A Chat With: Grace Prior at Diverse Sussex
By Donna Fielder and Sarah Cronk
This month, Chalk spoke to Grace Prior, Programme Director for Silicon Brighton who led the Diverse Sussex initiative. Diversity, equity and inclusion have always been a passion and priority of Grace’s, so we caught up with her to find out how this applies to the digital sector.
Grace, let’s start at the beginning. What led to Diverse Sussex’s creation?
Grace: “Diverse Sussex launched last September aimed at tackling inequality in the tech sector. We’re powered by Silicon Brighton, which was set up to enable digital growth in the South East and support individual technologists. We want to foster a community of peer-to-peer support and learning, and be at the forefront of the local tech sector. This means we look at what the issues and challenges are for everyone from developers to CTOs.
“As Silicon Brighton, we help with the logistics of events. When hosting events, people were chatting more and more about the problem with the diversity, and the lack thereof - there’s a predominance of white males in the industry. There was a challenge of knowing where to start tackling the issue, as it felt so big. People were wondering what they could actually do tomorrow to make a change.
“So that’s where Diverse Sussex comes in. We collect signatories of companies pledging to help address this problem. Businesses signing up get access to a free toolkit, which includes different resources to help with the attraction and retention of candidates. Signing up also signifies a commitment to submit DEI [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] data. One of the challenges is that a lot of DEI data for the South East includes London, so it’s not representative of the wider area. We will use the submitted data to come up with a report and provide an accurate benchmark for companies here.
“From the report, we will also look at actionable insights and quick wins. We allow companies to become part of something bigger, without having to change the world themselves within their own business.”
Why do you think the tech sector is so underrepresented?
“That’s a big question! There are lots of different factors. Firstly, there’s a misconception about what the tech sector is. It’s very broad, but people just think of coding. So the stereotype of what a technical career looks like can seem exclusive.
“Historically, people taking STEM subjects has predominantly been more male-orientated. There are pre-existing stereotypes of the roles we should play as we get older. These gender stereotypes affect what you study and how you carve out a career.
“There has also been a lack of mentors from underrepresented groups, which can stifle progression if there’s not enough support. We need more role models; people from underrepresented groups who can act as ambassadors.”
What is Diverse Sussex aiming to achieve in the next year or so?
“There are lots of things we want to do. Increase the number of signatories, gather data and provide some recommendations, learn from and collaborate with other organisations.
“We are hoping that businesses can use the Diverse Sussex signatory scheme to maybe kickstart their DEI agenda, or integrate it into their existing one.
“We want to run a series of workshops too. We ran a workshop in February on psychological safety in the sector, where we discussed challenges with leaders. We’d like to do more like this.
“Our team produced content for our toolkit, but we want to build on this. We want it to be a live working resource that people can contribute to. It should be somewhere that helps facilitate people in coming up with the answers, and members can contribute too.”
What has been the feedback so far from those joining Diverse Sussex and coming along to your events?
“We’ve had such amazing feedback from the launch. We put it together in response to conversations that were happening. The general feedback was that it’s something needed and Silicon Brighton is a good organisation to look towards, as we are impartial and can help everyone to solve the problem together.”
Are there any similar groups around the UK that you are learning from or collaborating with?
“There aren’t any other groups doing exactly what we are doing, but there are lots of organisations we’d be happy to collaborate with that can be a part of solving the problem: the universities, our signatories, education providers within the region, the community of technologists, influencers, and role models from underrepresented groups.
“We have worked with Mo Kanjilal from Watch This Sp_ce. She helped us build the toolkit. And Alison Jones ran the first workshop. Diversity and Ability are also offering training.”
What can education providers specifically do to try and bridge the DEI gap for young people coming into the sector?
“There are a few things education providers can do: introduce tech at a younger age; ensure there are visible role models from underrepresented groups; upskill teachers and careers counsellors giving careers advice. And improve diversity around careers talks, both to change how tech is being represented and what a career in tech can look like.”
What can the businesses in our Chalk network do today to start making a difference?
“Become a signatory of Diverse Sussex and check out the toolkit. Get in touch with us: don’t be afraid to communicate and collaborate. Don’t be afraid if you are at the start of your diversity journey. A lot of companies are afraid to say they are at the start of their journey because of how it might look.
“There are so many small things people can do, like introducing software to identify gender stereotyping in written content, or software to make job ads more accessible for those who are visually impaired.”
We always ask interviewees what advice they would give to anyone considering a career in the tech sector - in this case, what advice would you give to someone who is in one of these underrepresented groups?
“Don’t think, just do. Get stuck in and you won’t regret it. If you want to see change, then be that change. Yes, the industry is underrepresented, but the more people we can see taking that bold leap of faith into the industry, the quicker we can accelerate the changes.
“Once you are in the industry, be proactive, be a role model and support others.”
You can play your part and become a signatory of Diverse Sussex at diversesussex.com.
If you want to discover more, Silicon Brighton and Diverse Sussex are hosting dual Paralympian and England's most capped and decorated blind football player, Darren Harris, at "Unblind the Mind" on Thursday 22nd September in Brighton.
Come along to find out:
How technology can help people to push past the limits imposed on them
What your business can do to improve the recruitment, retention and progression of diverse talent
Who the next generation of technologists are and how you can inspire them
