Pride lives here - how we are building a Society for everyone
Published: 6 June 2025
Pride lives here – how we’re building a Society for everyone
Providing a place where everyone feels included is so important to us.
We love celebrating Pride Month but our support for the LGBTQ+ community stretches all year round. That’s because Pride lives here.
Empowering allies
For the past two years, our colleagues have been getting involved in our Empowering Allyship training. These engaging and interactive sessions have boosted their confidence in having productive conversations and made them ready to challenge non-inclusive behaviour. By delivering this training, we’re making sure people have a place to be themselves, where they won’t face negativity or scrutiny just because of who they are.
And our colleagues continue to proudly wear pronoun badges around the office and in our branches, to help remove any stigma around gender identity.
Providing a Pride of Place
In 2024, we donated £41,500 to Pride of Place Leeds. This community-led organisation is committed to create a community in Leeds where people can live and enjoy life independently and safely, and we’ll continue to support them on this mission.
Our support has gone towards initiatives such as providing project resource for Pride of Place: Living, a multi-generational community-led LGBTQ+ housing scheme in Leeds. The scheme will provide a mix of different types of homes and tenures to suit the range of age and care-related needs in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as providing housing for members of the community at risk of homelessness.
Inclusive Employers accreditation
We were the first building society to be awarded with the Inclusive Employers Golden Accreditation in 2024. This shows that we’ve taken important steps to embed an inclusive culture where we value all our colleagues and enable them to be their best regardless of who they are.
We’ve continued to live and breathe inclusivity every day, and make sure we provide a workplace people can feel a part of.
Proud to be backing Pride
Leeds Pride is an event not to be missed, and we love being part of it! It’s a fantastic chance for colleagues to come together and celebrate with a rainbow of colours.
We’ll be back in the parade this year on 20 July. If you’re showing up, come and say hello!
