Cymraeg belongs to everyone in your organisation. It's not just the responsibility of the officer or language team; everyone has a role to play.
Creating a working group of language champions can be an effective way of ensuring that the Welsh language is considered across your organisation. Sharing responsibility for the Welsh language across the organisation can support the work of the language officer and helps ensure that messages about the Welsh language are communicated to all teams and departments.
The exact role and function of a language champion will vary from organisation to organisation. In general, they should be a point of contact between the individual or team with responsibility for the Welsh language, and look for opportunities to promote the use of Welsh in the organisation's day-to-day work within their teams or departments.
The role of a Welsh language champion:
- Identify how many champions are needed – by team, department or directorate?
- At what job level should the champion be?
- Do you need to identify a specific language champion on your management/leadership board?
- How about within any board of trustees or similar?
- Create a description of the role to ensure everyone understands the extent of the work
Language champion responsibilities
Here are some suggestions for the responsibilities of a language champion:
- Attend meetings (determine how regular) with the other champions
- Report on any issues arising from the work of the department e.g. training needs, ideas for promoting the Welsh language, any issues relating to the implementation of the standards
- Share information about the Welsh language with the department
- To be a point of contact in relation to the Welsh language for staff within the department
- An overview of the implementation of the standards within the department
- Responsibility to report / gather evidence on compliance with the standards for annual reports
- To promote opportunities to use Welsh informally e.g. any initiatives such as ‘Clwb Clonc/Sgwrs’, mentoring schemes etc that exist within the organisation
- Highlight learning opportunities or improving Welsh language skills
- Promote campaigns and dates relating to the Welsh language e.g. Dydd Miwsig Cymru, Defnyddia dy Gymraeg campaign
- Discuss ideas about what more can be done to promote the use of the Welsh language within the organisation
- Advocate for the Welsh language across the organisation
Create a role description
We encourage you to create a formal role description to share with your champions so that everyone is clear of their responsibilities and commitment to taking on the role. It should include an idea of the types of responsibilities and any likely time commitment e.g. if champions are expected to meet, how often etc.
Why not create a way to get to know your language champions? This could be through a logo or statement at the foot of an email or on an intranet staff profile or similar. It can be a badge or pin that they can wear on a day-to-day basis. Using a way to get to know your champions will make it easier for staff to approach them for help or to ask questions.
Supporting your Welsh Language Champions
Give them recognition for their role in promoting and encouraging the use of the Welsh language in your organisation. Why not create somewhere where they can talk to each other and share ideas e.g. a specific stream on Teams. This will allow them to ask questions and share relevant information between meetings.
Celebrate the contribution of your language champions.