The reason I started working in PR was to empower the voices of men and women doing good work for a better society. Rachel is a methodical and dedicated individual focused on helping businesses and entrepreneurs to create a better economic environment. Her work is focused and gets to the heart of how EDI can help build a better society.

Nicola Millington, founder of FP Comms

Amiokaa Associates are groundbreaking in their approach to inclusive work environments. Their unwavering support, accompanied by innovative modelling and data capture, is a huge asset to any organisation looking to improve its performance.

Mark Da Vanzo, Chief Executive

Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Theatres

Amiokaa Associates has been delivering a series of high-quality consultancy services for us over several months. We have received fantastic feedback from People functions and colleagues while implementing Amiokaa’s recommendations to improve equity and remove structural barriers. Rachel has been an absolute pleasure to work with from start to finish, and I highly recommend the specialist services Amiokaa provides.

We’ve been working with Amiokaa for a number of years now, and hope to continue our relationship long into the future. As an arts organisation that supports artists and communities to develop and present work that is meaningful, critical, joyful, and asks questions of the world we inhabit, it is critical to our work that we are open, reflective and committed to continuous learning. Working with Rachel has truly supported that process. She has provided support, challenge and tools, and been a constant source of knowledge and wisdom that has shaped our direction of travel. Working together, our relationship with Rachel mirrors the work we are trying to support – and so our working relationship acknowledges the different forms of knowledge and experience we all bring into any given space, and how that shared experience might create something that belongs to us all. Working with Rachel has afforded us the opportunity to explore where gaps might be, and how we can support an intersectional approach to all of our work, and matters of equity, equality, diversity and inclusion. Rachel is not an external force to us, but she does draw upon her considerable experience and wisdom developed over many years, and generously shares that with us, so that we might reflect and reimagine together. It has been, and continues to be a pleasure, and we are better equipped to be a porous learning organisation as a result, and advocate for change in our wider environment. For us this is not about management of EDI compliance, but embedding EDI principles as values and commitments across all areas of our work – in fact, it is the work. In a world fraught with injustice and inequality, this is a complex process, and we are grateful for Rachel’s support on this journey.

Well done to a great session and thank you for opening my mind further

When I joined the organisation I remember saying to myself to remember what type of person I wanted to be. It is easy to lose perspective, sight, patience, tolerance and passion with all the things we see and do and its sessions like this which inspire me and keep me on track to not losing that sight and think they would definitely be beneficial every couple of years to keep teams on the right tracks and keep them learning and open minded.

I have definitely benefited from this session despite considering myself as someone who would challenge racism and would love to be invited to more. I felt that the length was perfect as a full day may be too much to expect people to sit and pay attention to and so I think it would be very beneficial to have multiple sessions.

I was really impressed with the course. I think when it comes to racism people can be very defensive in trying to prove they aren’t racist. However, the trainers who took the session were very friendly, passionate and informative without coming across as aggressive which helped let your guard down and be open to learning without being defensive which gave me a much better understanding and it surprised me by changing my perspective on somethings. For example, I have previously found white privilege as quite insulting to me personally and disrespectful as people who say it don’t know what I have been through, but I feel I have a much better understanding now of this term and where as previously i may have been defensive I would now agree to having white privilege despite not having had things easy in other aspects of my life

I wanted to say a huge thank you for your support on the Training program so far.

I collaborated with Rachel to enhance my comprehension of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) within the heritage sector, specifically delving into the intricacies of trauma-informed curation. My experience with Rachel has been highly positive. She proved to be both reliable and compassionate assuring me that trust is a vital component of her work. And it really was. Not only did she grant me access to her Canva training portal, but she also demonstrated genuine concern for my development and emotional responses to my research, as I frequently work with distressing content. When we completed our sessions, my understanding of trauma-informed curation significantly deepened. I became more aware of the possible emotional responses of visitors and how that may influence their enjoyment of an exhibition. I now recognise how a trauma-informed framework could shape my curatorial decisions, ensuring that future exhibits inspire learning and avoid exclusionary practices that might otherwise deter visitors.