Defence Inclusivity Award 

Sponsored by Landmarc

About this Award…

An award to honour the commitment and achievements of an individual, team or organisation in delivering greater diversity and inclusion within UK defence and the Armed Forces Community.

The judges will be looking for evidence of:

• An engaging story behind the individual, team or organisation, why they do what they do, the identified needs they are meeting.
• What challenges (both operational and personal) have been faced and how they have been overcome.
• The results for the armed forces community that have been achieved through the actions, activities and/or services delivered.
• The different or unique characteristics of the delivery work that can set standards of best practice across the sector and therefore makes this nomination special.

This award is suitable for a person or group.

Meet our 2020 Winner!

Leona Barr-Jones

For over 20 years, the Colonel Commandant of Essex Army Cadet Force, Colonel Leona Barr-Jones, has been a respected leader and an advocate for diversity and inclusion. Instrumental in founding the National Steering Group’s “Step Change” Diversity and Inclusion Project, her objective is to enshrine inclusion and promote diversity throughout the cadet force.

Holding the post of National Chair of the Army Cadet Force LGBT+ Forum, Leona also delivers Diversity and Inclusion Training for national and local charities and business organisations. This includes the Chamber of Commerce and the Institute of Directors (IoD), where Leona is the IoD Easts’ Inclusive Director of the Year, recently delivering the opening address at its Open House Inclusivity Conference at Cambridge.

Colonel Barr-Jones said: “Thank you so much to Landmarc the sponsors and to the Soldiering On Awards. Diversity and Inclusion is really really important to all of us who are involved in within the Armed Forces, thank you so much, I am just completely blown away.”

Previous Winner:

2019 – Susan Coleman