host organisations meeting

At The Race Equality Centre (TREC) this afternoon, for a meeting of the Host Organisations for Leicester Partnership. These are the groups which liaise between the strategic partnership and the so-called "communities of interest", which identify around the protected characteristics: age (Age Concern for older people, Young People First for younger people), disability (Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living), gender (LeicestHER Day Trust), race (The Race Equality Centre), religion or belief (Leicester Council of Faiths) and sexual orientation (Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre). We also have with us a representative from Voluntary Action Leicester, which is responsible for training and support of the Host Organisations, so that we can help train and support the reps.

We consider representation for the communities of interest on Leicester Partnership at different levels (its Board, its various thematic groups). We're interested in identifying potential reps for the future, refining their roles and on contributing to a handbook which would describe best practice for representing the interests of the Voluntary and Community Sector (no one I know is using that new term, "Civil Society Organisations" - yet).

EDP monthly meeting

We get hardly a quarter of an hour after the REDP meeting finishes at 1230 then we're into the regular monthly meeting of the Equality and Diversity Partnership. For this expanded meeting we're joined by Saeed Malek, representing Age Concern, as well as colleagues from the public sector Leicester City Council (Irene Kyszk, Head of Equalities), Leicestershire Constabulary (Lynne Woodward, Head of Diversity), Leicester City NHS (Abida Hussein, Diversity Officer). Our main topic of conversation is the expansion (in role and, possibly, in the membership) of EDP in its work with Leicester City Council and the Local Strategic Partnership. Jai Parmar and I have to leave early to make our way over to Voluntary Action Leicester to join in the first session of a working party to help formulate a volunteering strategy for the city and county.

LEICESTER COLLEGE DIVERSITY FAIR: DAY 2

At Leicester College Abbey Park Campus for the second day of the college's Diversity Fair, which is part of their Respect Week. The site is more suited to this sort of event than the one we were in yesterday at Freeman's Park Campus. It looks and feels more like a collective exhibition today, rather than a bunch of disjointed and unconnected tables and banners.

Most of those who exhibited yesterday are here today:

• Catch 22: a national charity that works with young people who find themselves in difficult situations
• Jasmine House: which provides free confidential support and information for women and girls who have experienced any form of sexual violence at any time in their lives
• Leicester College Student Union
• Leicestershire and Leicester City Multi Agency Travellers Unit: soon to be involved in the launch of "GATE": Gypsy and Traveller Equality
• Refugee Action: which provides a range of services for asylum seekers, refugees and other agencies working with asylum seekers in the Leicester area
• St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi-Faith Society: specifically promoting their Interfaith Youth Hub)
• Vista: an independent charity that provides services for blind and partially sighted people of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland of whom there are nearly 6000 recipients

Kaspalita Thompson, from the Amida Trust, is fronting the college's multi-faith chaplaincy (that's the two of us, in the photo below).

New among the exhibitors today is Age Concern's BME Mental Health Project. I don't have quite enough material with me to fill a table (some leaflets, boomarks, stickers and my laptop running a slideshow), so I share one with Mick Walker, who is representing City of Sanctuary.

REDP, EDP monthly meetings

At the LGBT Centre, Wellington Street, for the regular meeting of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP), followed by the Equality and Diversity Partnership (EDP) which meets after lunch. These meetings are held on the first Tuesday of every month, usually at the Leicestershire Centre for Integraterd Living (LCIL). This is the first meeting I've attended which we've held at another venue. I'd not been beyond the reception area on the ground floor of the LGBT Centre before today. I must say, I'm rather envious of the layout, the facilities and the open, airy space. But when I tell Ian this, he responds by saying tha the whole place is about to be gutted, redecorated and kitted out with new fixtures and fittings. I wouldn't mind some of their old stuff!

Oh and if you don't know the difference between REDP and EDP, then read on - all (well, some) will be revealed ...

Things don't get off to the greatest of starts for me this morning, when I fail to get to the Centre in time for the start of the meeting. I've been suffering under a heavy cold for the past few days and it was at its worst last night and I didn't get to bed until very late, which led to me oversleeping this morning. I arrived in time to join in a debriefing on the three REDP Involvement Events that we've held in Nottingham, Oakham and Leasingham. I'm still impressed by how constructive, positive and supportive our little group is. More than two years I've been involved in this partnership and in that time I've never witnessed an argument or heard a harsh word used by any member against another. We still have five of these Involvement Events to go, in Loughborough (Tue 9 Feb), Retford (Thu 11 Feb), Derby (Tue 16 Feb), Northampton (Thu 25 Feb) and Leiceester (Thu 4 Mar). On the back of what's happened in this project so far, we've been asked to make presentations to a regional event at an as yet undecided date in March and to a national event for the English Regions Equalities Network (EREN) in London on 3 March. This last one will be done by Laura Horton (Project Manager for REDP), Ian Robson (Director of the LGBT Centre) and me.

In the afternoon, we have a meeting of the Equality and Diversity Partnership, at which we welcome representatives of Age Concern, Leicester City Council, Leicester City NHS and Leicestershire Constabulary. We receive a strong and useful presentation on the city's domestic violence strategy - an issue that cuts across all the equality strands and on which we can all collaborate.

So, what's the distinction between EDP and REDP? Basically, the Equality and Diversity Partnership is the vehicle by which we offer our services in/to the city. The Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership is the vehicle by which we do the same for the whole of the East Midlands. That should be good enough to be getting on with.

Find out more about the Leicester LGBT Centre:
http://www.llgbc.com/