The title of this recording is "Lauren Wilkerson (Mercer) - Out in the Park (2018)". It is described as: Lauren Wilkerson from Mercer New Zealand talks about financial wellness amongst rainbow LGBTI communities. It was recorded in Waitangi Park, Te Aro, Wellington on the 24th February 2018. Lauren Wilkerson is being interviewed by Gareth Watkins.  Their names are spelt correctly but may appear incorrectly spelt later in the document. The duration of the recording is 7 minutes. A list of correctly spelt content keywords and tags can be found at the end of this document. A brief description of the recording is: In this podcast Lauren Wilkerson from Mercer New Zealand talks about financial wellness amongst rainbow LGBTI communities. The content in the recording covers the 2010s decade. A brief summary of the recording is: In this seven-minute podcast recorded at Waitangi Park during Wellington's Pride Festival in 2018, an individual from Mercer New Zealand discusses the concept of financial wellness within rainbow LGBTI communities. Throughout the event, which marks the beginning of a two-week celebration, the Mercer KiwiSaver booth offers advice on savings and raises awareness about financial wellness and retirement planning, particularly among young people. The conversation highlights research released by Mercer regarding the ageing rainbow community members, pointing out distinct financial challenges faced by this group. The research indicates that older individuals in the community are often less likely to have children or a partner in the later stages of life, which can lead to financial struggles when there's no one to grow old with. This issue also extends to entering care homes, where there’s a need for environments that allow for gender-affirming care and the ability for residents to express their true identities without being forced into discomfort, such as wearing the wrong clothing. Mercer illustrates its commitment to the rainbow community by obtaining the Rainbow Tick certification. This mark of distinction reflects the company's efforts to identify and fill gaps in its policy to support its employees, such as the implementation of transitioning guidelines in the workplace for individuals undergoing gender transition, and inclusive parental leave policies for different family structures. The Rainbow Tick represents a symbol of diversity and inclusiveness beyond simple labelling, denoting Mercer as an active part of a collective that shares ideas and practices to support the rainbow community. The individual from Mercer emphasizes the significance of diversity in the workplace and the company's desire to attract diverse talent. They discuss strategies to increase visibility and inclusivity, such as participating in various pride events internationally, showcasing that the company values diversity in business. A key principle highlighted is the encouragement for employees to bring their whole selves to work, fostering a supportive environment for personal and professional well-being. Moreover, there is a personal reflection on the meaning of engaging with the pride event. The representative emphasizes the importance of providing financial education and wellness advice, especially to younger members of the LGBTI community who may lack guidance from family or traditional structures. For those unable to attend the event, the representative extends a message of solidarity, offering access to financial services and advice through Mercer's online resources, and reassuring that there is a supportive global community ready to accept and support individuals facing challenges in coming to terms with their identity. The full transcription of the recording follows.  It includes timestamps every thirty seconds in the format [HH:MM:SS].  The transcription begins:  Currently, we're at Waitangi Park, just behind Chaffer Dock in Wellington. So we're celebrating the Pride Festival this year. So this is the first day of the two week festival that's going on. Um, yeah, and there are a lot of rainbows. It's amazing. It's an amazing amount of people. Yeah, so good. And the pride that came in this morning was so good having the youth groups march in with all their pride. They said, 1234, open up the closet door, which was amazing, you know? And it's great that [00:00:30] you've got young, really young people coming in to pride who are just exposed to stuff like this and who are still fighting the fight. So yeah, it's good. And so which store are you here today with? So I am the Mercer Kiwisaver store. So we're just talking to people about kiwisaver about savings and obviously raising awareness with the young people and financial wellness retirement planning. But there's quite a few people who don't I don't know what Mercer do because we are, you know, are quite [00:01:00] small compared with the banks. Um, so it's just promoting our products, but also financial wellness as a whole. Does financial wellness impact rainbow LGBTI communities differently than than the wider community? Yeah, absolutely. So Mercer released some research. Um, just last year, in terms of the ageing workforce. Um, because what we do find, um and this isn't a generalisation. This is just what the research shows. So, um, older rainbow community members are less likely to have Children [00:01:30] possibly less likely to be married or have a partner, um, at later stages of life. And so they do. They do really suffer financially when they don't have some dependent to to kind of grow old with, um, but also with the ageing workforce going into care homes as well we're talking about, um, you know, if someone identifies a particular way and they go into a home, there's huge education to be done around that. So it's making sure they feel comfortable enough to go into a home [00:02:00] that is, is where they can be gender affirming and be proud of who they are and not be forced to wear the wrong clothing. So, yeah, it's, um it's just setting people up, Um, for for the future, really. And I think you know, there's a lot of things that the rainbow community do suffer from. And I think being financially aware, you know, normally kids will turn to a parent or, um, you know, someone senior in their family, they might not even have that. So they have a very kind of youthful community around them, which is great, [00:02:30] but they might not have someone who can give them guidance and stuff like this. So does Mercer have any specific rainbow or GB kind of policies? Yeah, absolutely. So, um, last year we got our rainbow tick, and as part of that, we've just tried to find the gaps and the holes in our policies. And so the, um, this year we released our transitioning in the workplace, Um, guidelines. So for anyone who's transitioning at work and we find there's not much advice for either [00:03:00] the person who needs to transition or or HR and people managers who are helping the person transition. And so we've also made all our parental leave policies inclusive. So whether that's surrogacy, same sex couples, single parents, everyone gets treated the same. So equality is a huge thing for us. And what does the rainbow tick mean? So for us, the rainbow tick means that starting to join, um, a collective group of, um of companies and government. Private. It [00:03:30] doesn't matter who you are. Um, just to kind of share ideas. Um, it takes away the competition of trying to sell a product and breaks down those walls. And it's where we can share ideas and give advice. You know, we've done our HR policies. We know some people are at the start, their rainbow tick journey. So we want to help them along, and it for us. Also. We can, you know, put something like a rainbow on the website. People go and go to us. They know we're inclusive and diverse. It's not just about, um, but it's not just about [00:04:00] the label. For us, it's It's the essence of Mercer being diverse and inclusive. So we have, um, resource groups for pride, for women, for gender equality, but also for a accessibility and inclusion. Mental health awareness, um, racially, racially and ethical. Um, you know, policies and being mindful of that. So it's it's diversity as a whole for us. So is this the first time that has been at a pride event Uh, no. So this is the second time we've done [00:04:30] a Wellington pride event. Um, and we have also done a couple in Melbourne. We do midsummer, and we're trying to get into the Sydney Mardi Gras scene as well. So we're just trying to raise our profile, I think mainly to show that we're an inclusive, um, employer as well. You know, like there's great talent out there and it's been proved that you need a diverse workforce in order to do well in business. So we want young, well, young and old to know that we are diverse and we're welcoming. So if you've had troubles [00:05:00] in the past with different companies that don't accept you for who you are, come to us, you know, the whole the whole essence for us is bring your whole self to work. So we have a running hashtag at work to to bring your whole self because if you can't, then it's detrimental to you to your mental health, to your colleagues. You're not productive. You don't you know you struggle. So So you have to be able to do that on a personal note. What does it mean for you to be here today. Uh, for me. Well, um, as a member of the Rainbow [00:05:30] community, I have always attended a pride wherever I can. Last year, I thought, you know what? I'm going to bring Mercer to to pride. And for me, it was getting people aware of what kiwisaver is to be honest and helping them with the financial education and financial wellness. Because so many people don't know what it is. They don't know why it's there. They're scared of it. Um, they think people are going to take the money or they're gonna lose money. So for me, it's just it's getting people aware of of what they can do with their money and getting them set [00:06:00] up for for life. Really? You know, and I I want to help them. And obviously, being part of the rainbow community is really important for me to educate those younger than me, um, to to to their potential, as as anything. If somebody couldn't attend today, for whatever reason, do you have a message for those people? Well, so plug me. So, um, we do me a financial services dot co dot U dot co dot NZ. So go to the website. We have our Kiwi saver [00:06:30] and flexi saver products. We have free financial advice so you can ring us and speak to someone for free to work out what you want to do with your money. Um, we are a diverse and inclusive employer. So if you're looking to get into the financial, um, workforce or the corporate workforce or you want a change, we do such an array of things, then get in touch with us if you're interested. Um, and I think holistically, you know, you're not alone. There [00:07:00] are thousands and millions and billions of people out there that are part of the rainbow community. And I know if you're at home and if you're struggling with coming to terms with maybe differences within yourself, um or, you know, you're scared that, you know, maybe your parents or your relatives won't accept you. There is an entire rainbow family out there that will take you, so just don't be afraid. And, uh, yeah, we'll support you. The full transcription of the recording ends. A list of keywords/tags describing the recording follow. These tags contain the correct spellings of names and places which may have been incorrectly spelt earlier in the document. The tags are seperated by a semi-colon: 2010s ; Aotearoa New Zealand ; Australia ; Hikoi to Out in the Park ; Kiwisaver ; LGBT ; Lauren Wilkerson ; Melbourne ; Mercer New Zealand ; Midsumma Festival (Melbourne) ; Out in the Park (Wellington) ; People ; Rainbow Tick ; Stuff ; Sydney Mardi Gras ; The Closet ; Waitangi Park ; Wellington ; Wellington Pride ; Youth ; accessibility ; advice ; aged care ; ageing ; ageing workforce ; change ; children ; closet ; clothing ; collective ; community ; competition ; diversity ; education ; equality ; family ; finances ; financial wellness ; future ; gender ; gender equality ; gender transition in the workplace ; government ; guidance ; health ; inclusion ; journey ; mental health ; mercerfinancialservices. co. nz ; parents ; profile ; rainbow ; rainbows ; research ; resource ; rest homes ; retirement ; running ; sex ; support ; surrogacy ; time ; touch ; trans ; transition ; website ; wellness ; women ; work ; youth. The original recording can be heard at this website https://www.pridenz.com/out_in_the_park_2018_lauren_wilkerson.html. The master recording is also archived at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, New Zealand.  For more details visit their website https://tiaki.natlib.govt.nz/#details=ecatalogue.1089804. Lauren Wilkerson also features audibly in the following recordings: "Rainbow Election Forum 2017". Please note that this document may contain errors or omissions - you should always refer back to the original recording to confirm content.