Lara Oyedele: Taking the next step

With the sun now set on her CIH presidency, Liam Turner caught up with Lara Oyedele to find out how successful she thinks her In My Shoes campaign has been, what more needs to be done to improve racial diversity in the sector, and what life after CIH might look like.

When Lara Oyedele launched her CIH presidential campaign last year, she spoke of her desire to inspire change and champion racial and ethnic diversity in the sector. She repeatedly indicated she wasn’t afraid to disrupt and challenge when needed, as long as it meant getting her message heard and improving the sector’s record on racial diversity – particularly in boardrooms. 

Indeed, Lara has put her money where her mouth is, consistently urging the sector to do more to improve diversity and calling out those for whom her message has fallen on deaf ears. 

But now that her presidency and In My Shoes campaign has ended, does she think her message has got through? 

The measure of success 

It’s a question Lara has already reflected on. “I asked myself, has that one year made any difference? Will it make any difference? Did it make a difference?” 

She explains that, due to the nature of her campaign, one which saw her speak and interact with many different individuals and organisations within the sector, that question is not an easy one to answer – at least right now. 

“If you want to measure it purely by the numbers of people I’ve spoken to then I probably score highly,” Lara says. 

“But then speaking to people on its own is not a measure. It’s what do people do differently as a result of that? When they go home at the end of the day, they think, oh yeah, let’s try this...based on the conversation I’ve had with them.”

Lara took part in many speaking engagements in a bid to spread the message of her campaign

While Lara is hopeful that her campaign has made a difference, studies continue to show a stubborn lack of ethnic diversity at board and senior leadership level. An Inside Housing survey published in 2021 found that, of the 101 housing associations who submitted responses, 62 had an all-white executive team. Twenty-five said they had all-white boards. 

“I know for certain some organisations have decided they’re going to try something or are already doing something that’s along the lines of what I’m talking about...but they are very few...I’m hoping there are a lot more.”

Lara’s efforts to improve racial diversity within the sector may well be better gauged in the future; but one part of her campaign that can be measured now is her work with Shoe Aid, a charity that works with organisations across the UK to reduce footwear poverty, footwear waste, and the impact of footwear on the environment. 

I’m hoping people will now look at their shoes and think of Shoe Aid before they throw them out

Lara initially chose the charity as it resonated with her lived experience of homelessness as a young woman, as well as her love of shoes. She reveals that around 2,000 pairs of shoes have been donated as the result of her campaign efforts. 

"I was hoping it’d be a lot more,” she says. “But on the other hand, that’s 2,000 feet of women and children that will have shoes that they otherwise wouldn’t have, so I’m pleased with that.” 

She adds: “I’m hoping people will now look at their shoes and think of Shoe Aid before they throw them out.” 

Changing history 

The beginning and end of Lara’s CIH presidency coincide with Black History Month, which serves to recognise the value and contributions of black people across society. While this year’s theme is ‘Saluting Our Sisters’, Lara says she is particularly concerned about the lack of black men in the sector. 

“In the kind of workspaces I’ve been to, there’s usually a lot more black women,” she says, “and maybe there’s just that one black guy, who is very lonely.” 

She puts this down to a combination of factors, including “black boys being the most vulnerable group”. 

“Black boys in this society are from a very early age made to feel like they’re a problem, that they should be worried, and it probably affects their education,” Lara says, adding: “This is conjecture on my part...but I know that, generally speaking, black men struggle to make it into professional spaces.” 

That said, she doesn’t think black women are in a position where they can celebrate just yet. Lara highlights the fear some experience when speaking up and acting on certain topics and issues. She hopes her campaign has helped change that. 

“The thing about my campaign that I know is that it’s given a lot of my – I call them my ‘black sisters’ – a bit more motivation to do stuff and say stuff that they otherwise wouldn’t have said,” she says. 

“I’ve also put myself out there to say anything difficult that you want to say because your employer is ‘X, Y, Z’. Tell me and I’ll say it for you.” 

Recruitment is another area Lara is keen to challenge, particularly when it comes to boards. Indeed, her own organisation, Black on Board, was set up to help tackle this very issue. 

Black boys in this society are from a very early age made to feel like they’re a problem, that they should be worried

She speaks of how many of the large, well-known recruiters don’t have many black people registered with them: not because they don’t encourage black people to sign up with them, but because black people feel as though “they don’t want people like me” or “there’s no one that looks like me” on their register. 

“When I do have this conversation – I have had it twice this week – I say, maybe organisations should consider going to non-traditional recruitment agencies, don’t use the big four.” 

She adds: “I think organisations need to push back to the recruiters and force the recruiters to come looking for people like me.” 

Stepping down 

On 6 October, during CIH’s 2023 AGM, Lara’s year-long presidency came to an end. Officially, at least. In reality, Lara feels she has unfinished business – particularly around improving diversity in the sector. 

“I will still be working on the campaign post presidency because there were three things I wanted to do,” she explains. “There’s no way I could have done them within a year, so I will still be shouting and screaming about the lack of diversity in boardrooms for a few years yet.” 

Lara has three ambitions. The first is to establish an award in the name of much-respected housing veteran and former St Mungo’s CEO Steve Douglas, who died suddenly in May last year at the age of 57. The award will serve to recognise organisations that have gone out of their way to improve board diversity, with the first iteration of the award set to be given next year at the new Housing Community Summit in Liverpool. 

The second of her ambitions is to continue her work around Breaking the Mould, a piece of research published earlier this year aiming to establish ethnic disparities within UK housing providers. Lara intends to write a series of blogs on different aspects of the research, which she says will be repeated in future to gauge improvement.

Finally, Lara wants to see boardroom diversity become a regulatory requirement for all organisations –  not only in housing – just as it is for FTSE 100 companies. “The FTSE 100 companies have diverse boardrooms: why not the rest of us?” she asks.

Lara intends to carry on campaigning post presidency

As Lara sets to work on her post-presidency goals, Jill Murray takes the reins as the new CIH president. She reflects on what lies in store for her successor. 

“Someone once told me, it’s not a sprint: it’s a marathon,” she says. “I’m like, it’s a sprint and a marathon! 

“I don’t know how busy she’s going to be, but there’s just so much that I wanted to do, and there wasn’t enough time because occasionally I had to work and do all my other commitments.” 

Does she have any words of advice? 

“Have a travel bag packed with all your basic essentials, because you’re always going to be on the road... and do your expenses on time!”