PLANNING FOR DIVERSITY WEEK AT SOUTH LEICESTERSHIRE COLLEGE

A meeting this morning with Zulqa Muhammad, Learning Coach at South Leicestershire College. The college is planning a Diversity Week involving students and staff, Monday 28 to Friday 1 January 2013.

Zulqa saw our exhibition in Highcross during Inter Faith Week at the end of November and has asked if the Council of Faiths could get involved. He shares the draft programme with me; it covers a variety of the Protected Characteristics that you'd expect to find on campus, including disability, LGBT, race and religion. The college has a strong and active Equality and Diversity Group which covers these themes and others, as expressed in the college's Equality and Diversity scheme. 

We're asked to provide participants from different faith backgrounds for what's described as a "Religious Speed Dating" session around lunchtime on the Tuesday. We're also being asked to bring along our full exhibition for the Thursday, which will be the busiest day of the week.

I offer our two "generic" banners for the whole of the week, along with the two banners from Leicester University ("Mapping Faith and Place in Leicester" and "Leicester Faith Trail") which are still in our possession after we used them at Inter Faith Week. We might lend a couple of blu-rays of movies that featured in our Faiths Film Festival at Phoenix Square during Inter Faith Week 2011.

The dates for the college's Diversity Week will allow the event to be listed as being keyed to World Interfaith Harmony Week, which begins on Friday 1 February.

We should be able to help the college get some decent exposure for their Diversity Week through social media and by our contact with Citizens' Eye Community News Agency and Civic Leicester (among others). A the very least, I should be able to pop in each day and film a few video snippets on my flip camera that could be uploaded to their sites and to Facebook, Twitter etc.

The photo above shows the space in the college concourse that'll be given to the Council of Faiths full exhibition on the Thursday of their Diversity Week. It's the kind of alcove setting I've long wanted to see it in.

OUR LEICESTER DAY 2012

Today Leicester Market  is the lively venue for the second  Our Leicester Day. Voluntary and Community Sector organisations from the city and county (Leicester Council of Faiths among them) are promoting themselves and showing what they get up to, so as many people as possible can get involved in their activities. Our Leicester Day is a showcase of what goes on in and around our neighbourhood. A real diversity of activities, cultures and interests is on display, including street performers, musicians and singers among the dozens of stalls promoting organisations from all across Leicester and Leicestershire.

Last year, Our Leicester Day was plagued by Hurricane Katia. Even at a distance, Katia wreaked havoc on the displays, blowing stuff over exhibitions, ripping banners, uprooting displays and scattering literature. Never were "fliers" so appropriately named! The weather today starts milder (and warmer) than last year, which emboldens me to bring down our whole exhibition with all ten pop-up banners. But by the time I get half of them up, it's clear that even without a hurricane, the wind is going to be too strong again. The banners come back down and back into the drums. I keep the two "generic" banners up, with their feet anchored under the drums, but that doesn't work very well, so I do the best I can by tying them together. The wind is still too strong and they blow over (together) several times. They really do seem to be indestructible, thank goodness. It's inconvenient and annoying, but on other stalls it's downright dangerous. Once again, it's a minor miracle that no one gets hurt as some heavy gear goes tumbling down.

Our display is hardly excitement on stilts. I had hoped to put up something nicer, but discretion is the better part of valour, as they say! I wasn't going to run the risk of having our exhibition ruined by falling one too many times - or of it falling on someone. I was too optimistic in thinking we could do this without encountering any difficulty. It's not an outdoor exhibition and I shouldn't expect it to be like one. At least this time we have nice coverings for the tables. We share the stall today with members of the local Brahma Kumaris group (the chaps in white shirts in the photo above). Thanks to them for coming to the aid of our display whenever the wind whipped up. They have a very solid, chunky set of boards themselves, which gets blown over a couple of times before they decide to play safe and pack it away.

Our Leicester Day is certainly a nice opportunity to meet friends and colleagues active in the Voluntary and Community Sector, to make new contacts and to collect details of people who'd like to come to our future activities. But there are far fewer people here today than there were last year and I wouldn't be surprised if many of these absentees have stayed away because of concerns over health and safety issues. I brought Harry and Grace here last year and felt queasy about their safety more than once. Although today started nicely enough, I decided that I wouldn't take that risk with them this time. There was a debrief shortly after the first Our Leicester Day last year at which I raised the matter of health and safety, that it wasn't a secure environment, but it was dismissed with little discussion, from what seemed to be an ideological standpoint. I think it would be tempting fate to have this event in the same place again next year.

Major props, though, to John, Tina, Holly, Will et al, without whom there would be very little here! More power to Somewhere_to, Citizens' Eye and (as I discovered today) Citizens' Ear. Yes indeed but that's still to come!

GROUPS TO SHOWCASE WORK AT CITY MARKET

This article appears in today's Leicester Mercury:

Groups to showcase work at city market

Wheelchair basketball players, sci-fi fans and charity workers will be among those taking over Leicester Market tomorrow.

Up to 100 charities, community groups, societies and clubs are set to showcase their work and activities at the second Our Leicester Day.

It is hoped the event, founded by businessman and charity worker Richard Brucciani, will be bigger and better than last year's debut event.

Mr Brucciani, chairman of hygiene products manufacturer Pal International, said: "We're all looking forward to the return of Our Leicester Day and, luckily, the weather should be a bit better for us this time around.

"There will be a range of activities happening, with all the different organisations showcasing what they've got to offer and, hopefully, it will be even better than last year.

"There will be a performance area this year where budding young pop stars, drama groups and street dancers will perform.

"The Leicester Cobras Wheelchair Basketball team are also going to make an appearance, which is very topical with the Paralympics taking place."

Having secured a £2,000 grant from the RSA charity to stage the event last year, Mr Brucciani has managed to persuade them to hand over £5,000 this time around.

Not all of the money will be spent tomorrow, though, as Mr Brucciani plans to use it for further events.

Rob Hunter, of Dads' United, a resource group for fathers, said: "It was a great day last year working alongside some good men and we all learnt a lot.

"We are aiming to raise the profile of our organisations and hopefully recruit some new members.

"After the terrible windy conditions that we experienced last year, it's nice to see that the weather forecast looks pretty good."

John Coster, managing editor of Citizen's Eye, a community news agency, and one of the event organisers, said: "We're in charge of the filming, photography and social networking and it will certainly be bigger and better than last year."

Other organisations taking part include Leicester Civic Society, Chill Enterprises, Leicester Charity Link and Starbase Leicester, a group for sci-fi and fantasy fans.

Our Leicester Day will take place from 11am to 3pm tomorrow.

For more information about the event, visit: www.leicesterday.org.uk

CITIZENS' EYE 2012 PROGRAMME LAUNCH

At The Crumblin' Cookie this evening, for a party launching Citizens' Eye's 2012 programme. Preparatons continue apace for their coverage of the Olympics and Paralympics later this year, that will see Leicester the biggest media hub outside London.

LISTEN TO THE BOYS

At Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre this afternoon, for the launch of Listen to the Boys: Family Action Post Sexual Abuse Project.

In the photo above: Simon Parker of Citizens' Eye Community News Agency and Tina Barton of Wot Box Particpation, both of which are actively supporting this project.

OUR LEICESTER DAY 2011

At Leicester Market for Our Leicester Day. This is an opportunity for Voluntary and Community Sector organisations (and a few others) in the city (some from the county too) to present themselves to the general public, to the media - and to each other.

There are more than 110 organisations listed as taking part (described as "Promoters"), but it doesn't look to me as if all of them have turned up. The wind is probably a big factor in that. No one reckoned with the effects of the tail-end of Hurricane Katia. Some groups have had their display material virtually wrecked by the wind. There are leaflets flying everywhere, banners blown over and torn from their moorings and so much stuff being tossed backward and forward, it's a wonder no one is injured.

We share our space with Cooke e-learning Foundation and Menphys. Jim Matthews is helping run the Menphys stall. Jim worked as a reporter with the Leicester Mercury for 35 years. I introduce Gracie to Jim and ask her to tell him what she would like as a career. She makes a good impression on Jim, the outcome of which is that she gets a discount on a bunch of jigsaws (that's my girl!)

Today we're getting people to sign up to our forthcoming email newsletter, that we intend to launch during Community Media Week at the beginning of November.

Our Chair, Councillor Manjula Sood, and I get to speak for a few minutes live on BBC Radio Leicester about the Council of Faiths participation in today's event. I think I respond quite well to being asked live on air if I am Welsh.

A variety of media outlets covered the event, including Citizens' Eye Community News Agency and Pukaar News.

There's going to be a follow-up meeting for debriefing purposes at Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre, Thursday 3 November, 1730. I think that there's been a mixed message about this event, because of the date on which it's been held. On the whole, it's not being taken on by the "Promoters" as being about the tenth anniversary of 9/11 but it's been too convenient and easy (for which, read "lazy") for the media to present it as being so, leading to some skewed perspectives about who is here and what the event is for. Certainly, when I got to speak on BBC Radio Leicester, I wanted to say something different. This is not an event about how Christians and Muslims can get along. I reckon that's a bit of a cheap shot, actually. I haven't seen anything on the promotional material for today's event that would warrant that sort of conclusion. A look at the list of Promoters shows that very few indeed have got anything to do with that angle - even the Council of Faiths itself is not about dialogue and relations between just those two sections of the community. Going on the informal chatter to which I've been privy, the inaccurate emphasis on the Christian-Muslim aspect hasn't gone down well in general and led to a number of people who would have benefited from attending (as visitors or as Promoters) staying away from what appeared, to them, to be an event overtly favouring particular groups who actually turned out to be in a tiny minority here today.

I think that today's event was a success, despite the effects of Hurricane Katia and the tenth anniversary of 9/11, which couldn't help but cast a shadow over anything and everything that goes on today. If Our Leicester Day is to be held again, then hopefully neither foul weather nor the hand of history will set the tone as they have today.

Thanks for helping out today to Ajay, Alastair, Clare, Grace, Harry, Manjula and Rosemarie.

In the photo above: Councillor Manjula Sood (Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths) and Ajay Aggarwal (Leicester Council of Faiths Co-ordinator). Note how the the wind is playing havoc with our pop-up banner!

Platform for groups to speak out

Here's  coverage of the Leicester Speaks pre-launch event, held in Gallowtree Gate earlier this week,  in today's Leicester Mercury. It's on the Citizens' Eye page of the paper; the copy is identical to that published on the Citizen's Eye website, that I copied and pasted into the blog yesterday.

HELP TOMORROW TAKE SHAPE

Big purple double decker bus in Humberstone Gate today, spreading news about the forthcoming Census. The Census has appeared on a number of occasions in this blog. it's said that Leicester was a poor city in terms of responding to the last Census in 2001 and the Asian community a particularly poor sector at responding within the city as a whole.  We're intending to submit a piece to the Leicester Mercury before the day of the Census, encouraging people at the very least to ensure that they fill out the (voluntary) question on religion accurately.


Here's a link to an audio piece from Citizens' Eye Community News Agency about the bus and the Census.

LEICESTER DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL 2011

At Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre, for the first Leicester Documentary Film Festival. It's been organised by John Coster, Editor of Citizens' Eye Community News Agency (seen speeding through shot above).

I intend to do some live blogging throughout the day, updating on a frequent and regular basis. But I'm unable to keep to that commitment because people keep coming up and talking to me! When I do post my one and only entry from the event itself, there's a sudden spike in readers, with 33 of them being from the USA. John Coster, Simon Parker and I muse on this unpredictable and often baffling aspect of maintaining a virtual presence: you just never know to whom one particular post will appeal, or why. And you're unlikely to find out. "Life is full of mysteries. Consider this one of them."

As well as the films being shown, there's a marketplace, where film-makers of all sorts and organizations who would like to interact with them can show their wares. I've brought one of our exhibition banners and an assortment of freebies. I've also written a brief flyer, seeking to attract support for the making of a documentary film about Leicester Council of Faiths in our 25th anniversary this year. Other exhibitors in the marketplace include:

• From Dusk2Dawn magazine
• Large Scale Film
• Leicester Documentary Club
• Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Centre
• Lumiere Arts
• Pedestrian Arts
• Recovery
• TouchRainbow Productions
• Wotbox

I record a few short video interviews with some of the people running the displays in the marketplace. You can see these on the Council of Faiths YouTube channel (Leicester Documentary Film Festival playlist).

Our little bit of the marketplace is right beside TouchRainbow's display. It's probably the busiest spot - but maybe we're a bit overwhelmed! Flyers are distributed randomly/evenly around the space being used for the marketplace.

The one film listed in the programme that I really wanted to see isn't being shown after all. This was "The Game of Their Lives" (2002). It's described thus on the Internet Movie Datrabase (IMDb) "A BBC documentary producer is given unprecedented access in North Korea to chronicle the story of the famed 1966 World Cup team from the North that advanced to the quarterfinals. The feature includes interviews with surviving members of the team, English fans and soccer pundits who saw the North Koreans upset Italy, 1-0, and go up 3-0 against Portgual before Eusebio eventually rallied the Portugeuse."

First productive conversation of the day (within a quarter-hour of setting up) is with Janet Hudson, British Cycling Leicester City Council Development Officer. We discuss the possibility of getting women's teams, from within the various faith communities, taking part in SkyRide later this year.

The only film I actually get to watch all day is "A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash" (2007) a theatrical documentary on the world's dwindling oil reserves ("Theatrical" in this context meaning that the film in question was given a general release in "theatres"). As we leave Screen 2, in which the film was showing, there's someone handing out flyers for the forthcoming Greenlight Festival ("Leicester's Festival of Sustainable Living"), being held in De Montfort University on Saturday 12 February. When I tell her that I've got one of them and that I'm intending to go the their festival, she asks me if I'm me (if you see what I mean). Turns out that it's Linda Faulkner - we're friends on facebook. We have a sit down and discuss ways that Leicester Council of Faiths and Transition Leicester (of which Linda is a member) can collaborate more closely. Linda's involvement with environmental issues in Leicester goes back at least 20 years. In our conversation, she mentions a conference that was held in DMU way back then (so far back, in fact, that it doesn't even seem to have a mention on the web) entitled "Faith in Nature" at which Satesh Kumar snd Martin Palmer spoke. I was there, running a small bookshop on behalf of the Bahá'í Publishing Trust. When I mention the Get Inspired project that I was involved with last year (but which didn't come off in the end), Linda knows all about that (and recognises the guys from TouchRainbow, who were involved in that, and are standing nearby). I think I've persuaded Linda to come along to New College on Wed 16 February, where I've agreed to do five (five!) one-hour workshops for older students on religions and the environment. I'm sure I'll be grateful for her assistance. We agreed, tentatively, that I should run a one-hour workshop (tentatively called something like, "Getting the Ear of the Faith Communities") at the Greenlight Festival.

Later in the day, I'm introduced to Rashmi Vyas, freelance TV reporter and presenter, and committee member of Leicestershire Brahma Samaj. She tells me that her uncle has seen our exhibition for Inter Faith Week in Highcross in November, and had been singing its praises to her and encouraging more support from local Hindus.

When I've packed up and ready to leave, I'm approached by Dan Kent, who's attached to The Wave (the young persons' monthly supplement in the Leicester Mercury). He asks if he can interview me and for the first time I'm on the other end of the Flip camera. He has some interesting questions - I hope my responses are also interesting. When I ask him how he intends to use the interview, he says that it might be turned into an article for the print version of The Wave, loaded onto their YouTube channel or used by Dan in a personal project - he's committed to making a short film every day for a year.

training event for LASALS staff

This morning, I'm taking part in a training event for staff in Leicester Adult Skills and Learning Service (LASALS) at Leicester Adult Education College (LAEC), Wellington Street.

When I was a Basic Skills tutor at the Adult Education College (2003-05), "staff training" used to involve no more than a dozen of us, fitted snugly into the resource room on the third floor. Today's event is being held in the Hansom Hall and there are 80-odd people here.

Our route into this event is through the Council of Faiths having participated in "Leicester Speaks" (AKA Local Democracy Week) in October. Some of the groups that joined in that event are here today - most notably ourselves, Citizens' Eye Community News Agency and TouchRainbow Productions.

First speaker is Chris Minter (Head of Service), then Parmjit Basra (Project Officer) introduces Leicester Speaks and after a few minutes he hands the mic to me. I go up on the stage and speak for a quarter of an hour. I can't help but mention my own experience as a tutor in this building and the degree of a\ffection in which I hold the Adult Education College. When I started working here, it was the last few months in which the college enjoyed some degree of independence from the City Council. Coming within the system assured LAEC's continued survival and support, but it had to give up a lot in the process.

When the Leicester Speaks DVD is shown later, just before the break at 1100, I must confess to watching it beaming with pride. As soon as it's over, I nip back to Pilgrim House for a few more freebies - leaflets, flyers, keyfobs etc - for the attendees (I underestimated the number I thought might be here today).

I take advantage of the break to dash off to Phoenix Square for the last half hour of CreativeCoffee Club.

Find out more about Leicester Adult Skills and Learning Service:
http://www.lasals.co.uk/

National Inter Faith Week: day 3

First session on the Highcross display this morning was to be filled by Zee-Zee Heine (who has recently become a Buddhist representative on Leicester Council of Faiths) along with someone who has been entered into the Doodle online scheduler simply as “Amida student”. When I arrive at our spot, I see Susthama Marion Kim and what I take to be two “Amida students”. Zee-Zee has had to attend to a health issue with a member of her family, so Susthama has come forward in her place. Susthama has brought with her two young women, Charlotte Jordan and Louise Perrier, who are both studying for a Philosophy and Ethics degree at Bath Spa University. As part of their course, they go on a short placement with a relevant organisation – and they’re both doing theirs with the Amida Trust. I’m not able to stay long on the stall this morning as I have to attend the regular Tuesday morning meeting of REDP’s Delivery Group, but I take the opportunity to bring Charlotte and Louise to Kona Blue Coffee in Highcross, where Citizens' Eye is holding its regular Community News Café.   I leave them in the capable hands of John, Tina, Simon et al and head off to LCIL for my meeting.

I return just before the change-over at twelve noon. Susthama, Charlotte and Louise were joined after I'd left by Carol Sourbutts, whom I know through Christians Aware. (Carole, Charlotte and Louise are in the photo above). I ask our student visitors how they'd got on at the Community News Cafe; they tell me that they've been asked to write an article about their turn on our exhibition for publication on the Citizen's Eye website! For the first shift in the afternoon, the display is minded by Tara Gatherer (from Citizens' Eye) and colleagues from REDP and LCIL (Kelly Jussab and Liz Harrison in the photo below, along with Tara).

I receive an unsolicited text this morning from someone I haven't met before - Natasha Trivedi - who offers to come and help on the display later today. I ask her to meet me in Highcross at midday so she can see what she might be getting herself into. I'm delighted to meet Natasha and ask her to come back at 1400. She does terrifically well on the stall and I'm very glad she came forward. Natasha is in the photo below, along with Noel Singh (Policy Officer for Community Cohesion, Leicestershire County Council) and Ian Grayling (from the Zen Serene Meditation group).

Here are some of the comments by today's volunteers, left in the reflective journal:

"A very interesting experience, seeing all the banners in the display and people's reactions, some just passed by while taking a glance; others stopped for longer. Most, when approached, walked away quickly almost as if they wanted to look but not be associated."

"I feel that the stand has helped people in that it shows many different faiths all stood up against [sic] each other. this is good for passers by because even at a glance it leaves an image of being united."

"I have had an interesting experience at the Council of Faiths exhibition today. I spoke to a man from Immigration who was interested in finding out more about the Council of Faiths and passed on some details. I also spoke to a few other people who took some leaflets and managed to learn more myself about the different faiths and what the Council of Faiths is all about."

"Quite a few glances - some curious, some embarrassed. One or two conversations with interesting people - all supportive. Over, and above all, I was impressed by the selection of quotes on each faith-specific banner, all stating the simple and shared truth that 'love' is the only logical approach and answer to life and living."

"As above, a few interested and said we should all live by the quotes on display, 'unity' is the only way forward. Some leaflets taken but generally a very quiet time. Impressive exhibition was mentioned."

"I had an interesting experience at the exhibition today, with a plethora of views being expressed by the general public. Many people were in support of the Council of Faiths as they felt it was a strong platform from which to build greater community cohesion. Unity in diversity provides an opportunity for all."

"The experience has been very interesting and one that I have enjoyed. The exhibition is a good opportunity for the public to learn about other religions apart from their own. It's wonderful when young people pick up leaflets or information that might not be easily available to them."

"This exhibition has provided a good opportunity to people young and old to learn something about the work of the Council of Faiths. I spoke to four people this afternoon who were interested to collect leaflets from each faith and asked question about the faiths. They all state the experience is very positive. I have also met some of the other friends who were helping at this exhibition and found the conversations interesting and educational."

"Well done Leicester Council [sic] for providing a multi faith exhibition of high standard to promote a better understanding of varied faiths in the city of Leicester."

National Inter Faith Week: day 2

Early in the day, Jan MacDonald (Secretary of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Leicester) takes a turn on the stall between 1200 and 1400. She has a long conversation (over half an hour) with a young Sikh fellow, who talks candidly about how becoming a father has changed his attitude to his culture, heritage and religion. We also enjoy a visit from Parmjit Basra, Project Officer at Leicester City Council's Adult Skills and Learning Services, who was in charge of the recent Leicester Speaks event. (That's Parmjit talking to Jan in the photo above). Also on the stall at this time is Clive Sutton, from Leicester Quakers (the fellow in the dark jacket on the left of the photo below).
 

Early in the afternoon, John Florance pops in at the display to tell me that he'd given the exhibition a mention on his Sunday morning show yesterday on BBC Radio Leicester. This time last year, Noel Singh, Shaykh Ibrahim Moghrah and I appeared live on John's show to talk about the first National Inter Faith Week.

The undoubted highlight of this second day of our exhibition is the visit from The Wave (a supplement for young people, by young people distributed free with the Leicester Mercury). Katie Stewart (Editor), and reporter Will Sturgess arrive at the exhibition just after four, accompanied by John Coster and Tina Barton of Citizens’ Eye community news agency. On the display at that time with me are Ramila Chauhan and Smita Shah. Will interviews Smita and me and photos are taken of us in front of the Jain banner (Smita is President of Jain Samaj Europe as well as being Treasurer of Leicester Council of Faiths).

There’s a plan brewing between The Wave, Citizens’ Eye and Leicestershire Constabulary for an activity they’re calling “Speed Faithing”, in which young reporters will dash around the city to see how many places of worship – and how many meaningful encounters they can fit in with the people there – in one day. The Council of Faiths has latterly become involved in this.

In the last shift of the day, from 1800-200, I share duties on the exhibition with Sarfraz Khan, who works as Administrator for the Federation of Muslim Organisations (FMO). I've long been keen to get greater involvement of Muslim friends in Amplified Leicester, CreativeCoffee Club and other networking activities, so I take advantage of the moment to try and sell their usefulness to Sarfraz. I hope I sounded convincing, rather than just some mad old bloke riding his own hobby horse!

Here are a few of the comments that some of the volunteers who helped out on the exhibition today committed to our reflective journal:

"In the lunch hour there were a lot of people keen to hurry by and only a few who would allow me to catch their eye. One, from Thailand, wanted to see what the Council of Faiths had to say about Buddhism (he works in a casino here). Another, in a wheel chair, was glad of someone to take notice and chat. Others went by. A man at the next stand, trying to capture subscribers for Sky TV, said that he found this arcade a very difficult place and he found it hard to engage people, most of whom were heading for the clothes shops. A young clean-shaven Sikh showed interest, as did a visitor to Leicester whose girlfriend is a Buddhist chaplain in the NHS. Good interest from two Turkish Muslim engineering students"

"Some people had specifically come to have a look at the stand because they had heard it was here. Others were curious and asked, some took leaflets when they didn't have time to talk. Generally, the people who spoke were very positive and encouraging."

"Interesting experience. A lot of people passing by. Young ones are also stopping and taking interest. Quite interesting that a few we spoke to hadn't heard of Jains or Jainism. Not sure that it being going home time meant overall less people stopped by. Strange interaction but very enjoyable and some interesting questions get asked."

CITIZENS' EYE COMMUNITY NEWS CAFÉ,11 NOVEMBER 2010

Popped in this morning at the Community News Café held in Coffee Republic, Granby Street. It's Community Media Week (8-13 November) and Citizens' Eye Community New Agency has been holding Community News Cafés in different locations around the city, several of them each day during this special week.

In the process of riffing on some ideas to do with young people in the city, we come up with "speedfaithing" (not my title for it!) - which would involve a minibus full of young people dashing round the city fitting in visits to as many places of worship in a fixed period of time. We also make tentative plans for the young people involved in production of The Wave to come and see our exhibition in Highcross during Inter Faith Week and write it up for their paper.

CITIZENS' EYE COMMUNITY NEWS CAFÉ, 2 NOVEMBER 2010

At Kona Blue Coffee, Highcross, this morning for the regular Tuesday morning Community News Café run by Citizens' Eye Community News Agency. There's a heightened level of activity just now in the run-up to Community Media Week (8-13 November). I'm here today specially to meet Jo Inskip, who looks after Community Newswire at Media Trust.

Jon Coster is showing Jo around Leicester today, introducing her to those supporting the many and varied aspects of Citizens' Eye. I get to show her the Leicester Speaks website and talk about that project (and its legacy) as well as getting the chance to show off my blog - and we all know how much I love doing that!

LEICESTER SPEAKS 2010 LAUNCH EVENT

Less than 48 hours ago, this part of the city centre was held to ransom by the visiting English Defence League (EDL). Less than 24 hours ago, Billy Bragg and friends played a free gig on this spot to a crowd variously estimated at anything between 2,000 and 10,000 as citizens gathered for the We Are One Leicester Festival. At 1100 on this chilly Monday morning, we launch Leicester Speaks (AKA Local Democracy Week) in Humberstone Gate.

At the start of proceedings, John Coster (Editor of Citizens' Eye Community News Agency) and I, as Joint Chairs of Leicester Speaks, open the event on stage in front of the giant TV screen (which is, thankfully, inactive this morning). John delivers a typically fine opening spiel, hands me the microphone, tells me I'm doing a great job, slaps me on the back and steps off the stage.

I'm MC for the next hour, in which we encourage people to come up off the street, take the microphone and speak for 60 seconds on any subject of importance to them. We have a few ringers in the crowd, just in case we don't get enough people come up to fill the hour, but we needn't have worried about that. In the end, we have more than enough contributors. Some of these folk have probably never had the opportunity to speak in public like this before. Their contributions were recorded on video and posted online, so they're available to a huge potential audience. In the photo at the top of this blog post, I welcome Lord Mayor of Leicester Cllr Colin Hall on stage, to launch officially our week of activities across the city.

Cllr Manjula Sood, Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths, speaks on the stage this morning - while I do a not particularly good job of hiding behind a pole (photo above).

Leicester Speaks has its own blog, where you can read about today's event and watch a short video about it. Recordings of all contributions from the stage at our launch event in Humberstone Gate are available on the Leicester Speaks channel on YouTube. I'm sorry to say that my amusing improvised links from the stage haven't survived the editing process. I'm holding out for the extended version, with deleted scenes.

Leicester Speaks (6)

Short but productive meeting this afternoon at the Welcome Centre with John Coster of Citizens' Eye Community News Agency, regarding Leicester Speaks (AKA Local Democracy Week). John and I have been appointed Joint Chairs of this week-long event. He wasn't able to attend either of the recent planning meetings where we've discussed the launch event and the roles of the Joint Chairs. We talk about this now and come up with a joint plan of action - which largely amounts to "Roll with it"!

Leicester Speaks (3)

At Leicester Adult Education College this morning, for the latest weekly meeting of the steering group for Leicester Speaks (AKA Local Democracy Week). Our group today consists of Bipin Anand (TouchRainbow Productions), Parmjit Basra (Project Officer, Leicester City Council Adult Skills and Learning Services), Max Boden (Leicestershire Chamber of Commerce), Peter Bradley (Speakers' Corner Trust), John Coster (Citizens' Eye Community News Agency), Bez Kileen (Active Involvement Youth Worker, Leicester City Council), Irene Kszyk (Head of Equalities, Leicester City Council), Chris Minter (Head of Leicester City Council Adult Skills and Learning Services), Alison Taylor (Drugs and Alcohol Team, Safer Leicester Partnership).

Our discussions have been lent a new urgency, reflecting local concern over the demonstrations by the English Defence League (EDL) and Unite Against Fascism (UAF), which are hardly more than a fortnight away now. We're already talking, in practical terms, about the legacy of this week-long event and about continuing the Leicester Speaks initiative beyond Local Democracy Week.

One of the items on today's agenda is appointment of a Chair for the event. Much to my surprise, Parmjit proposes me! I can't accept this in good faith, as I won't be in Leicester for the final two days. When I say I'd love to be Chair, but ... I'm asked if I'll be Chair on a joint basis with John Coster. We're glad to assent to this proposal.

Find out more about Leicester Speaks:
http://www.leicesterspeaks.org/

Citizens' Eye Community News Cafe (3)

For the second Tuesday evening in a row, I'm at Kona Blue Coffee, Highcross, for one of Citizens' Eye Community News Cafes (every Tuesday here, 0930-1030 and 1830-1930). I'm told that this morning's was very busy - this evening is quiet. Topics arising tonight: future events including Philosophy in the Pub, Local Democracy Week, Leicester City of Sanctuary AGM, Leicestershire Cares Day for the Homeless, National Inter Faith Week 2010 ... but the one vexing Simon Parker most is Leicester's celebration of National Play Day, which takes place tomorrow in Town Hall Square. He's been left in charge of the young reports from The Wave who are covering this event. Must make sure I get a good swatch at that out of my office window!

I know that this would be a much nicer blog entry if it was accompanied by a photo. I did ask folk to gather round so I could take one, but they demurred.

Find out more about Citizens' Eye Community News Agency:
http://www.citizenseye.org/

CITIZENS' EYE COMMUNITY NEWS CAFÉ, 27 JULY 2010

At Kona Blue Coffee, Highcross, for the regular Tuesday morning Community News Café, run by Citizens' Eye Community News Agency.  Alastair (my firstborn) is there and spends the whole time off to the side with a couple of local documentary film makers.

This morning we meet Laura Elvin, Trainee Reporter at the Leicester Mercury, who's coming into contact with Citizens' Eye for the first time.

These Community News Café sessions are held here twice every Tuesday, 0930-1030 and 1830-1930.

CITIZENS' EYE COMMUNITY NEWS CAFÉ, 6 JULY 2010

On the way to this morning's REDP meeting, I divert via Highcross  to drop in at the launch of the Community News Café hosted by Citizens' Eye Community News Cafe. Kona Blue Coffee have agreed to host this meeting every Tuesday, 0930-1030.

Anyone interested in becoming a Citizen Reporter and joining Citizens' Eye in the exciting challenge of recruiting 2,012 Citizen Reporters by 2012 can visit these regular weekly sessions. The Community News Café will also offer the chance to meet members of community groups who would like help in getting their message out to a wider audience including the mainstream media, especially the Leicester Mercury and BBC Radio Leicester.