Red Balloon of the Air is pleased to announce that Madeleine Siniscalchi has been named the new Diversity and Inclusion LGBTQ+ Champion! We are very excited to have Madeleine take on this important role, and you can get to know more about her below!
Meet Madeleine!
I’m Madeleine (She/Her) and I’m the new Diversity and Inclusion LGBTQ+ champion! I’m working to help make Red Balloon a more authentically inclusive and positive place for all – but I’m especially looking after the needs of those who identify as LGBTQ+.
I am a queer person of colour and interracial adoptee to a lesbian couple, so DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) are deeply personal for me! Although we’ve made an incredible amount of progress in just the last few decades, it can still be very difficult to be an LGBTQ+ person in our cis and heteronormative (assuming or promoting cis-gendered people and heterosexuality as preferred and the norm) society.
We have lots of fantastic LGBTQ+ young people and staff and I want to make sure they have safe spaces, someone to advocate for them and that they feel respected, accepted and celebrated at Red Balloon. This might include revising policies to make them more inclusive, educating all staff and students on LGBTQ+ issues, and challenging language or workplace norms among many other things. Representation and purposeful inclusion matter because our systems are not inherently set up to recognise, value, include and flex to meet the needs of our diverse population. I’m so excited to be a part of this next step RBAir has decided to take!
