Reconciliation Action Plans are about taking good intent and turning it into action.
The Black Lives Matter protests which have erupted throughout the globe have caused plenty of 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 Close the Hole targets together with reducing Indigenous incarceration rates.
For organisations that really feel the urgency act there is one obvious solution – a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
In 2006, Reconciliation Australia introduced RAPs as a way for organisations to include strategic reconciliation initiatives as part of their business plans. The intention of a RAP is to create significant opportunities on your organisation to actively assist and recognise Indigenous Australians. Like many initiatives, reconciliation is a process that can evolve as you and your organisation begin to take action.
RAPs are broken down into 4 maturity levels that mirror the place organisations are of their reconciliation journey. They are: Mirror, Innovate, Stretch and Elevate. Each has a corresponding RAP type organisations can pursue. For instance, the Innovate degree is for organisations that already understand where they’ll improve on Indigenous issues and have begun taking action to actively address them.
Step one for all organisations is to determine its maturity level. “Contact the RAP team at Reconciliation Australia and find out which degree you will start at,” says Anthony. “The RAP workforce will send you a template that can outline what you’ll want to do. There are some basic obligatory actions required by Reconciliation Australia akin to celebrating national Reconciliation Day and growing knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. After that, it’s concerning the changes you can make.”
Because a variety of organisations will start at the Mirror stage, this guide will define the pillars that you must set up to start your reconciliation journey.
Research
This is the place it all begins.
It may well assist to look into why RAPs are so vital as well as the current points going through Indigenous people. Reports equivalent to Close the Gap can provide context to your RAP and may aid you with the following step.
Safe assist
Part of a profitable RAP is establishing assist for reconciliation initiatives throughout the complete organisation. In most cases this needs to start at the top.
“Most frequently I discover that if persons are introduced with the details, they pretty quickly get on board with eager to be a 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 significant change.”
Over 1,000 organisations have formalised RAPs, and their implementation has had a real impact on improving employee understanding of Indigenous points, the Reconciliation Australia 2018 RAP Impact report found. This can have a stream-on effect. It makes workers more engaged with their community and so they usually choose 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.
Set up a working group
The subsequent step is to kind a working group that will oversee all the RAP process. This group will should be made up of varied 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 actual power to make changes in the organisation, and members who understand it from a policy and tradition perspective.
Lastly, for the RAP to be really successful, you’ll need involvement from members who work with customers or clients, so that people outside your organisation understand you are attempting to make a difference.
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