How to make your home/workplace/school/life more inclusive?
May 15, 2018 9:48 PM Subscribe
I'm trying to come up for some blog content for work (I do social media at a not-for-profit providing services to refugee and migrant children) and I've been asked to write a blog on 'how to make your home/workplace/school/life more inclusive'. I can think of a few examples myself but was wondering if there were any interesting academic studies or real-life examples of ways individuals and communities can welcome new migrants, or accommodate difference more generally. Thanks!
If you feel public bathrooms are labeled ‘self identified female’ and’self identified male’ and you place menstrual supplies in one bathroom, it’s pretty shitty to not place them in the other.
I was actually going to mention this because I ran into it for the first time over the weekend. Telling people to use whatever bathroom feels most comfortable doesn't make me believe you have my back if someone hassles me. Knowing that someone using the men's bathroom might find themselves in urgent need of a tampon or pad goes a long way to helping me believe you've got people's backs.* (On the other hand, now that people on the internet have told you to do it, it perhaps starts moving into "a thing people do because someone told them it was inclusive, not because they actually get it".)
*Realistically, the number of people you're actually going to help out in a pinch is tiny and may well remain zero indefinitely--we're talking about a small population and a population that has to assume there won't be supplies in a restroom accessible to them. This is about the gesture more than the practicality.
posted by hoyland at 4:56 AM on May 16, 2018 [3 favorites]
I was actually going to mention this because I ran into it for the first time over the weekend. Telling people to use whatever bathroom feels most comfortable doesn't make me believe you have my back if someone hassles me. Knowing that someone using the men's bathroom might find themselves in urgent need of a tampon or pad goes a long way to helping me believe you've got people's backs.* (On the other hand, now that people on the internet have told you to do it, it perhaps starts moving into "a thing people do because someone told them it was inclusive, not because they actually get it".)
*Realistically, the number of people you're actually going to help out in a pinch is tiny and may well remain zero indefinitely--we're talking about a small population and a population that has to assume there won't be supplies in a restroom accessible to them. This is about the gesture more than the practicality.
posted by hoyland at 4:56 AM on May 16, 2018 [3 favorites]
my workplace offers language lessons to those employees who work in the kitchens etc and have only rudimentary language skills in our country's dominant language (enought o get by to peel vegetables but not enough to answer the question how was your weekend?).
The lessons are counted as work time and the teacher is paid by the employer, lesson takes place one hour per week during work time.
It not only helps the employee to improve their general life in our country but also enables them to socialise in a more meaningful way during coffee breaks with other staff. This is now offered the second year and I can really see a difference, the kitchen workers have really blossomed and use the newfound language skill to communicate with other staff.
Being able to join in the daily break chat means they are now more integrated and included whereas before they would just sit there and zone out while the rest talked about their weekend or children's accomplishments.
posted by 15L06 at 7:08 AM on May 16, 2018 [3 favorites]
The lessons are counted as work time and the teacher is paid by the employer, lesson takes place one hour per week during work time.
It not only helps the employee to improve their general life in our country but also enables them to socialise in a more meaningful way during coffee breaks with other staff. This is now offered the second year and I can really see a difference, the kitchen workers have really blossomed and use the newfound language skill to communicate with other staff.
Being able to join in the daily break chat means they are now more integrated and included whereas before they would just sit there and zone out while the rest talked about their weekend or children's accomplishments.
posted by 15L06 at 7:08 AM on May 16, 2018 [3 favorites]
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What I’m saying is, recognize that it’s not just women who menstruate.
The company with the tag line ‘underwear for women with periods also gets my goat.
posted by bilabial at 3:24 AM on May 16, 2018 [3 favorites]