Amber marches for Pride Cymru 2022

On 27th August this year, Amber will be participating in the Pride Cymru March, taking place in Cardiff City Centre. We spoke to our Employee Success Business Partner, Beth Griffiths, to discuss why showing solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community is so close to our hearts, as a company.

What are we doing to support Pride Cymru this month?

This year we’re so excited to be marching in our first ever Pride Cymru event. It’s something we’ve wanted to get involved in for a long while, however, due to the COVID restrictions, this is the first in person event since 2019, and it’s set to be bigger and better than ever. We can’t wait to show our support of Pride to commemorate and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community.

Why is Pride Cymru an important cause for Amber to support?

Pride Cymru are a fantastic, charitable organisation based in Cardiff. We love everything Pride Cymru stand for; they’re an extremely inclusive organisation whose support spans throughout the entirety of the LGBTQ+ community. As an organisation our values align with those of Pride Cymru. We stand to create a relentlessly inclusive environment where people feel comfortable and safe to bring their whole selves to work, without the anxiety of feeling worried about a part of their identity, whether that be gender or sexuality. We think the Pride Parade, conveys a great message for us to show people that we’re really proud to support the LGBTQ+ community, and to show our employees that identify as part of this community, that we’re here to support them.

How have Amber supported Pride Cymru in the past?

We’ve always marked Pride month as a time of reflection, celebration, and education. We continually educate ourselves on issues that are prevalent within the LGBTQ+ community and due to a period of rapid growth in the past few years have seen more demand than ever from our team members to celebrate the occasion. Unfortunately, due to COVID restrictions, we have been unable to march in the Pride Parade any sooner.

We recognise that although it's important to celebrate during Pride month, it needs to be a catalyst for change which will have a long lasting impact on our employees, rather than just for one month of the year. One way in which we ensure that the momentum of change is felt year round is through our 'pledge' initiative. Each year, during Pride month, we ask the team to put forward a pledge suggestion, something that they would like to see Amber commit to achieving before next year's Pride month. The pledges then go to a vote and during the following Pride month, we review to see if the winning pledge was achieved. An example of a pledge which we recently implemented was to introduce blind sifting to help reduce bias during our recruitment process, which we are really pleased to have done. A close runner up for last years winning pledge was to take part in the Pride Cymru Parade, so it's great that we were able to deliver on this.
What are Amber’s plans for the Pride Parade?

We’ve got people of all ages joining us to march for Pride Cymru, it’s a great day as it’s really inclusive, so no matter how you identify you’re welcome to celebrate the date with us. Staff members are bringing their parents, children, partners, and even furry friends.

On Saturday 27th August we are meeting at the office to get ready ahead of the celebrations. We’ve got face paints, banners, flags, and T-Shirts. After we’ve completed the Parade there’s a Pride in the Park event taking place afterwards, so everyone is invited along for a picnic. There’ll be drinks, food, and the chance to soak up the amazing atmosphere that Pride has to offer.