meetings with Koen. He took on the role of moderator for each meeting, which brought a sense of calm to the group. This in turn allowed all of us to fully embrace the subject and stay on the same page.”

“We’ve since moved so far along in the process that we can only keep going. We meet as an active working group every month.”

IDEWE supports the process of establishing a vision and action plan

The first step for the process group was to put their vision down on paper. “This meant we were able to put all our action items alongside our vision and check whether each item was a good fit. Koen had huge respect for the things we’d already worked on before he came on board. Everyone’s opinion counted, and he helped us find the right course.”

We wanted to extend our action items beyond combating racism.

“Once we’d nailed down our vision, we could draw up our action plan. Koen helped us set our priorities in advance, working out what we should tackle first and then what would follow.”

“We decided to make intersectional thinking a fundamental element of our vision. Wherever possible, we extended our action items beyond combating racism. Think, for example, of inclusive recruitment and selection processes. For some actions, however, we focused exclusively on combating racism. Thinking as inclusively as possible while remaining true to our aim – combating racism – that’s in the process group’s DNA is a constant balancing act.”
“Koen used some great methods, showed us some videos and referred us to interactive websites. He also had knowledge of the subject from a legal perspective.”

The action plan in a nutshell: Five objectives

CAW Antwerp’s action plan is divided into five main objectives, with each objective having several specific action items* linked to it.

Objective 1: Taking a stand against and responding to racism

• Our response to racism is fully aligned with our Code of Conduct.
• We have a reporting procedure in place for racism.

Objective 2: Headscarves and other religious characteristics are accepted

• We’ve set out a position in writing that is part of our company policy.

Objective 3: Expert care by internal care team (ICT) and confidential counsellors (CC)

• We monitor the expertise within our internal care team and our confidential counsellors.
• We are developing a long-term basic training course on racism.
• We recruit people internally to ensure we reflect society.

Objective 4: Inclusive recruitment of employees

• Our recruiters are experts in inclusive recruitment.
• We make every effort to offer inclusive job vacancies.

Objective 5: A supportive educational, training and development (VTO) policy

• The policy covers the necessary training topics.
• We select high-quality training providers.

 _{(*These action items only represent a selection of the entire action plan.);}
 

Our action plan was approved straight away by the management, in part thanks to Koen’s expertise. He also made a huge contribution in terms of content during the process support. Without Koen and IDEWE, we wouldn’t have been able to get the project off the ground. We’re now able to take it back into our own hands.