The Village Hotel Portsmouth

Develop your understanding of diversity and what it means for your workplace. Explore how an effective diversity and inclusion strategy can support your business

Did you know there are approximately 650 thousand people in the UK who's gender identity is not the same as that assigned at birth? That means at one out of a hundred people in your workplace are likely to be either trans or gender non-conforming, many of them living in secret with a fear of humiliation or rejection.

Did you know that only 10% of disability is visible? With 8.3 million disabled people in the workplace, you are probably going to work with a disabled person over the course of your career.

And these figures only refer to those who disclose

Many more disabled and transgender people don't disclose due to fear of repercussion. Embracing and valuing these diversities in the workplace will encourage engagement, increase retention and strengthen your business reach.

Celebrating Disability and SEE Change Happen have partnered up to deliver an event that will raise awareness of disability and transgender inclusion. The conference will explore the following key areas of disability and transgender:

•Inclusion and intersectionality


•Discrimination and Language


•Making sense of the legislation.


By the end of this workshop attendees will be to:

•Confidently demonstrate an understanding of the principles of Inclusion


•Explain how Intersectionality is imperative when recognising the needs of individuals


•Competently use appropriate language to describe disabled individuals or those who are trans or gender non-confirming.


Attendees will also leave with actionable goals to implement in the workplace.

You should attend if:

•You are passionate about inclusion of transgender and disabled people in the workplace


•You have a drive for positive change


•Spending the day amongst like-minded, driven, creative people inspires you.


A bit about your hosts:

Esi Hardy

Esi is the owner and Managing Director of Celebrating Disability, a disability equality consultancy supporting businesses to be disability confident through workshops, training and collaboration. Esi’s background includes: training, mentoring and developing inclusion strategies for disabled people.

Before setting up Celebrating Disability, Esi worked for a charitable organisation supporting strategic development to ensure meaningful inclusion of disabled employees and customers.

To see more about Celebrating Disability, visit www.celebratingdisability.co.uk

Joanne Lockwood

Joanne is the First Openly Transgender Past National President of the 90-year-old “Men’s Club”, The Round Table. Taking the decision in 2016 to embark on her personal re-brand, she sold her IT Services business and transitions at the beginning of 2017. As part of her rebirth she founded SEE Change Happen in Portsmouth, a Diversity and Inclusion Practice specialising in supporting Transgender inclusion and awareness to businesses and other organisations. She is also a keynote speaker and talks about her journey in a very open, passionate but light-hearted way.

To see more about SEE Change Happen, visit https://seechangehappen.co.uk or follow her on twitter @jo_lockwood1965



A few testimonials:

Joanne presents the issues faced by the Transgender community with great clarity and knowledge. As an organisation P3 promotes inclusion, supports individuals and embraces individuality and as such we are always seeking ways to extend our knowledge and inform best practice. Joanne’s training not only prompted positive discussion but has also given us some key tools when working with individuals who disclose they are part of the Transgender community and may need further support to explore what this means for him or her in a none judgmental way. I would recommend Joanne’s training to any organisation considering educating staff on the issues and legislation and how to best incorporate best practice for both Service Users and staff.

Erika Paradise – Service Manager, P3 Charity

Thank you Joanne, a most enjoyable and inspiring study day. I learnt so much and will be able to include so much of your session in my work. The [transgender] workshop session was most useful. I wish that sessions like yours were more widely available especially within the NHS.

Teresa Walker – Woodpecker Training | Acute & Critical Care Nurse

Joanne took a sensitive subject and made it fun and thought-provoking! I took so much away from it and have a much better understanding of how to generally be a more compassionate human being

Jasmine Lambert – Redwood Financial | JCI UK




Our training was a great morning exploring different types of disability. We had two groups doing the workshop and both halves said how valuable the training was. Thank you for visiting us and sharing your knowledge on the subject.

Delegate from Welwyn Hatfield BC

The {workshop} has challenged our thinking and assumptions. We won't make so many assumptions about what people can and can't do, we will ask more questions and will involve the individual in exploring solutions.

Really great to work with a professional in disability. Will definitely be seeking Esi's support and expert knowledge again in future.

Thank you, Jo

Jo Osmand - DWP