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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 a lot of Australians to rethink the issues affecting Indigenous communities.

The health, wealth and employment gaps between Indigenous Australians and the rest of the population are well known, but the protests created new urgency to do something about them.

In July, the Australian authorities unveiled new Shut the Gap targets including reducing Indigenous incarceration rates.

For organisations that feel the urgency act there may be one apparent solution – a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).

In 2006, Reconciliation Australia introduced RAPs as a way for organisations to include strategic reconciliation initiatives as a part of their enterprise plans. The purpose of a RAP is to create meaningful opportunities in your organisation to actively support and recognise Indigenous Australians. Like many initiatives, reconciliation is a process that will evolve as you and your organisation start to take action.

RAPs are broken down into four maturity ranges that mirror where organisations are of their reconciliation journey. They’re: Reflect, Innovate, Stretch and Elevate. Every 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 motion to actively address them.

Step one for all organisations is to determine its maturity level. “Contact the RAP workforce at Reconciliation Australia and discover out which degree you’ll start at,” says Anthony. “The RAP crew will send you a template that may define what you could do. There are some fundamental compulsory actions required by Reconciliation Australia equivalent to celebrating nationwide Reconciliation Day and increasing knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. After that, it’s about the adjustments you’ll be able to make.”

Because numerous organisations will start on the Replicate stage, this guide will define the pillars it’s good to establish to start your reconciliation journey.

Research

This is the place it all begins.

It might assist to look into why RAPs are so vital as well as the present points dealing with Indigenous people. Reports similar to Shut the Hole can provide context to your RAP and would possibly aid you with the subsequent step.

Secure help

Part of a profitable RAP is establishing help for reconciliation initiatives across your entire organisation. In most cases this needs to start on the top.

“Most often I find that if people are offered with the info, they stunning quickly get on board with wanting to be part of the reconciliation movement,”

“Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are three per cent of the population. They’ll’t do the heavy lifting by way of change and infrastructure change, societal change, or altering 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 worker understanding of Indigenous issues, the Reconciliation Australia 2018 RAP Impact report found. This can have a circulate-on effect. It makes employees more engaged with their community they usually often 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.

Establish a working group

The subsequent step is to type a working group that can oversee all the RAP process. This group will need to be made up of assorted representatives from all sectors of your organisation.

The group is accountable for planning and implementing the RAP, so it might want to encompass members who’ve some precise power to make modifications within the organisation, and members who understand it from a policy and culture perspective.

Lastly, for the RAP to be really profitable, you’ll need involvement from members who work with clients or clients, so that people outside your organisation understand you are attempting to make a difference.

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