Celebrating Cultural Diversity in our homes

Audrene Abrigo, General Manager at Cadbury Hall Care Home in Bristol, and member of Barchester’s Inclusion Group, shares how she and her team celebrate the rich cultural diversity within their team, as a way of bringing together everyone in the home.

At Cadbury Hall Care Home, we’re really proud of the fact we have a team from around the world. Our Home Administrator and Kitchen Assistant are from South Africa, some of our Senior Carers and Deputy Manager are from India. I’m from Guyana, South America, one of our Senior Carers is originally from China, and other members of the team have family backgrounds in Scotland, Switzerland, Nepal and more. 

A lot of our residents have their own travelling history, because they were in the army, or they travelled with their families, so they have their own cultural experiences to share.

This has inspired us to use our cultural diversity as a way to come together, learn from each other and have fun.

We’ve started our own Diversity, Inclusion and Culture Week each month, where we celebrate different cultures, looking at food, traditions, landmarks, music, and flags – almost anything we can do to fit into a week to celebrate a different culture from a staff member working at Cadbury Hall, or a country where our residents have lived or visited.

During the week, we’ll have an activity on our planner relating to that country, including Dancercise for one of our exercise activities.

A member of the team from the nominated country will take the lead and work with me and other members of the team to create a programme for the week. We all plan and work on it together.

We’re doing what we do to learn more about each other in ways that words can’t express, to broaden our perspective on the world and how others celebrate life. It’s also a learning experience for our staff, residents and their families and friends.

A lot of creativity is brought into the home with innovation and teamwork as everyone works together to achieve the same goal. It brings new food, music, information, traditions and celebrations into our home.

We celebrated Nigerian culture recently, with a member of the team, Care Assistant Felicia Kowontan, showing everyone her traditional dress and a presentation introducing Nigeria and helping everyone to learn a bit more about the culture and country. Everyone in the home also enjoyed some delicious Jollof rice.

We want to recognise difference and come together to celebrate each other.