Pride Reflection from Public Trust
June was International Pride Month, a month dedicated to recognise freedom, equality and most importantly to celebrate love.
Matthew Gamman is one of our Trustee’s based within Auckland, and as a proud member of our newly created Diversity and Inclusion working group, he is dedicated to ensuring Public Trust remains an equitable environment for all stakeholders and is championing the ideology of widespread inclusivity and education surrounding the rainbow community at Public Trust. Here is what he has to say about Pride at Public Trust and his mahi in this space:
“It’s a pleasure to belong to an organisation that takes a people centric approach. Our Māori name Te Tari Tiaki Iwi directly translates to ‘the organisation that takes care of people’; it’s important we live up to our name and its significance. Like many organisations, we still have a long way to go in fostering a wholeheartedly inclusive environment – it’s a journey, and I’m thrilled to be at the forefront of the ride - creating change is difficult and it wouldn’t be possible without the support of my colleagues and peers.
I feel lived experience and storytelling is invaluable when facilitating conversations about change. As an advocate, I acknowledge I am not just representing myself but more so the communities I belong too, and it is an immense privilege to be in a position to do that. At the core of my advocacy is education – I find a constructive conversation with educational undertones proves to be very effective.
Working at Public Trust has taught me the importance of building a legacy. I want my legacy to be an attestation to the work I carry out in this space. I use my voice to empower those around me and I’m proud to live and breathe equality. I look forward to seeing what’s next for Public Trust.”
Here are some of the ways we celebrate and support our staff members, whether they’re part of the rainbow community or not:
Pronouns in our email signatures
Stating your pronouns is an easy way to support the Rainbow community. As part of our ongoing commitment to foster a positive and collegial environment we encourage our people to state their individual third person pronouns in their respective email signatures.
Lean In Circles
At this year’s Public Trust International Women’s Day event, we launched our very first Lean In Circles, an initiative to empower our people to achieve their goals and overcome barriers.
Culture of Care
An important part of our culture of care is living and breathing our values and purpose. Our culture of care creates the environment where all our people are able to connect to each other, contribute and co-create in order to deliver good outcomes for each other, our customers and our business.
Here at Public Trust we have a long and proud history of championing positive change for both our people, and for our communities. Since our establishment in 1873, we’ve set to empower all New Zealanders to build and protect their legacies. Being inclusive and accessible for Kiwi is at the forefront of our organisational goals and we recognise this shouldn’t stop at our customers. Our business continues to ensure we uphold a diverse and supported working environment that allows our staff to feel comfortable in bringing their true authentic selves to work each day, no matter how they identify.