Black History Month: A fantastic opportunity to shine a light

Throughout October, Swim England is celebrating individuals from all aspects of our sport who are championing equality as part of Black History Month.

Here, Mike Hawkes, Swim England’s head of diversity and inclusion, reflects on the month and looks ahead to the future.

Black History Month has been a fantastic opportunity to shine a light on the achievements of a community that is underrepresented within our sports.

It has been great to hear from stakeholders across our sports, all of whom are making history in their respective roles.

It was particularly pleasing to see Marie Owen discuss hair care solutions.

Our England Swims research highlighted this as one of the biggest barriers to participation in aquatics among the Black community and I’m glad we could share those tips from Marie.

We want to ensure that stories and insight that we have shared throughout Black History Month are useful all year round.

With that in mind, we have updated our Inclusive Club Guide to allow easy access to all the resources.

Accessible and inclusive

The guide is a source of support, providing advice, insight and best practice to our clubs, counties and regions.

Our Inclusion Hub also contains a wealth of information around our Learn to Swim programme and also the Foundations of Inclusivity CPD, a free to access course which covers your first steps into the world of equality, diversity and inclusion.

We are committed to making aquatic activity as accessible and inclusive for everyone as it is a life skill that has many physical and mental health benefits for people of all ages.

Black History Month has been an important tool in showing the common misconceptions which have prevented participation are just that – misconceptions.

We will continue to promote stories which dispel these myths – so if you have an experience that you would like to share, we’d love to hear from you.

To submit your story or find out more, please email [email protected]