Reconciliation Action Plans are about taking good intent and turning it into action.
The Black Lives Matter protests which have erupted across the globe have caused numerous 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 authorities unveiled new Shut the Gap targets including reducing Indigenous incarceration rates.
For organisations that really feel the urgency act there may be one apparent solution – a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
In 2006, Reconciliation Australia introduced RAPs as a way for organisations to incorporate strategic reconciliation initiatives as a part of their enterprise plans. The purpose of a RAP is to create meaningful opportunities in your organisation to actively help and recognise Indigenous Australians. Like many initiatives, reconciliation is a process that will evolve as you and your organisation begin to take action.
RAPs are broken down into 4 maturity ranges that reflect where organisations are in their reconciliation journey. They are: Mirror, Innovate, Stretch and Elevate. Each has a corresponding RAP type organisations can pursue. For example, the Innovate degree is for organisations that already understand the place they’ll improve on Indigenous points and have begun taking motion to actively address them.
Step one for all organisations is to find out its maturity level. “Contact the RAP team at Reconciliation Australia and find out which stage you’ll start at,” says Anthony. “The RAP workforce will send you a template that can outline what you might want to do. There are some primary compulsory actions required by Reconciliation Australia comparable to celebrating nationwide Reconciliation Day and increasing knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. After that, it’s about the changes you possibly can make.”
Because a lot of organisations will start at the Reflect stage, this guide will outline the pillars you should set up to start your reconciliation journey.
Research
This is the place it all begins.
It could assist to look into why RAPs are so vital as well as the present issues facing Indigenous people. Reports such as Close the Hole can provide context to your RAP and may make it easier to with the subsequent step.
Secure support
A part of a successful RAP is establishing help for reconciliation initiatives across the complete organisation. In most cases this needs to start on the top.
“Most frequently I discover that if people are presented with the information, they pretty quickly get on board with wanting to be part of the reconciliation movement,”
“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals are three per cent of the population. They can’t do the heavy lifting in terms of 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 move-on effect. It makes employees more engaged with their community and they usually select to donate to, or volunteer with, Indigenous organisations as a result.
A RAP additionally solidifies your organisation’s commitment to making a culturally safe work environment, which expands your recruiting pool by making your workplace a more attractive employer to Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander employees.
Establish a working group
The subsequent step is to form a working group that will oversee your entire RAP process. This group will need 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 will need to consist of members who’ve some actual power to make changes within 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 purchasers, so that folks outside your organisation understand you are trying to make a difference.
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