Promoting DiversityPortia is committed to promoting diversity. Diversity to us means fighting the invisible bias that exists in society: bias that creates barriers to everyone enjoying an equal chance to access justice, human rights and happiness.
We aren't saying we're good at this diversity thing, we are saying we want to be good at it. It's a journey, and like any journey we just have to keep moving forward if we are ever to achieve our goal. |
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Diversity: our missionA measure of our success in promoting diversity in the workplace will be that we have created a workplace culture that reflects opportunities to all people to achieve their life goals and support one-another.
Some of our Wins
Our immediate goal
Our longer-term goals
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What does Portia do to achieve this?
We are signatories to the United Nations Women's Empowerment Principals, the New Zealand Law Society Gender Equality Charter and help promote the White Ribbon Campaign against violence.
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Portia is a fierce advocate of legal aid, and the rights of every person to access justice. It's not about doing things 'pro bono' (for free) - that can sometimes harm the dignity of an individual and can sometimes create an uncomfortable power imbalance between a client and their lawyer. We fight all the time to get legal aid services more widely available to vulnerable members of society.
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We provide our staff with flexibility as to when they can work. Most of our team can choose their days and hours of work, parents are given the choice to work from home and we encourage staff to go part-time if they want to study.
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We're trying our best to ensure our diversity strategy is visible to our staff and clients.
We are always open to suggestions, criticism and guidance. We recognise all social and community services as our equals - no matter what their size or expertise - because they are always teaching us something about how to make the world a better place.
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