A new award is going to be launched that will recognise businesses' efforts in equality.

Called the Rainbow Stripes Awards, it is a new award which has been created by Pamela Eland, of Pride in North Cumbria, LGBThq and Cumbria Pride.

The award, which has six categories, will, in Pamela's words, be a way to show the world your organisation promotes and works for equality and diversity and how they support for the LGBT+ community within the environment they work.

Pamela Eland spoke of the reason behind creating this award: "The reason I created it was because Cumbria Pride was getting more popular.

"Often, people would be asking businesses and organisation what they were doing to support LGBT people and LGBT equality in their workplace, and those organisations would say that they are coming to Pride to make a presence, but that is not enough, there is so much more to do to support equality."

The first is called 'Support', in which they must support Cumbria Pride or Silloth Pride, or any other Pride events based in Cumbria, in many ways, such as sponsoring or advertising the event, fundraising the event, getting involved in the march and attending with a stall.

The second is called 'Training', in which they must elect a champion to support, train, and to advise and support on issues raised and link with HR and outside agencies.

The business must also empower the champion to actively promote and support LGBT rights within the organisation.

Thirdly there is 'Adopt' in which they must be delivering equality and diversity training relating to gender reassignment and sexual orientation to build a culture of respect and understanding.

The fourth is called 'Identify', whereby a business must provide a safe physical and emotional environment within the workplace to support LGBT staff to disclose and discuss issues.

The fifth is called 'Network' where a business must establish links with their local LGBT support group, or headquarters, such as the LGBThq.

Finally, there is 'Safe', where they will have to be able to demonstrate that their business has made efforts to provide safe methods for whistle blowing.

It costs nothing to enter the awards, and upon completing the six mini awards, a full Rainbow Stripes accreditation will be awarded.

Businesses will also appear on the page to show if they are progressing through them, for example, if they have the first three, but are working to get the others.

There will be a launch event at the Energus building in Lillyhall on December 1, 2021.

For more information, and to register your interest as a business, visit https://rainbowstripes.co.uk/.