Michelle Cox anti-racism award launches for second year
An award that funds projects for nurses and midwives to tackle racism in the workplace has launched for a second year.
The RCN Foundation announced this month that it had relaunched the Michelle Cox RCN Foundation Anti-Racism Award.
“I believe we have a unique opportunity to spotlight and share these exemplary practices on a wider scale”
Michelle Cox
The annual grant of £2,500 supports a nursing or midwifery-led project which aims to oppose racism and promote racial equality within the professions.
The RCN Foundation said the award winner should look to transform unequal workplace relations that negatively impact individuals from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Proposals should involve those that “build anti-racist workplaces” and could include the development of webinars, virtual learning packages, development programmes or reverse mentoring programmes.
Last year’s winner of the grant was the anti-racism shared decision-making council at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust.
The council has used the funding to undertake a project to develop five educational videos for the trust’s anti-racism toolkit e-learning module.
The videos seek to empower staff to tackle uncomfortable conversations around racism and help raise awareness, knowledge and confidence for staff.
The Michelle Cox RCN Foundation Anti-Racism Award is named after Michelle Cox, a senior nurse who won a landmark racial discrimination case against the NHS last year.
Ms Cox’s employment tribunal found that she faced discrimination, harassment and victimisation because of her race, and that her internal grievances were handled incorrectly.
Determined to create a positive legacy from the impact that the legal battle had on her, Ms Cox worked with the RCN Foundation to create this award.
Commenting on the launch of this year’s award, Ms Cox said: “There are countless NHS staff, including nurses and midwives, who are doing incredible work to advance anti-racism within healthcare.
“Unfortunately, much of this work happens in isolation, making it difficult to sustain or replicate beyond their teams.
“By partnering with the RCN Foundation, I believe we have a unique opportunity to spotlight and share these exemplary practices on a wider scale”.
The grant is open to registered nurses and midwives from across the UK who are members of the Royal College of Nursing.
Applications are open now and will close at 5pm on 27 October.
