LEICESTER COUNCIL OF FAITHS STATEMENT RE WOOLWICH INCIDENT

This is a statement by Leicester Council of Faiths, issued this morning in the name of our Chair, Cllr Manjula Sood, regarding the incident in Woolwich, Wednesday 22 May 2013:

Leicester Council of Faiths unreservedly condemns the murder of a British serviceman in Woolwich yesterday. The Council of Faiths works closely with eight communities in the city of Leicester: Bahá'ís, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Jews, Muslims and Sikhs. Members of all these faiths know that this senseless crime cannot be justified in the name of any religion or belief. We lend our voice to those appealing for calm and reason and we hope that the rule of law will prevail. Our sympathies are with the family, friends and colleagues of the unfortunate victim.

Councillor Manjula Sood MBE (Chair, Leicester Council of Faiths)

This statement has been sent to all members of Leicester Council of Faiths, asking them to make use of it as they see fit among their own communities and their media. It has also been sent to BBC Radio Leicester, BBC East Midlands Today, Leicester Mercury and Citizens' Eye Community News Agency.

CITIZENS' EYE "OFFICE CHRISTMAS PARTY" AT THE CRUMBLIN' COOKIE

I'm pleased to accept an invitation from John Coster and Tina Barton to the Citizens' Eye "Office Christmas Party" this evening in the Crumblin' Cookie on Leicester's High Street.

There's plenty of food and plenty of disco in the Cookie Jar, downstairs. The Cookie jar is an adaptable venue that's been used for all sorts of public and private events since it opened earlier this year. Last thing I attended in the Cookie Jar was the launch of Rethink Your Mind on 12 May this year (see blog post for that date). I'm glad to see Peter Hirst here, who was behind that successful evening in May.

The food's very nice (with arguably the best hot cheese chilli dip I've ever tasted) but the music's a bit too loud for my ageing ears, so I spend most of the evening upstairs, nursing a couple of gingerbread lattes (tis the season to be jolly, after all). Since I've become such a devotee of Strictly Come Dancing over the past few years, I can't really imagine myself up on the dance floor just throwing shapes any more - and I'm not brave enough to tackle an American Smooth (and I wonder who might be willing to throw caution to the wind and dare partner me for that, in some imagined fanciful AU).

In lieu of that, I enjoy some entertaining and stimulating conversation, particularly with Linda Faulkner regarding some improvised experimental music sessions taking place in Leicester once a month in which I might be able to get involved and with Dan Lamoon of From Dusk 2 Dawn (aka FD2D) on the topic of intrapreneurship. We discuss its difference from entrapreneurship and how it might be the key to pulling Leicester Council of Faiths out of its funding nosedive, preserving my post and restoring our fortunes in the year ahead. I had never heard of intrapreneurship before; thanks to Dan for enlightening me.

I welcome a couple of comments from people whose opinion I care about regarding the blog. Though hardly more than throwaway lines, they stiffen my resolve to get new posts out on time and to catch up on a growing number of Lost Episodes before the turn of the year. A busy festive season of filling in the gaps throughout 2012 awaits!

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone involved with Citizens' Eye, The Crumblin' Cookie and to all whose paths they cross. Stick together and we can take on whatever 2013 has to throw at us!

COMMUNITY GROUPS TAKE TO MARKET

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Community groups take to market

Nearly 100 community and voluntary groups took over a market to show off the work they do.

The second annual Our Leicester Day took place on Sunday.

It included musical performances by teenagers from the National Careers Service to Roman legionaries from the Friends of the Jewry Wall group.

John Coster, managing editor of Citizen's [sic] Eye, a community news agency, and one of the event organisers, said: "We had a great day and there was a lot of interest, given that we were competing with the city heritage day and the last day of the Paralympics.

"We had a really diverse set of groups and the feedback we got was that people were able to find out a lot of stuff about things they may not have been interested in before.

"That was really the aim – to introduce people to something new and promote all the great societies and groups we have in the city."

INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST HATE CRIME

At Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre this morning, where International Day Against Hate Crime is being marked with an event organised jointly between Leicestershire Police's Stamp It Out campaign and Citizens' Eye Community News Agency.

Here's some information about hate crime, from the Stamp It Out! flyer:

The risk of being attacked or abused on the street, at work or in their own home just because of who they are remains an everyday reality for many people.
Hate Incidents and crimes happen because of hostility, prejudice or hatred of another person because of their actual or perceived disability, gender identity (transgender), race, religion or belief or sexual orientation
No two hate incidents are the same but may include the following:

• verbal abuse and name calling
• physical attack
• graffiti or other deliberate damage to property
• written or recorded threats

These incidents don't just affect the lives of those involved but affect their friends, their families and every part of the local community.
If hate incidents are not reported, then the bullies, bigots and thugs will feel their behaviour is totally acceptable and they they can continue to abuse people whenever they feel like it.
Stamp It Out! is a community-led partnership bringing together different groups and organisations all committed to challenging, tackling and stamping out hate within Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

Assistant Mayor Councillor Manjula Sood, Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths, is among a small number of speakers at the plenary session in Screen 1, the largest of Phoenix Square's three projection spaces. Here we also hear from Simon Cole (Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police), Justin Hammond (Stamp It Out), John Coster and Hollie Sturgess (Citizens' Eye Community News Agency) and Dr Loretta Trickett (Nottingham Centre for the Study of Reduction of Hate Crimes, Bias and Prejudice at Nottingham Trent University). We also watch an amazing video: No Arms No Legs No Worries.

Leicester Council of Faiths is exhibiting in the marketplace in Phoenix Square's reception area and cafe bar. We've done this sort of event here many a time, but this is probably the busiest I've seen it. Many of the displays focus on specific groups who are considered the most common victims of hate crime, whether it's racially or religiously motivated, homophobic, against disabled or older people or women. From the Council of Faiths perspective, I'm especially interested to meet one Jonny Basger, representing Community Security Trust (CST) a national organisation involved in protecting the Jewish community from all forms of antisemitic incidents. I pick up a wealth of printed material from the CST display. I'm particularly impressed by their use of QR codes and smartphone apps.

I've also taking apart today with an eye to activities with the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP). REDP is planning a regional conference on hate crime in the first half of 2012. I collect as much relevant information as I can and speak to a few exhibitors and attendees about their interest and potential involvement in this forthcoming event. We've got a selection of REDP's leaflets about the Protected Characteristics as defined in the Equality Act 2010 on our display today.

We sign up today to Leicestershire Police's Neighbourhood Link Police Community Messaging System, to receive news, updates and events information. thanks to Steve Hastings, Communications & Engagement Co-ordinator, for signing me up as "single point of contact" for the Council of Faiths, quickly and painlessly. We both noted, during the signup process, that there's no faith-related category for this service (e.g. in terms of events, incidents or premises. Steve said he'd bring that to the attention of his superiors and see what could be done.

The event is still going on at 1330, when I have to leave in order to get to the Towers for a meeting with Abida Hussain (Equality & Human Rights Officer for the Integrated Equality Service, Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust). John Coster offers to tidy up our exhibition, so I can collect it later in the afternoon.

LEICESTER SPEAKS 2011 STEERING GROUP

A meeting of the steering group for Leicester Speaks 2011 this morning at Leicester Adult Education College, Wellington Street. As well as Leicester Council of Faiths, there are participants here today from:

• Citizens' Eye Community News Agency
• Leicester Adult Skills and Learning Service
• Leicestershire Chamber of Commerce
• Novas Scarman Group
• TouchRainbow Productions

Community Groups Speak with Public

Here's how the Leicester Speaks pre-launch event was covered online by Citizens' Eye Community News Agency:

Community Groups Speak with Public

By James Black

Community groups across Leicester had the chance to spread the word about their organisations at the Leicester Speaks pre-launch event on Gallowtree Gate. The event which took place on Wednesday [sic] was also an opportunity to raise the profile of Leicester Speaks, an initiative to get members of the public to voice their opinions about the issues that matter to them.

Stall holders included the NHS, mental health group LAMP, The Curve theatre, Voluntary Action Leicestershire, The Leicester Council of Faiths and asylum and refugee support service City of Sanctuary.

Simon Parker from Leicester Libraries said “we were involved with Leicester Speaks when it started last year in 2010. The library service offers our locations for groups to host their Leicester Speaks events. I recall last year we hosted an event by The LeicestHERday Trust. Leicester Speaks also allows us to engage with the community and other organisations.”

Mike Burden, Chair of the Leicester Secular Society said “We took part in Leicester Speaks last year by organising five lectures during the week and we will be doing that again this year. Leicester Speaks is a wonderful opportunity for all of the different communities in Leicester to come together and share ideas, exchange thoughts, debate and discuss. The most important thing in a secular state is that we share a common space and respect each other.”

The project co-ordinator of Leicester Speaks Parmjit Basra said “This event is all about building the momentum for this year’s Leicester Speaks. We have the platform in place, what we need is content. Without the participation of the citizens of Leicester the event won’t be successful. If you don’t get involved, then your voice will not be heard. In the meantime we are asking people to get involved by going to the Leicester Speaks website to create an event or to voice their opinion.” This year Leicester Speaks takes place from October 12th – 19th.

In the photo above (from left): Leicester Speaks Project Co-ordinator Parmjit Basra, Leicester Adult Education College Head of Service Chris Minter, Leicester Council of Faiths Equality and Diversity Officer George Ballentyne and Adrian Wills Head of Leicester Libraries. Photo by touchRainbow

Leicester Speaks again!

Leicester Adult Education College is the venue for the first planning meeting for Leicester Speaks 2011. I'm only able to get there for the second hour of a two-hour meeting and arrive just as John Coster (from Citizens' Eye) is leaving. John and I were co-chairs for the first Leicester Speaks event last year and Leicester Adult Skills and Learning Service, which sponsors the it, has asked us both to do the same again this year.

We're not sure of national dates for Local Democracy Week yet, but we're planning on running it in Leicester over two weeks: a pre-launch week (beginning Mon 10 Oct) concentrating on schools and colleges, then the week proper (beginning Mon 17 Oct). That second week is Half Term, which will hopefully allow us greater participation from young people.

We've all got our thinking caps on. What can we do for 2011 that will be new and innovative, that can build on what we achieved last year?

We'll probably extend the public launch event throughout the day, rather than run it for an hour or so, as we did last year. We might have (say) three sessions: morning, lunchtime and late afternoon, perhaps with themed groups taking part in certain slots.

We're also commissioning our own mobile Speakers' Corner, to replace the one we borrowed from Speakers' Corner Trust last year.

There's also the possibility of linking up with Birmingham and Nottingham, to give the week some stronger coverage across the Midlands. Leicester Council of Faiths might be able to do something in association with inter faith organisations in those cities.

A promotional event, introducing Leicester Speaks to potential new stakeholders, is being planned for next month. A six-page brochure (with DVD) will be published then, showcasing what was done last year and promoting what can be done later this year.

With withdrawal of funding for our role as Host Organiation from 31 March, this is one of the activities we may not be able to continue after that date. I've made that known to the group.

Find out what happened in Leicester Speaks 2010:
http://leicesterspeaks.wordpress.com/2010/11/04/thus-spake-leicester/

PEACE VIGIL AT CLOCK TOWER

The Clock Tower is the location for a Peace Vigil at 1630, in advance of the demonstration by the English Defence League and counter-demonstration by Unite Against Fascism in the city centre tomorrow afternoon.

Cllr Manjula Sood, Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths, addresses the crowd (in photo above). You'll see that she's wearing the lime green that has been adopted as the visible expression of the city's united objection to the protest. This colour is much in evidence in the city centre this weekend. In the photo below, Liz Kendall MP (Labour, Leicester West) is in black with the green scarf. Documentary film maker, Lucy Bianca Peel, is on the far right (of the photo, not politically!)

The vigil has been organised by Hope Not Hate. You can read Nick Lowles' blog post about it. Photos by Citizens' Eye Community News Agency, used here with permission.