Reconciliation Action Plans are about taking good intent and turning it into action.
The Black Lives Matter protests that have erupted throughout the globe have caused a number of Australians to rethink the issues affecting Indigenous communities.
The health, wealth and employment gaps between Indigenous Australians and the remainder of the inhabitants are well known, but the protests created new urgency to do something about them.
In July, the Australian government unveiled new Shut the Hole targets including reducing Indigenous incarceration rates.
For organisations that feel the urgency act there’s one obvious solution – a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
In 2006, Reconciliation Australia launched RAPs as a way for organisations to include strategic reconciliation initiatives as part of their enterprise plans. The goal of a RAP is to create meaningful opportunities on your organisation to actively support and recognise Indigenous Australians. Like many initiatives, reconciliation is a process that will evolve as you and your organisation start to take action.
RAPs are broken down into 4 maturity levels that replicate the place organisations are of their reconciliation journey. They’re: Reflect, Innovate, Stretch and Elevate. Every has a corresponding RAP type organisations can pursue. For example, the Innovate degree is for organisations that already understand the place they can improve on Indigenous issues and have begun taking action to actively address them.
Step one for all organisations is to determine its maturity level. “Contact the RAP group at Reconciliation Australia and find out which degree you will start at,” says Anthony. “The RAP group will ship you a template that can define what you have to do. There are some primary compulsory actions required by Reconciliation Australia such as celebrating national Reconciliation Day and rising knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. After that, it’s in regards to the modifications you can make.”
Because lots of organisations will start at the Reflect stage, this guide will define the pillars you must set up to start your reconciliation journey.
Research
This is where it all begins.
It could actually assist to look into why RAPs are so necessary as well as the present points facing Indigenous people. Reports reminiscent of Shut the Gap can provide context to your RAP and might enable you with the next step.
Secure support
A part of a successful RAP is establishing help for reconciliation initiatives throughout the entire organisation. In most cases this needs to start on the top.
“Most often I discover that if persons are introduced with the facts, they pretty quickly get on board with wanting to be a part of the reconciliation movement,”
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons are three per cent of the population. They will’t do the heavy lifting when it comes to change and infrastructure change, societal change, or changing attitudes.
“RAPs are a way of stepping in and making meaningful change.”
Over 1,000 organisations have formalised RAPs, and their implementation has had a real impact on improving worker understanding of Indigenous issues, the Reconciliation Australia 2018 RAP Impact report found. This can have a circulate-on effect. It makes staff more engaged with their community and so they usually select to donate to, or volunteer with, Indigenous organisations as a result.
A RAP additionally solidifies your organisation’s commitment to creating a culturally safe work surroundings, which expands your recruiting pool by making your workplace a more attractive employer to Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander employees.
Set up a working group
The subsequent step is to type a working group that may oversee your entire RAP process. This group will have to be made up of assorted representatives from all sectors of your organisation.
The group is in charge of planning and implementing the RAP, so it might want to consist of members who’ve some precise energy to make changes in the organisation, and members who understand it from a policy and tradition perspective.
Lastly, for the RAP to be really successful, you’ll want involvement from members who work with customers or clients, so that people outside your organisation understand you are attempting to make a difference.
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