Reconciliation Action Plans are about taking good intent and turning it into action.
The Black Lives Matter protests that have erupted across the globe have caused numerous Australians to rethink the problems 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 together with 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 include strategic reconciliation initiatives as a part of their enterprise plans. The aim of a RAP is to create meaningful opportunities to your organisation to actively help 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 ranges that replicate where organisations are of their reconciliation journey. They’re: Replicate, Innovate, Stretch and Elevate. Every has a corresponding RAP type organisations can pursue. For example, the Innovate stage is for organisations that already understand the place they will improve on Indigenous points and have begun taking action to actively address them.
Step one for all organisations is to find out its maturity level. “Contact the RAP staff at Reconciliation Australia and discover out which stage you’ll start at,” says Anthony. “The RAP workforce will ship you a template that will outline what you’ll want to do. There are some basic obligatory actions required by Reconciliation Australia akin to celebrating national Reconciliation Day and increasing knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. After that, it’s about the adjustments you possibly can make.”
Because a whole lot of organisations will start on the Replicate stage, this guide will outline the pillars you must set up to start your reconciliation journey.
Research
This is where it all begins.
It might probably help to look into why RAPs are so necessary as well as the current issues facing Indigenous people. Reports similar to Shut the Hole can provide context to your RAP and may assist you with the following step.
Safe help
Part of a successful RAP is establishing assist for reconciliation initiatives across the entire organisation. In most cases this must start on the top.
“Most often I discover that if individuals are presented with the info, they beautiful quickly get on board with wanting to be 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 employee understanding of Indigenous issues, the Reconciliation Australia 2018 RAP Impact report found. This can have a flow-on effect. It makes staff more engaged with their community and so they usually choose to donate to, or volunteer with, Indigenous organisations as a result.
A RAP also solidifies your organisation’s commitment to making a culturally safe work setting, 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 following step is to form a working group that will oversee the whole RAP process. This group will should be made up of assorted representatives from all sectors of your organisation.
The group is in command of planning and implementing the RAP, so it might want to include members who’ve some precise power to make modifications 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 purchasers, so that folks outside your organisation understand you are trying to make a difference.
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