Charlton Athletic Community Trust (CACT) is delighted to announce the launch of a new series of webinars that are designed to provide greater insight and understanding of a range of themes relating to tackling inequality and promoting inclusion.
The webinars will have a particular focus on the challenges faced by disadvantaged communities, under-represented groups and the most vulnerable, which is particularly relevant given the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on different groups.
CACT Invicta FC co-founders Gary Ginnaw and Sam Timms will launch the first session on 23 June: Tackling Discrimination: Establishing an LGBTQI+ football team – the benefits.
Kick It Out Head of Development Troy Townsend, also a Patron of Football Beyond Borders, will be delivering a session looking at race, discrimination and football on 1 July.
Professor Coretta Phillips (London School of Economics) and Dr Patrick McGurk (Queen Mary University of London) will cover race & class disadvantage and employment & disadvantage on 8 and 15 July respectively.
Rob Harris, Chair of the Proud Valiants, Charlton Athletic FC LGBT+ fans group, and Dr Laura William (University of Greenwich) complete the line-up, and will speak about establishing an LGBTQI+ supporters’ group, and disability and inclusion respectively.
Dr Michael Seeraj, CACT’s Head of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, who will be hosting the series, said: “I am delighted and really excited to confirm the launch of our new webinar series. The series is designed to provide greater insight and understanding of a range of themes relating to tackling inequality and promoting inclusion, particularly the challenges faced by disadvantaged communities.
“The purpose of the webinars are to support our communities, partners, and different stakeholders to stay up to date with the latest developments and Good Practice, in order to work together to help contribute to finding effective ways forward, in these new and challenging times – which is undoubtedly more important now, than ever before”.
Lee Bowyer, Charlton Athletic’s Manager, said:“Charlton has a long and very impressive history of promoting equality - which everyone at the club is very proud of.
“Our Community Trust do some excellent work tackling discrimination and supporting different communities and I would like to think our fans will get involved in the new Webinar Series.”
The first webinar, with Gary and Sam, will take place on 23 June, the anniversary of the birth of Alan Turing, the father of modern computing and artificial intelligence. As a gay man in the 1950s, Turing was arrested and treated appallingly. He was posthumously pardoned by the Queen more recently, and will be the face of the new £50 note, expected to enter circulation by the end of 2021.
A full list of dates and speakers is below. All dates and topics are subject to change.
Speakers: Gary Ginnaw and Sam Timms (CACT Invicta FC and Proud Valiants)
Date: Tuesday, June 23rd 2020 – 2pm
Speaker: Troy Townsend (Kick It Out Head of Development; Sports Columnist for The Voice; The Conv3rsation: Patron – Football Beyond Borders)
Date: Wednesday, July 1st 2020 – 11:00am
Speaker: Professor Coretta Phillips (London School of Economics)
Date: Wednesday, July 8th 2020 – 11:00am
Speaker: Dr Patrick McGurk (Queen Mary University of London)
Date: Wednesday, July 15th 2020 – 11:00am
Speaker: Rob Harris (Proud Valiants)
Date: TBC
Speaker: Dr Laura William (University of Greenwich)
Date: TBC
Booking details will be made available via the @cact_edi Twitter page.