Community celebrates growth of DARPL in Wales

Community @communityunionAugust 14, 2024

Community members in the education and early years sector continue to benefit from DARPL (Diversity and Anti-Racism Professional Learning), a Welsh Labour Government-funded source of training and resources aimed at building anti-racist leadership across the entire education system in Wales.

In a guest blog, Community official Mark Shervington reports back for us on a successful 2024 DARPL conference, which took place in North Wales in June.

It was a beautiful sunny day on the 20th of June 2024 at Venue Cymru in Llandudno and the conference hall was packed with attendees from all over the education sector in Wales. What a difference a year makes: the conference had doubled in size since last year’s inaugural conference in Newport, and there were a wide range of stalls and workshops in place. The growth of the conference is testament to the hard work and commitment of the founders.

So, who are DARPL and what does it mean to be DARPLing?

The DARPL Advocacy Network (DAN) is a national and global community of practice for learning organisations who are committed to progressive anti-racist leadership through an embedded, whole learning organisation approach. Their aim is to support and facilitate the development and sharing of excellent anti-racist practice across the length and breadth of Wales.

DARPL is committed to supporting the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan (ArWAP), working in collaboration to help make Wales an anti-racist nation by 2030 through a continuum of high quality anti-racist professional learning for all education providers in Wales.

The buzzword of the conference is the term ‘DARPLing’ – which refers to DARPL related networking and discussion – and it’s a word that was being used all over the conference by the hundreds in attendance.

The Conference

The conference was opened by one of DARPL’s founding members, Chantelle Haughton, who is a principal lecturer in early childhood studies at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Chantelle is someone whose energy and passion for the project is like a wave that you can’t help getting caught up and carried along with, and she really set the tone for what was an informative and inspiring day for me.

During the morning the conference attendees were treated to excellent guest speakers from the education sector and members of ethnic minority communities from across Wales. Connor Allan, the Children’s Poet Laureate for Wales for 2021 – 2023, read several of his poems reflecting on his experiences of racism within Wales and his hopes for the next generation. Connor was followed by Rocío Cifuentes, the serving Children’s Commissioner for Wales, who spoke to the conference about her and the Welsh Government’s commitment to the cause and DARPL’s campaign. The morning session was closed by speaker and DARPL co- founder Professor Charlotte Williams OBE, who was honoured in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List in 2007 for her services to ethnic minorities and equal opportunities in Wales.

In the afternoon the quality of speaker remained high with speeches from Jayne Bryant MS, the Member of the Senedd for Newport West and then-Minister for Mental Health and Early Years; and Liz Pemberton, an award-winning anti racist trainer and consultant in early years and the founder of the Black Nursery Manager. The last of the speakers were a group of 6 children of ethnic background from the local school who had written poems about their experience of racism and their hopes for the future. They received by far the biggest ovation of the day – it was truly a special moment that had many in attendance in tears.

Workshops

During the morning and afternoon session between the speakers, attendees were given that chance to pick and attend workshops put on by the conference. The workshops were varied in their subjects, and all run by experts in the field and included topics such as:

The 4E’s of Anti-Racism Practice

Parental Engagement in the Early Years.

Diversifying Recruitment into Wales’ Education Workforce.

Rooting Anti-Racist Teaching in Local History and many more.

What Next

Without a doubt this year conference was viewed as an overwhelming success by those that attended and the DARPLing went way on after the conference had finished.

The aim for Community Union is to continue to work with and support DARPL through a working partnership with the regional, early years and education sectors of the union. With the troubles seen throughout the country and the undoubted healing and understanding that’s needed throughout our communities, the work and message of DARPL is needed now, more than ever.