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Equality and Diversity
Equality and Diversity has become a key driving force in Government policy. The separate bodies responsible for parts of the equalities agenda and legislation are joining forces to become the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Equality and Diversity is increasingly making its presence felt in the public and private sector. It has long time been integral to the work of the voluntary and community sector (VCS). The Government programme ChangeUp, which aims to build the capacity of the voluntary and community sector, has Equality and Diversity as one of its key objectives.
The concepts of equality and diversity are common but there is still a need to define what we mean when we use these words. RAISE has adopted the following definition:
Diversity is the acknowledgement and respect of differences within and between groups of people. Equality is the framework that enables opportunity, access, participation and contribution that is fair and inclusive.
In 2007 the Government launched the final Equalities Review report. We live in an increasingly diverse society, where many groups in society have had to continuously fight discrimination and unfair treatment. Inequalities do exist and prevail for many sectors of the community including women, people with disabilities, mental health service users, older people, people from ethnic minorities, people from minority faiths and people who face prejudice on the basis of their sexual orientation.
RAISE is committed to assisting voluntary and community organisations in the South East engage with and promote the groups and organisations that deliver support to these communities. From January 2007 RAISE, with support from GOSE (Government Office for the South East), wants to ensure that Equality and Diversity is a central theme that runs throughout policy development and implementation in the South East. This involves:
- Supporting the work that has been undertaken from the Additional Support Programme (ASP) in developing the BME Regional Network.
- Undertaking a mapping exercise of VCOs that represent diverse communities within the South East.
- Developing an advisory group to enable the development of an Equality and Diversity Network for the region.
- Working towards a situation where representatives have a seat and a voice on key statutory boards.
Further developments in this area will be posted on this website, the RAISE newsletter and e-bulletins.
We Want Your Views On The South East Equalities Network (SEEN) Business Case
In January 2007, (RAISE) began to address the lack of a regional equalities network with funding support from the Government Office South East. A fulltime Equality and Diversity Manager was employed to facilitate the establishment of a cross sector Equality and Diversity Advisory Group tasked with establishing the feasibility of setting up a South East Regional Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Network. The Advisory Group has produced a Business Case for a South East Equalities Network (SEEN). This Business Case presents a detailed proposal for a South East Regional Third Sector Equality Network; this document is currently out for consultation and will run until 16th December, 2008. If support and funding are secured it is anticipated that SEEN would become a central resource, assist in building capacity, raise standards within the sector, and seek to ensure that chronically excluded groups are not overlooked. SEEN will also seek to influence policy by utilising the most appropriate partnerships and be a collective âvoiceâ for equality, diversity and human rights in the South East region.
You can access the documents and the survey here:
You can download the business case here.
You can download a LARGE PRINT version of the business case
here.
Please complete a short survey by clicking
here
.
You can also download a Word version of the same survey, by clicking here.
To find out more about the Equality and Diversity Advisory Group click
here
. To read the group's Strategy for Development click
here
.
UNI Regional BME Network
Empowering BME Communities in the South East
In 2002 HM Treasury produced a Cross Cutting Review, which was a pivotal document and detailed the role of the Voluntary/Community Sector (VCS) in service delivery. The outcome of this was the acknowledgement and a commitment from the Government to strengthen the capacity of the VCS. In response to this came ChangeUp published by the Home Office in 2004. ChangeUp is a ten year vision of the Government to increase the support offered to VCOs to build their infrastructure. The ChangeUp programme chnnelled through the local consortia aimed to map the infrastructure needs of VCOs and agree a local Infrastructure Development Plan (IDP). The Additional Support Programme (ASP) was funded through the ChangeUp programme. The ASP ran on exactly the same principles but was set up to acknowledge the gap in knowledge of the infrastructure needs of Black and Minority Ethnic front line VCOs and the wider community in delivering public services (A Review of Voluntary/Community Sector Infrastructure in the South East, July, 2004).
The South East region identified 19 local ASP lead organisations i.e. BME infrastructure organisations, RECs, or other umbrella organisations that would act as a conduit of information and representation for all of the BME VCOs in that local area. In addition each of the 19 organisations/networs nominated an ASP lead who would act as a catalyst of information and representation for their local area; these 19 ASP leads have been meeting on a regular basis for the past two years. The majority of these local networks produced a detailed ASP report for their local area, and either this report was added as appendices or was fully integrated into their local Infrastructure Development Plan. RAISE have championed the ASP work through its development and implementation. RAISE brought together these 19 seperate reports into one document called 'The Picture and The Picture Frame'. With the demise of the ASP programme the network re-named itself UNI. UNI had their launch event in March, 2008 supported by RAISE. UNI have a current Step Up Project funded by BASIS, and Reading CRE are the main deleivery agent of this project.
The Picture and Picture Frame report can be downloaded
here:
UNI post conference report can be downloaded
here:
UNI Project Manager
Siddarth Deva
Email:
Tel:
RAISE Equalities Toolkit
The full toolkit can be downloaded
here
.
Useful Links
Citizens Advice
http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk
Interfaith Network
http://www.interfaith.org.uk
Disability Dynamics
http://www.disabilitydynamics.co.uk
South East England Faith Forum
http://www.se-faithforum.net
Voice4Change
http://www.voice4change-england.co.uk
Friends, Families and Travellers
http://www.gypsy-traveller.org
The Gender Trust
http://www.gendertrust.org.uk
Stonewall
http://www.stonewall.org.uk
The Womenâs Resource Centre
http://www.wrc.org.uk
Age Concern
http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/
Government Equalities Office
http://www.equalities.gov.uk
Equality and Diversity Work Stream (Capacitybuilders)
http://www.improvingsupport.org.uk/equality/index.html
Diversity Link
http://www.diversitylink.co.uk
Community Action Hampshire's Diversity Network Project
http://www.action.hants.org.uk/index.php?id=50
Equality and Human Rights Commission
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/Pages/default.aspx
The British Institute of Human Rights
http://www.bihr.org/index.html
Equality and Diversity Forum
http://www.edf.org.uk/index.php
The Equalities Review
http://www.theequalitiesreview.org.uk
NAVCA Equalities Resources
http://www.navca.org.uk/localvs/equalities/
Report of NCVO/BIHR Roundtable: Human Rights and the VCS
http://www.bihr.org/downloads/NCVO.pdf
ChangeUp (Additional Support Programme)
http://www.raise-networks.org.uk/changeup/yourArea/localDocuments.html
Contact
Sacha Rose
Equality and Diversity Manager
Tel:
Email:
(Further information on equality organisations operating in the South East region can be found listed in the resources page of the equalities toolkit)
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