This is a time
for greater joint action.
Our objectives for 2025
We believe we ourselves as individuals, our organisations, and the power of senior Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic professionals, together with London’s business community can and should do more to make London the kind of city and economy
that our young people deserve.
We must give young members of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities genuine hope for the future, to allow them to believe that they will have an equal chance of fulfilling their dreams and potential.
Hope and confidence
We must give young people from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities hope and confidence, from the earliest years in school through to when they leave formal education, that their future matters. We will work to bridge the gap between them us and our organisations, through our own influence and commitment, and through practical actions such as mentoring and internships.
Keeping safe and second chances
We must contribute to keeping young people safe, focus on the causes of serious youth violence and knife crime, and give help to those who need a second chance to get their lives on a better track.
The evidence shows that there is disproportionate representation of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic young people among both victims and offenders. We are committed to challenging the routes into the criminal justice system via school exclusion and illiteracy and the disparity in treatment of minority communities within the criminal justice system.
Opening up our workforces
We must genuinely open up our workforce at all levels to people of all backgrounds. The evidence is very clear – people from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic backgrounds with equivalent education level do not get into the same well paid jobs with good prospects as those from more advantaged backgrounds and are more likely to be unemployed, or underemployed.
At the same time there is conclusive evidence that businesses with more diverse workforces at all levels of seniority do better. It’s time to follow the evidence. We will re-examine internal practices and change processes or attitudes that operate to deny opportunity to members of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities.
We will gather and publish data about how well we are doing now, where necessary, set targets and provide accountability and transparency for our progress. We will continue to provide an open door to all interested in learning about all professions within our business community.
True equality in the workplace
We must tackle chronic inequality in the workplace and in pay. We can learn from what we have seen during the COVID crisis that many people of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic origin are in the jobs which have been essential to keeping the country and the healthcare system going. But they are not paid at a level which reflects the essential nature of what they do.We must address earnings inequality.
We are committed to providing the space to enable these conversations to take place.
Changing the narrative
We want to send a different message to young people – particularly those from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic communities. And we want to invite senior professionals from all backgrounds and business organisations to act and get involved:
By giving our time to young people as they pass through education from the very earliest years through to college and university, sharing our experiences and giving hope
By making sure our own organisations practice open and fair recruitment, progression and promotion
By widening significantly the number of employers who are prepared to help young people who have made a false start, and need help to get their futures back on track
By making our own organisations safe spaces for colleagues to talk about issues of race and discrimination and pay inequality, and to tackle the daily small acts which make one set of colleagues perpetually feeling they are not seen as equals
Our background
Find out more about the people that established SHIFT25,
East London Business Alliance
and Michelle Nelson QC of Red Lion Chambers.
Our mission
We’re striving for a fundamental SHIFT by 2025 and building a community to enable change.
Are you with us?