RYA launches Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy

The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) has announced the launch of its RYA Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy 2021-2030, Charting an Equal, Diverse and Inclusive Course for the Future of Boating cementing, it says, the sport’s commitment to developing a culture that celebrates diversity and is free from discrimination and prejudice.

The strategy, which places an initial focus on ethnicity in boating, has been developed with the guidance of a steering group and input from an Ethnicity in Boating Forum comprised of individuals from diverse backgrounds who have made their way in the sport.

The launch comes ahead of the ‘United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’ on 21 March (Sunday), the theme for which is encouraging communities around the world to adopt a global culture of tolerance, equality, and anti-discrimination – principles which run throughout the RYA’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy.

The RYA hopes that the reach of its strategy will be much greater than its membership, opening opportunities for all to get on the water. The strategy has four underpinning objectives: to change perceptions, behaviours, experiences and reality, and it’s through these the RYA aims to bring greater equality and inclusivity across the whole recreational boating community. The strategy details a comprehensive 10 step action plan, with each step designed  to drive progress and deliver change through the embedding of best practice, training, positive engagement, and monitoring.

“We joined other voices from the world of sport last summer to speak out against racism, and in doing so we recognised that more needed to be done to ensure that boating was as inclusive and diverse as we would like it to be,” RYA Chief Executive, Sarah Treseder.

“We reaffirmed our commitment to equality of opportunity then, and we have gone on to develop the Strategy that we are launching today that will enable us to deliver on that commitment: recreational boating and competitive sailing that is accessible and inclusive to all.

“It is a hugely ambitious and exciting plan that we are looking forward to actioning to demonstrate that a person’s sex, age, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or religion should never be a barrier to participation in boating.”

In developing the strategy, the RYA worked with Emeritus Professor of Equality and Diversity in Sport and Education, Kevin Hylton, of Leeds Beckett University. He comments: “It is exciting to see a national governing body of sport being so proactive in regard to equality, diversity and inclusivity.

“The RYA has established a high bar in their ED&I strategy by aiming to change perceptions, behaviours, experiences, and realities. They are challenging themselves to make their sport more inclusive and are going the right way about it by moving with insight purposely forward.”

The RYA Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy 2021-2030 is available to read in full on the RYA’s website.