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.

REDP: END OF YEAR 1 EVALUATION

A couple of hours this morning in Coffee Republic, Granby Street with Bob Clarke, carrying out an evaluation of the first full year of the Regional Equality and Diversity Partnership (REDP). Bob is an independent consultant who helped us draw up the business plan submitted with our bid that helped us win this project. He's interviewing all the Core Partners in the project: Leicestershire Centre for Integrated Living (LCIL), Leicester Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Centre (LGBT Centre) and The Race Equality Centre (TREC). While in no way feeling self-satisfied or resting on our laurels, we'd feel justified in saying that our first year has been successful and I'm happy to admit that I've learned a lot on this project. Undoubtedly, the second year is going to be harder.

my management group

This morning I'm meeting with my Management Group. We decamp to Coffee Republic in Granby Street, as I've absent-mindedly double booked with the regular last-Friday-of-the-month hiring of the Welcome Centre by Leicestershire Active Retirement Association (LARA). Campaigning and related activities for the General Election next week affect attendance by other members, but we're still able to have a wide-ranging, lively and fruitful meeting. Among other topics, we discuss relocation of my office space, more systematic and coordinated responses to media enquiries, tentative arrangements for National Inter Faith Week in November and the viability of commissioning a book celebrating the Council of Faiths' 25th anniversary in 2011. Watch this space for updates on these topics and more!