Commonwealth Day at Do it Now Now: Celebrating the Backgrounds that Shape our Team

Commonwealth Day offers a moment to reflect on connection, shared history, identity and belonging. At Do it Now Now, it also gives us an opportunity to celebrate something we see every day in our team: the richness of our different backgrounds, cultures and lived experiences.

Our staff team reflects a wide range of heritage and home cultures, including connections to Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Jamaica, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Barbados, Grenada, The Gambia and England, as highlighted in our internal team celebration, Celebrating our Backgrounds: A Whirlwind Tour of our Team’s Heritage.

This diversity is not incidental to who we are. It is part of our strength.

At Do it Now Now, we work closely with communities, organisations and leaders who are too often overlooked, under-resourced or misunderstood. To do that work well, it matters that our team brings a broad and nuanced understanding of culture, migration, identity, resilience, history and community. The different stories we carry help shape the way we listen, the way we lead and the way we serve.

Commonwealth Day can sometimes be marked in ways that feel distant from the everyday realities of the people who make up the Commonwealth. But for us, this day is less about ceremony and more about people. It is about acknowledging that behind the word “Commonwealth” are millions of distinct stories, traditions, languages, histories and contributions.

Within our own team, those stories are alive.

They show up in conversations about food, music and family. They show up in memories of home, in the languages and expressions we carry, and in the pride people feel in where they come from. They also show up in deeper ways: in values of resourcefulness, hospitality, ambition, community responsibility and perseverance.

Our celebration of team heritage reminds us that representation is not just about visibility. It is about recognising the wealth of knowledge, perspective and experience that people bring with them. It is about making room for colleagues to be fully themselves. And it is about understanding that when people feel seen, valued and connected to their roots, organisations become stronger.

For an organisation like ours, this matters greatly.

Do it Now Now exists to support changemakers, especially those from Black and racially minoritised communities, to build stronger organisations, stronger movements and stronger futures. We know that communities are not monolithic. We know that identity is layered. We know that leadership is shaped by context, culture and lived experience. Our team reflects that reality.

So today, on Commonwealth Day, we are taking a moment to celebrate the people behind the work.

We are celebrating the colleague whose heritage connects them to the “Giant of Africa”, Nigeria. We are celebrating the colleague whose roots lie in Jamaica, a cultural force whose global influence far exceeds its size. We are celebrating connections to Ghana, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zimbabwe, The Gambia, Barbados, Grenada, the Democratic Republic of Congo and England, each bringing its own history, beauty and contribution to the tapestry of our team.

Together, these backgrounds enrich our workplace and deepen our mission.

They remind us that diversity is not a slogan. It is something living. Something human. Something to be honoured.

Commonwealth Day also invites honest reflection. For many of us, the histories that connect Commonwealth nations are shaped not only by exchange and connection, but also by colonialism, exploitation, displacement and deep injustice. It is important not to overlook those realities or smooth over the pain they created, much of which continues to shape communities today. And yet, in holding that truth, we can also choose to honour the people we are now: resilient, creative, connected and full of possibility. Our celebration is not of empire or of harm, but of the richness of our identities, the strength of our communities, and the pride we carry in who we are today.

On this Commonwealth Day, we celebrate our team not only for the work they do, but for the stories, cultures and communities they carry with them.

That is something worth recognising. And something worth celebrating.