My new venture

I've been getting a few questions on Twitter and Facebook about my new venture, what exactly am I doing and why is it called Hare Onna. My new twitter account is @HareOnnaDiverse. Well soon I hope to be able to sign post everyone to my website, but at the moment it is under construction. I'm slaving away for the web master Jason :-) Actually Jason is being very generous with his web master abilities and I am just working on content for the web site and later today I am going to sketch a design for how I want it to eventually look. At the moment it is very basic, just allowing me to add content in a fairly ordered way.

I tested the website this morning though with my Mac's screen reader, Alex. (Screen readers do exactly that: they read out what's on the screen to visually impaired people - I tend to only use one if I've got to trawl through lots of reading.) I was really pleased because Alex worked fine which is a good start. I now have to try it with some other screen readers and different web browsers.

So what is all this about? Well I've worked for the last 10 years in disability and broader equality rights. I've worked for central and local government, for large and small organisations within the 3rd sector, organisations dedicated to advancing rights and most recently in the health sector specialising in all areas of equality and diversity. I've delivered training to public and private organisations, carried out research, organised events for the European Year of Disabled People including conferences, exhibitions, arts and rights festivals. I've project managed the drafting of Codes of Practice that support rights legislation, I've drafted guidance about that legislation, and I have implemented strategies and processes which have taken an organisation from "thinking about equality and diversity legislation and how it affects them" to being an example of best practice in their field!

I thought I'd use that experience and expertise to help as many people and organisations as possible. I'll be offering advice, training, project management and online tools to organisations who want to make the most of their diverse customers, and work force as well as meeting their obligations under UK equality legislation. I also hope to set up a mechanism to support other colleagues working in the field, a space to share resources and expertise but that's phase 2 of the project! This weekend I'll set out a proper business plan for all of this - heaven know's I've written enough business plans in my time!

So why Hare Onna - well here is a draft of what is on my prototype website at the moment:

"In Japanese "hareonna" means "A woman who brings good weather." Hare Onna was used to describe me after my second visit to Japan in 2009 when I arrived just after a typhoon, bringing with me 18 days of gorgeous autumn weather.

I can't promise to make the sun shine or the rain stop but through my advice, training, and online resources I can bring positive change to many organisations. With my accessible, creative and commonsense approach I can help others advance equality and diversity in a meaningful and rewarding way. A Hare Onna for the 21st Century!"

At the moment I'm still working part time at the Nursing and Midwifery Council so only working on background stuff until I leave later this spring. So I'm starting with posting equality info on my twitter account and blogging. My website will have a blog but for now I'll use here.

So I hope this goes some way of explaining what I am going to be up to later this summer. I'll keep you all posted!