People’s Health Trust and the Audit
People’s Health Trust exists to support communities who are marginalised and face the greatest inequalities in health, to improve health in across England, Scotland and Wales. The factors that determine who is most likely to become ill, to die early or to live with long term health problems are often complex. They are deeply woven into the fabric of our society and cannot be ignored if we are to tackle needless illness and early deaths.
Seizing opportunities to fight social injustice
Racism, discrimination, poverty, stigma and oppression of marginalised groups are not only profound social injustices, they affect how and where we live and work; our relationships; the daily pressures in our lives; how we feel about ourselves and our ability to safely speak out. They fundamentally affect our physical and mental health.
The pandemic laid open to public view the profound injustices that have resulted in high illness and deaths for some communities. In addition, for us, as for many other charities, the Black Lives Matter movement shone a light on the racism that exists within societies and institutions, and highlighted how much more we all need to do to counter it.
There is always a risk that priorities rise and fall – this is true of many urgent issues, including the climate emergency. That’s why it’s vital to seize opportunities to embed priorities, such as tackling racial injustice, into organisational culture and practice when they are in the spotlight. Doing so ensures they become integral to what we do all year round, not just a reaction to events and crises.
The Impact of FREA and the audit
Real, permanent change takes deep and difficult work. It also requires practical tools. The FREA audit has already helped us make progress in our goal to embed anti-racism in our work. It’s straightforward to use, enabling us to find out more about who we fund, who we don’t fund, why this is, and what we need to do about it. Crucially, our results also contribute to a growing evidence base about the foundation sector’s giving, and lack of giving, to racially minoritised communities, providing us and our peers insight into our collective and individual performance.
The peer-support we receive from other FREA members is invaluable, as is its steering committee and the team at Equally Ours who so skilfully drive the Alliance’s work. We could not make the progress we are aiming for without this network – through which we feel able to share challenges, work through mistakes, learn about the progress others have achieved and be inspired to go further.
This year, we were pleased that the Trust doubled the proportion of grants for projects addressing racial injustice (28%, up from 13% in 2021), and increased the proportion of funding for organisations led by people experiencing racial injustice (24%, up from 14%). Our results compared well with the aggregated results of foundations who took part, which is encouraging considering that many are advanced in their approaches to work on racial justice.
What’s next?
Our next steps include more detailed analysis of our portfolio across the 12 regions of Great Britain in which we fund, and ensuring that our approach is improved and our data is stronger through the adoption of the DEI Data Standard. We look forward to taking action to improve our position on racial justice and wider oppression and would recommend the FRE Alliance and its tool to all trusts and foundations
This blog was written by Max Rutherford, Director of Grant Programmes, at the People's Health Trust. For more information, please access their website and social media.
