Annual Respect Festival            10th ANNIVERSARY in 2007

Since its beginnings in 1997 this is now the biggest – and by common consent the best – celebration of diversity in the southwest. Held every October in Plymouth’s Guildhall (since 1998), it now attracts over 20,000 people. It took to the streets  of Plymouth in 2005, to popular acclaim, and has done so again in 2006 – proving that no building can contain the infectious spirit of this carnival. This joyous Mardi Gras is set to become one of the world’s ‘must see’ events. Watch out Notting Hill and Rio!

If you did not get your hands on a 2007 Respect T-Shirt (£5 child/£10 adult/£1 old designs), Seeking Respect Book (10 years) £2.50, or a Sweet and Sour Book/CD £7.99, please pop in and buy one today.   We also have Respect badges, windows stickers and other Respect Goodies.

The Devon Inclusive Housing Project (led by Rupert Blomfield)

This project has been funded by the Ethnic Minorities Innovation Fund to prevent Homelessness amongst the BM&E population of Devon.  This is to cover Refugees, Migrant Workers, Gypsies and travellers and the wider minority ethnic population of Devon.  An ambitious aim to be sure.  Rupert hopes to achieve this with the help of two project workers, one based in Exeter at the Devon Racial Equality Council (DREC) and another based with the Monitoring Group’s Rural Racism Project.  All three posts are co-located with the local authority housing services departments and voluntary sector parners.  The project is set to last for 24 months and will be focussing on investigating how BM&E service users may be disadvantaged in accessing housing services throughout the county.  He will be looking at how the voluntary sector and the statutory sector work together and try and encourage a better understanding of the various working practices and highlighting where good work is being done to support those from minority communities who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. 

Delivering Race Equality with Mental Health Focus
This work is undertaken by the Community Development Workers, in partnersiph with Plymouth NHS (PtPCT) and has four key areas. The first of these is to work with voluntary and mainstream mental health agencies to ensure that they are providing a culturally appropriate service. The second is to identify any gaps in mental health services and develop new and innovative ways of working, for example the development of women only swimming sessions and support groups. The third is to build the capacity of BME individuals and communities and to enable them to have a voice. An example of this is our current work with LINK. The fourth strand is to develop mainstream, mental health services through training.

EHCR women's prejudice reduction community project
The REC was fortunate to get some funding from the new Equalities and Human Rights Commission for 2008-09. It is for a project aimed at breaking down some of the barriers in the wider communities. It has several strands and includes the delivery of prejudice reduction workshops at a range of community venues, which are areas of high deprivation, such as North Prospect and Barne Barton. In these we aim to engage participants in looking at prejudice and its effects on us all. While BME/ASR issues will be the core of the work, we will examine the other strands, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender and religion; and it will also investigate prejudice around certain areas in Plymouth. After these sessions our intention is to bring together groups of women from a range of cultures to take part in workshops that will reflect the diversity/commonalities of their lives. We already have women from some of our established groups who are keen to participate in this.

One suggestion from some of the women is, that they work on and produce a quilt (Peace/Unity name still to be decided) which would contain multi-cultural images of their lives as women. This part of the project will be a partnership piece with the museum, which are keen to continue working with us and are committing 4k towards the project. We are also working in partnership with the Theatre Royal, with a group of Asylum/refugee women; and also a trans-generational project in partnership with Lipson College, young people working/learning with parents from a range of ethnic backgrounds. Lorraine Francis says “It's daunting, but very exciting, while not thinking we will solve all the problems that exist around barriers between the communities in Plymouth, we have been surprised by the positive response this far. We genuinely believe that if we can get people to look at what they share, as apposed to what is 'different' then perhaps we can begin to make some inroads into the fear, suspicion that exist between communities.”

Housing With Respect

This project is a partnership between PDREC, Plymouth City Council and Registered Social Landlords to ensure tenants have a safe home in a community to which they are proud to belong. PDREC has a dedicated project worker who advises participating landlords on anti-racist policy development and implementation, as well as supporting tenants experiencing racism. Now in its third year, the project also provides awareness training for individuals, landlords and community groups. Additional RSLs have signed up to show their commitment to race equality in social housing.

Language Class

We had been concerned about the cuts in Esol provision and were also aware of a number mothers with young babies who were not always able to access the Open door classes, who also provide childcare. We operate on a Wednesday afternoon from 1.15 – 3pm in the Respect suite.  Currently, we have between 8 and 14 women who attend on a regular basis. The range of abilities is quite challenging for the facilitators, who are not Esol trained, although one does have Basic Skills Teaching experience; we have women who have almost no understanding of English to those who are able to read English but cannot always pronounce words correctly or who are struggling with tenses.  The women come from a range of cultural backgrounds, Chinese, African, Middle Eastern and the number of languages they speak are amazing.  The group also use the opportunity to access information and support from the REC, as well as improve their social networks.

Living Memory Lab Project (led by Fiona Evans)

Plymouth and District Racial Equality Council is running a new and exciting project supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.  Living Memory Lab is a partnership between P&DREC, BBC South West and Creative Partnerships and has been launched to mark ten years of the Respect Festival.  The project which will run for eighteen months is offering a hundred members of the public the opportunity to make a three-minute film to mark the Bicentenary of the Act to abolish slavery. You don't need any film-making experience but very basic knowledge of using a computer is desirable. Living Memory Lab is running a series of four-day short courses in basic film-making absolutely free. At the end of the four days everyone will produce a short film.  For more information about this project, or to get involved, click here...

Work with Gypsy Traveller Communities

We are currently involved in a joint piece of work between Petra, Plymouth City Council, Social Inclusion Unit (SIU), and Devon Consortium Traveller Education Service (DCTES). These four organisation have come together to support the residents of the Chelston Meadow (a static caravan Park for the Gypsy and Travelling community), to create a residents forum  that enables the residents to have a voice and a mechanism in which to communicate with Plymouth City Council. In a short space of time this group has been able to make improvements to where they live, as there is a lack of permanent and transit sites to accommodate the Gypsy Traveller community, and it is hoped that future plans for more sites can be done in consultation of the members of the Forum.  The PDREC also visits gypsy traveller encampments with SIU, Health Visitor, DCTES and the Police Diversity Unit, which has been useful in providing information on their rights and services are available locally.  Unfortunately these visitors always seem to have  complaints about how the police and  local residents are treating them, or being denied access to services, they never peruse complaints due to feeling it will only make things worse for them, bad press and never being able to settle anywhere for a long enough period before they are evicted.

Work with Young People

 ‘Word on the Street’ Drama Project is a joint work with PDREC, Relate Counselling Service and Olwyn Foot a local well known Drama Practioner. The overall aim of this project is to explore issues such as Bullying, Racism, Family and Peer Relationships and Conflict Resolution. The project is aimed at young people from black ethnic minority and asylum seeker, refugee young people. Where they can express their opinions, explore their feelings in a safe environment.

'Proud Parents' of Plymouths Annual Respect Festival

www.plymouthrespectfestival.co.uk