To celebrate Black History Month, we've spoken to EAST VILLAGE. A multi-award-winning PR agency working with tech brands that empower underserved communities, innovative founders creating everyday change, and organisations that feed the ecosystem.
Tell us a bit about EAST VILLAGE. ...
As a team …
We are relentlessly passionate about our mission to create a more equitable and inclusive landscape for underrepresented founders. As a result, we are actively intentional about who we work with – both in our team and as a team.
When it comes to our team, we are dedicated to being an agency for a modern workforce and we are committed to ensuring that there is diversity of thought, experience, and background being brought to the EAST VILLAGE. table.
This is not just about hiring people from different walks of life to tick a box; it’s about nurturing a pipeline of talent that really is inclusive, and making sure we have policies in place that ensure people feel safe and supported to be their authentic selves once they get here.
When it comes to our clients …
We help underrepresented founders have their time in the spotlight: from training to help combat bias during the pitch process, to generating impressive PR that grabs the attention of Angel Investors and VCs.
Our overarching goal is to get more role models into the media and help level the playing field for everyone.
How does Black History Month impact EAST VILLAGE.'s policies?
Being completely honest… it doesn’t. It’s my absolute pet peeve when companies performatively celebrate a ‘day’, but then when you then look under the bonnet of their business, they don’t actually back it up with any policies or initiatives to make life better for their teams.
At EAST VILLAGE. …
We truly believe that committing to change has to be about more than an awareness day or month. Instead, it takes the dedication of resource, time, and focus into long-lasting, structural changes. That’s the only way we can hope to achieve sustainable impact.
This is how I felt back in 2020, when the murder of George Floyd resulted in ‘Blackout Tuesday’ – where people posted black squares on social media to mark solidarity in the fight for racial justice. While I totally understand the point that people wanted to show their allyship, it didn’t sit well with me that people thought that posting a black square was all they needed to do, rather than actually ‘do the work’.
Instead, after a lengthy conversation with our MD Tara, who felt similarly to me that there was more to be done, we created the TeamEV Charter. As we said then, it was our way of committing to our belief that the values as a business lie in its values as a business. Above and beyond a CSR initiative or one-off promise, the TeamEV Charter was our way of standing for something and living by it; building it into the fabric of our day-to-day actions. From diversity and inclusion to charitable commitments, we put pledges against our policy to hold both ourselves, and each other, to account. The TeamEV Charter is about creating, protecting, and extending lasting opportunities, that incite change from today and every day thereafter.
It’s one of the things I’m most proud of bringing to life at EV. in the eight years I’ve been here and I’m still so excited by the impact it has!
In your opinion, what are some of the challenges the public relations industry faces regarding diversity, inclusion, and equity?
I think part of it is how much PR talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk; something that is perhaps unsurprising given that we’re wordsmiths by trade!
In recent years in particular, I’ve seen our fellow agencies announce their DE&I targets, shout about their team growth, and declare their stats on fulfilling these aims; however, their team pages appear as pale and stale as they did before.
For me, this boils down to companies expecting people to feel welcome, just because they’ve opened the door; not putting the systems in place to make sure they feel included once they are across the threshold.
Without putting the commitment into ensuring that the environments are inclusive (whether that’s DE&I training into unconscious bias, encouraging people to share their experiences both in-person and anonymously, changing the ways we structure the hours we work to suit people’s lifestyles… the list goes on!) the PR industry will just continue to lose diverse talent.
Absolutely! As I said, we believe that opportunities should be there for everyone and we want to lead the way when it comes to PR being a much more responsible, diverse, and accessible industry.
For us, so much of this comes from building the future pipeline and showing young people that PR isn’t just an industry that they can get a job in, but one where their skills, experiences, and ideas are welcomed.
We might just be seen as a small agency in the Midlands, but we try as hard as we can to have a big impact for those on our doorstep to help them see how PR can be for them.
To do this, we’ve partnered with schools, colleges, and universities to deliver employability workshops and skills sessions (special shout-out to the team at charity Working Options who help connect industry professionals with schools!); run free workshops for community groups to help them understand what PR is and how it could benefit them; and offer paid placements and internships to those seeking experience.
This commitment to the next generation of PR professionals – who most importantly have different experiences to the current one… – is something all of TeamEV feels really passionate about and we’re always looking to learn and do more, so keep your eyes peeled…
What advice do you have for people from under-represented communities that want to start their career in PR?
Trust in the validation of your own experiences and never underestimate how valuable your perspective is.
PR is all about connecting with different groups of people – whether that’s journalists, consumers or stakeholders – understanding what their pain-points are, and how to communicate to them that you’ll fix it.
Therefore, your ability to bring your lived experience to the table is always going to be an asset. Don’t undersell it and don’t be afraid to share it!
For me, TeamEV really has always meant being part a *team* – we win together, we lose together, and most importantly, we fix things together.
When I joined as an intern eight years ago, I was given the autonomy, the trust, and the respect to do a job and to do it well, and to know that my opinion and skills weren’t just valued but celebrated is why I’ve stayed for so long.
That’s a feeling that I hope all of my EV. colleagues – past, present, and future – feel.
