London 2012 Diversity Week Gets Underway

To mark the start of London 2012's Diversity Week the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) today celebrated being the first organisation in the UK to receive the Advanced Level of the Equality Standard for Sport. Paul Deighton, CEO of LOCOG received the award from UK Sport CEO Liz Nicholl at the 'Everyone's 2012' Conference.

The award demonstrates LOCOG's commitment to embedding equality throughout the organisation and ensuring that the London 2012 Games are truly inclusive. Launched in 2004, the Equality Standard for Sport has been developed by UK Sport, the nation’s high performance sports agency, and the Home Country Sports Councils as a framework for assisting sports organisations in widening access and reducing inequalities in sport for under-represented groups.

LOOCG today also launched the disability pin badge to mark London 2012's commitment to engage and inspire all communities. LOCOG will be issuing pin badges to celebrate its six strands of diversity and inclusion including belief, age, gender and ethnicity. The pin badge for the LGBT community was issued in July 2010.

The disability pin badge was created and designed by members of the disabled community together with Deaf and disabled advocate members of LOCOG's Community Outreach Team. The group came up with a design they felt represented all disabled groups and used the word 'inclusion' on the badge to reinforce this message.

Other activity happening during the week include an Access Summit which will give deaf, hard of hearing and deaf blind people the opportunity to find out about ways to get involved with London 2012 and how the Games are aiming to be the most accessible possible.

LOCOG will also hold a meeting of LGBT groups, stakeholders and National Governing Bodies to discuss how to secure a lasting legacy from the Games for LGBT communities. Lou Englefield of Pride Sports and former Chelsea footballer Paul Elliot MBE will speak at the event, which is hosted by EDF Energy, the first sustainability partner of London 2012.

Over the next 18 months, LOCOG will be creating thousands of jobs and will also be encouraging sponsors and contractors to support local employment opportunities from these boroughs. LOCOG has set itself the target of employing 15 to 20 per cent of the total workforce for the Games from people living in the six Host Boroughs and will be working closely with job brokerages and the six Host Boroughs to promote these opportunities.

Paul Deighton, CEO of LOCOG said: "We are committed to making sure the London 2012 Games are as diverse and inclusive as possible. I am thrilled that our achievements, such as reaching the Advanced Level of the Equality Standard of Sport and launching our second diversity pin badge shows we are on our way to fulfilling out goal of leaving a lasting legacy of greater inclusion and understanding of diversity."

London 2012's Diversity Week gives the organisation the opportunity to showcase how it is building diversity and inclusion into all of its work, look back on the achievements over the past 12 months and outline some of the challenges for the coming year.