– Dr Martin Luther King.
Simon Marshall, Chief Executive of Together for Children and Director of Children’s Services at Sunderland City Council, writes…
It is 68 years since Dr Martin Luther King first spoke those words and I don’t believe it has ever meant more to the communities we serve, the staff we lead and the profession we have chosen. So, in Black History Month I want to pay tribute to the work of the brilliant people in our services bringing light and love to everything they do.
The ongoing tensions we are feeling in our communities are symptomatic of an increasingly violent, unpredictable and divided world.
The violence we saw last August across the North East shocked us all in its scale and impact. Nowhere was the impact more keenly felt than in our global majority workforce who both live and work in our communities.
It is however at times of greatest challenge that our best leaders emerge.
One of those leaders is Ola Tony-Obot pictured here at the 2025 Asian Business Connexions Awards in Newcastle after receiving her award in the inclusion category for her outstanding work bringing Sunderland’s communities together.
Ola is a social worker who leads Together for Children’s (TFC) Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) programme. Her initial focus was on establishing EDI networks to empower staff to ensure they had their voices heard and that their lived experience was used to drive change and improvement. After last summer’s violence Ola’s leadership became increasingly evident. The strength of the established EDI networks meant that global majority staff were able to voice very real concerns about their safety and well -being and a comprehensive risk assessment process was immediately established to ensure that staff were supported and cared for.
Ola has since concentrated on developing an extensive programme of anti-racist training for all staff. The training is wide ranging, focusing on issues such as ‘When Banter Stops Being Banter’ and ‘Breaking Bias and Building Belonging’ and is delivered online as well as at regular events and drop-in sessions at venues across the city. Ola’s influence is increasing, and she now attends the monthly trade union consultative forum and reports directly to children’s scrutiny committee providing reports and training to members. Her work has also been embedded as best practice training as part of Sunderland Safeguarding Children Partnership training programme. Ola along with Edward Garwe a social worker who chairs TFC’s Racial Equality Network for staff from a global majority background have been part of the Staff College Black and Asian Leadership Initiative (BALI) this year.
This programme is designed to provide the opportunity to develop a trusted and active network of global majority leaders as well as strategies to help participants overcome barriers and create progression pathways for global majority leaders to be able to thrive, which is essential as we develop our cultural competence as an organisation.
Ola has achieved so much this year as her passion, energy and sheer willpower has enabled her to confront some incredibly difficult issues and driven change not only in Together for Children but in communities right across the city and beyond. Ola’s brilliant smile lights up any room with kindness and compassion and I wonder if it was someone just like her who inspired Dr. King to write his famous words all those years ago.
