Kate Nevens

I've been Access and Inclusion Officer for the past year, and hope to be elected again to the role because I've been really enjoying it and feel like I have more I'd like to do! I've particularly enjoyed working with other members of the Edinburgh branch committee, our sub-branches and local teams and our councillors, and creating spaces to share our expertise and experiences in access and inclusion. I'm passionate about equality and justice issues, and keen to see what more we can do as a branch.

I'm currently also the convenor of the party's National Council, where I have been trying to prioritise access and inclusion issues. I find the two roles complement each other well.

During my first year in the role I have, in collaboration with others:
- Started to use the Equal Representation Toolkit to review our branch's current practices around equality, accessibility, diversity and inclusion
- Run a workshop local team members sharing ideas on how to make our meeting and activities accessible, inclusive and welcoming to all members
- Worked on improving how we communicate about the accessibility of our various branch activities and meetings
- Ensured the application of our gender balancing rules to our selection of candidates for Westminster

As my day job, I'm a freelance facilitator and researcher, specialising in human rights and equalities issues, and in taking intersectional feminist and participatory approaches.