LEICESTER SPEAKS 2011 PRE-LAUNCH EVENT

Pre-launch event for Leicester Speaks today. We’ve taken over one side of Gallowtree Gate in the city centre, setting up our stalls from 0800. We’re on display to the public (officially) from 0930 till 1530. There are 23 organisations on display (including us). Most are from the Voluntary and Community Sector, but there’s also a good show of support from Leicester City Council.

• Afro Innovation Group
• B-inspired
• Brahma Kumaris
• Curve
• Human Excellence
• LAMP Direct
• Leicester Adults Skills and Learning Service
• Leicester City Council Community Services
• Leicester City Council Young People’s Council
• Leicester Secular Society
• Leicester Speaks
• LeicestHERday Trust
• Leicestershire Aids Support Service
• Multi-Access Centres
• Network for Change
• NHS Leicester City
• Pakistani Youth & Community Centre
• Recovery Resource Charity
• Shama Women’s Centre
• Silver Star
• touchRainbow
• Voluntary Action LeicesterShire

It's lovely weather, the sun shines all day and there's hardly a cloud in the sky. There's a warm, inviting and positive vibe up and down the stall. No one attempts to keep a tally of how many people take an interest, but it'd be safe to say that several hundred people stop and chat on at least one of the exhibits, and pick up flyers, freebies etc.

Our stall is right in front of Dorothy Perkins. I think it would be fair to say that it was constantly busy, with a small number of people enquiring at it or lifting our leaflets, cards, stickers or key fobs. Have to be careful though - when they ask how much the key fobs are and we tell them they're free, they're tempted to take half a dozen!


Two members of the public ask me, why no mention of Pagans and Quakers? Why aren't they shown on our logo and our literature as members of the diverse faith communities of Leicester? These questions in particular are asked virtually every time we make an appearance in public.


Based on our experience last year, I'd say that the challenge for the Council of Faiths involvement in Leicester Speaks this20112 is threefold, namely:

• content
• engagement
• venues

In terms of content, last year we staged a series of "daily dialogues" across four days, public meetings in a variety of venues, involving an individual from one of our member faith communities in conversation with an individual from another, discussing the topic, "What does our community bring to Leicester?" This was intended to bring together communities who are not normally seen in dialogue with each other in the city or elsewhere. So we had a Jain / Sikh dialogue to start with (in Leicester Adult Education College), a Bahá'í / Christian dialogue (in the Welcome Centre), a Buddhist / Muslim dialogue (also in the Welcome Centre), and finally a Hindu / Jewish dialogue (in the Screen Room at Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre). This last one was recorded and an excerpt was posted on YouTube. As good as I think this was (and I do think it was good), we can't just repeat it this year. I'm open to ideas and suggestions, faithful reader.


In terms of engagement, we're never able to draw on large numbers of people from our member faith communities for events such as this. It's difficult to get support for one reason or another; that's usually the hardest task when arranging our participation in such activities. it was difficult just drumming up enough numbers to help our at this one today. Even those member communities who do support in strength (from an internal point of view) tend to be those which are small in number to start with, so even if we get a large percentage of those groups turning out, it's not necessarily impressive to an outsider. I tried to take account of this for our involvement in Leicester Speaks last year, with deliberately small scale meetings, that would work well with small numbers. but it would be a good thing to be able to expand the numbers from the faith communities involved this year.


In terms of venues, I'd love to find a way to get out into the wider community. All the meetings we staged last year were in the city centre. Perhaps including other venues is the key to greater numbers participating too. Since Leicester Speaks runs for eight days in total, perhaps each of our member faith communities can host a day at a venue of their choice.


Thanks to those who helped out on the Council of Faiths stall today: Rahat Ahmed, David Clarke, Minou Cortazzi, Rosemarie Fitton, Janette Macdonald, John Moore (not forgetting Harry and Gracie as Scooter Gang!)