Ladies Gaelic Football

48 | SUMMER 2020 | www.ladiesgaelic.ie INCLUSION & DIVERSITY G er McTavish Inclusion and Diversity Officer for the GAA shares her ambitions for the developing a diverse and inclusive Association Q: Ger, thanks a lot for talking to us. Can you first of all tell us a little bit about your role and what it entails? In my role as Diversity and Inclusion officer I promote the value of having a diverse and inclusive sporting organisation. My job is to develop policy and practice of using the family of Gaelic games for cultural integration and social inclusion. Ireland is a diverse place and my role is to ensure that this is reflected in all aspects of all codes of our Association. Q. Behind the scenes, you and your colleagues have been doing a lot of work around diversity and inclusion. What are the most recent updates that you can bring us in relation to this? We are in the final phase of our policy document on Gender Diversity in Gaelic Games. This document will provide a roadmap for the Association to positively promote the inclusion of LGBTQI community in Gaelic Games. I have just finished a webinar series with DCU Centre of Excellence for Diversity and Inclusion and Pride in Sport 2020. The purpose of this was to raise awareness for LGBTQI+ inclusion in sports. For more details visit https://dcucentreofexcellence.ie/lgbtqi-inclusion-in-sports/ The GAA 'Games For All' Committee is a body that oversees inclusion and integration initiatives. This committee engages in awareness campaigns and is a driving force in the development and guidelines around GAA For All. Some of the GAA For All initiatives are inter-cultural activities, wheelchair hurling and camogie and football for all with the Irish Special Schools. We also have inclusive Cúl Camps and All-Star programmes which are club programmes that give everyone in the community the opportunity to come and experience the GAA club. In March a responding to racism workshop was launched. This is a two-hour educational workshop that provides training for members of GAA clubs to help them ensure their club is proactively discouraging any racism and confident to deal with any incidents that may arise. Also in conjunction with the Public Health and Health Promotion Department in Sligo IT we are developing user friendly diversity & inclusion toolkits for clubs. See more info on recent inclusion activity here: https://www.gaa.ie/news/zero-tolerance-for-racism-in-the-gaa/ WHERE WE ALL

• Cover