But how do we actually do that?
Well, we go beyond campaigning for change and help people and organisations achieve it.
You can find out how it’s working in practice by reading our impact reports here.
Our blueprint for an anti-racist county is being endorsed all the time by individuals, those organisations already working with us and even funders such as Esmée Fairbairn and Paul Hamlyn who help support our organisational overheads.
Our approach takes in five main areas which are laid out here, these help identify and dismantle racism and embed anti-racism into the structures of the county whilst educating and engaging our predominantly White communities with anti-racism and uplifting the experiences, contributions and voices of our Black and Brown communities.
Our approach leaves space for those organisations who work in other areas such as multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion, important and valid work which can enhance the work of anti-racism but cannot solve racism alone.
An anti-racist society is good for everyone, somewhere no one is left behind.
So how do we create one?
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Impacting Leadership
Working with businesses and in leadership spaces, we have encouraged organisations to begin their anti-racist journeys and support them to do so through our range of anti-racist business offerings. These include; Power Hours, full and half day Conversation Day sessions and bespoke anti-racist programmes.
This work not only helps us achieve our charitable aims and create more anti-racist organisations but the money received from businesses supports the long term sustainability of our anti-racist work and subsidises our work with schools and communities.
You can read more about our Anti-Racist programme for businesses and organisations here.
Education
Our work in the Education sector began back in October 2020, when almost 80 Cumbrian schools pledged to become actively anti-racist following Anti Racist Cumbria’s online Race and Education event. In 2021/22, 30 of these schools went on to complete audits under a pilot process funded by Cumbria County Council’s Education Department.
Following on from the results of this pilot, Copeland & Cumbria County Council funded an Anti Racist Education Lead (AREL) for 6 months who then continued to work with a selection of schools mainly within Copeland, developing their action plans and supporting their anti racism.
All schools that engaged with our AREL found the guidance invaluable in identifying missteps, gaining up-to-date, research-based information and having the benefit of a ‘critical friend’. A key factor was that staff benefited from open and honest discussions about race with someone who understands the education landscape and anti-racism, both from online and in-person visits.
What also became clear from this work was the requirement for it to be regular and consistent – and how essential it is for all schools across the county. So, in 2025 Westmorland and Furness Council funded an AREL for one year to work with a group of local schools. The role supports schools in the Westmorland & Furness Council area to embed anti-racist practices and enables staff to better understand, deal with and prevent racism. The work is being carried out with Daniela Kazuko Münzel as the AREL and Shabnam Anam from Dewdrop education as the AREL Strategy Lead. By exploring anti-racism through three main spheres (Philosophy, Policy and Pedagogy), schools will focus on one specific thing they can do for each sphere this year to become an anti-racist school.
Grass Roots
Change needs to work from the top down and from the bottom up. Working with and for our communities is as important and vital as working with our leaders, major businesses and educators. And in working with our communities, not only do we need to support our Black and Brown ones, we need to challenge and support our White ones to become anti-racist too.
From supporting young people through workshops, helping them create their own anti-racist campaigns, volunteering elsewhere in our community, or simply creating spaces and events where Black and Brown people can be their authentic selves our grassroots work is beginning to take root.
Communications
We educate the people of Cumbria about anti-racism through our social media platforms, website, monthly e-newsletter, events, engagement and press and media appearances.
Our educational, creative visual campaigns are extremely well received – with a social reach of over 1 million.
We further educate through initiatives such as our inaugural Summit, which has sold out 3 times, regular key public facing events (online and IRL) and are commissioned as speakers and presenters for other organisations.
We are seen as the ‘go to’ organisation by county-wide media on racial and intersectional social justice issues.
With support from the FTE team, a strong experienced cohort of our volunteers run our social media platforms and the results are paying off with year on year growth.
Regulation & Embodiment
At ARC all our anti racism learning with organisations is informed by wellbeing work. This means we support clients to recognise the learning we do in our minds with learning we do in our bodies and science backs this up.
Our work with Embodiment Coach and Racial Trauma practitioner Rowan Carr has influenced how we do things; both with others and with ourselves. We know it’s difficult to talk about racism, there is so much fear and anxiety around just the word, let alone the consequences of it. By doing wellbeing (regulation) work it helps us to recognise how it’s not only our minds but our bodies that respond to racism and that we can be better mentally and physically resourced with tools and techniques when talking about and tackling racism, enabling us to continue those conversations and lower our defences when we become uncomfortable.
This matters because it is in the moments of discomfort and challenge that we grow. We shouldn’t avoid discomfort but through regulation we can learn to deal with it better.
In 2023 we updated all of our materials and workshops to include regulation work with clients, and we’ve trialled some new methods of engagement, such as our ‘self reflective bingo cards’!
We also have regular sessions to heal from the racial trauma both Black and white bodies are subjected to and have numerous practices beyond basic wellbeing tools to enable us to continue this work. We recognise that without embodiment, the challenge of this work means ultimately we will fail. So we take it seriously and see this very much as a huge part of our self care.
