DIVERSITY FAIR AT SOUTH LEICESTERSHIRE COLLEGE

Today South Leicestershire College is hosting its Diversity Fair - the climax of the college's Diversity Week. Leicester Council of Faiths was involved earlier in the week, when we offered a Faiths Panel for staff and students, Tuesday lunchtime. Today we put on display our full range of pop-up banners in an airy, bright and colourful alcove - just the kind of space I had in mind for the exhibition when it was created more than four years ago, though we've never been able to show it off in such a setting till today. We also have the two banners that we seem to have inherited from the University of Leicester: Mapping Faith and Place in Leicester and the Leicester Faith Trail.

In the photos above, Tony Nelson (Leicester Hebrew Congregation and Treasurer of Leicester Council of Faiths) is sitting with Humera Aziz (Learner Welfare Adviser, Brooksby Melton College). Humera and her colleague Nicola Welbourne were behind the Interfaith Events Day at Brooksby Melton College during Inter Faith Week last November, which we supported (see my blog entry for that event). I'd invited Humera to pop over and have a look at what was being done here today. Thanks to Zulqar Muhammad for showing Humera round the college during her brief visit this morning.

In the photo above, I'm with Ravinder Kaur from Leicestershire County Council's LWA: Living Without Abuse project. Ravinder did a stint on our exhibition in Highcross during Inter Faith Week 2012. LWA has its own display but Ravinder is good enough to sit a spell on our exhibition, late in the day.

Exhibiting downstairs:

• Charnwood Arts
• Choose My Support
• Helping Hands
• Jasmine House
• LAMP
• Royal Marines
• Trade Sexual Health
• Voluntary Action LeicesterShire

Exhibiting upstairs in The Eating Place:

• 2FUNKYarts
• Akwaaba Ayeh Mental Health Advocacy Project
• Gypsy And Traveller Equality (GATE)
• Headway
• Kaine Arts Community Education Management
• Labelled
• Leicestershire Aids Support Service (LASS)
• Leicestershire Police Prevent Engagement Team
• LWA: Living Without Abuse
• The Conservation Volunteers
• The Learning Support Centre
• The Race Equality Centre (TREC)

There's a Diversity Tucker Trail, allowing visitors to sample foods of different cultural origins. All nice and tasty - not to be confused with any other kind of "tucker trail" of which you may have heard!

Students can complete a Diversity Week Quiz as they make their way round the exhibits, with the chance to win high street shopping vouchers. Here are the multiple choice questions:

1. What does LGBT stand for?

• Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transexual
• Leicestershire Genital Bereavement Team
• Lesbian Gay Boxing Team

2. How many faiths are included in the Council of Faiths Leicester?

• 6
• 8
• 9

3. How many Eids do Muslims celebrate each year?

• 2
• 1
• 5

4. How many people do you think are effected [sic] by mental ill health?

• 1 in 10
• 1 in 6
• 1 in 4

5. What percentage of disabled people are born with their disability?

• 17%
• 56%
• 70%

6. What do these three celebrities have in common: Orlando Bloom; Keira Knightley; Mohammed Ali?

• Fear of spiders
• Dyslexia
• Asthma

7. Ramadan is?

• The first day of the Chinese New Year
• A month of fasting for Muslims
• The Hindu Festival of Lights

8. Which of the following is NOT protected by anti-discrimination law?

• Age
• Obesity
• Race
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
• Religion
• Disability
• Transgenderism

9. Diversity means?

• Celebrating and valuing difference
• Treating everyone the same
• Targeting help at individual groups

10. What minimum font size does the National Institute for the Blind recommend for user in printed public documents?

• 8-10 points [sic]
• 12-14 points
• 24+ points

Around 12 noon, Free lunches are distributed to everyone on the stalls. This leads to a classic diversity moment, when a Muslim hands a Jew their lunch bag containing a packet of Smoky Bacon crisps. There's nothing derived from a pig in these crisps of course; there's no meat content whatsoever since they are labelled as suitable for vegetarians. But it's the thought that counts - how we did laugh!

Now, if I had an award of my own to give for the best single part of the whole exhibition, I'd give it to The Conservation Volunteers, for their pop-up banner shown in the photo below.

On a personal note, walking the 20 minutes or so from my flat to the college this morning, I felt in need of a morale booster. By the time I was only a few minutes from my endpoint, I thought I'd hit Shuffle Songs on my iPod Classic, just to see which tune it might give me to set me up for the day. Of all the things it could have chosen, it offered up Eple by Royksopp, from their 2001 album Melody A.M. How lovely! I couldn't have chosen better myself - that tune always brings a smile to my face and puts a spring in my step. I've included the link to the video on the band's official website. The song itself is wonderfully bouncy and upbeat but the video is the most startlingly mind-bending experience. I've watched the video dozens of times over several years and will never get my head round it. It's unique - and it's probably my favourite music video ever. The more people watch it, the happier we shall be - click on the song title a few lines above, faithful reader, and feel the benefit.

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.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2012, DAY 3: HIGHCROSS EXHIBITION

Second day of our week-long exhibition in Highcross for Inter Faith Week.

Last time we were in this spot, our ten banners were arranged “circle the wagons” style. That seemed good enough for a while, but palled after a bit – the arrangement appeared somewhat unstable, somewhat shabby, especially when viewed from above. This time I’ve partly followed the style we adopted last year, of putting the banners back-to-back, though this time they’re laid out in a straight line. The display is bookended by the “generic” banners for Leicester Council of Faiths itself, with Leicester University’s "Mapping Faith and Place in Leicester" and "Leicester Faith Trail" behind them.

As regards the individual banners for our faith community members, they're set back to back so that the visitor, approaching from one direction, sees the four Abrahamic religions of Middle Eastern origin in historical order (Jews, Christians, Muslims, Bahá'ís).

Approaching from the other direction, the visitor sees the four Dharmic religions, of Indian origin in historical order (Hindus, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs).

First on this morning, John Catt (Leicester Secular Society) and Kartar Singh (Near Neighbours project). They're in the photo at the top of this post. They were joined by Scott MacDonald (Leicester Bahá'ís) shortly after I'd left.

I arrive on the stall just before 1400 to do a couple of hours myself. Dr Ruth Young (Senior Lecturer in Archaeology and Director of Distance Learning Strategy at the University of Leicester School of Archaeology and Ancient History) is photographed above, handing over to Sheila Markham (Leicester Hebrew Congregation). Sheila also took part in the philosophy panel at St Paul's yesterday, so I get a bit more info about how that went.

In the middle of the afternoon we receive a visit from Paresh Solanki of the Inter Faith Network of the UK. I'm hoping for better coverage of our Inter Faith Week activities in the national report than we received in last year's. Paresh and Sheila are pictured below.

Shortly after 1600 I leave the exhibition in the evidently capable hands of Billy Dedat and Ravinder Kaur. This is the first time that either of them have taken part in this event, the first time that I've met either of them - and the first time they've met each other. Their involvement together here today is serendipitous. Billy is Chair of the Leicestershire branch of the Association of Muslim Police and is a member of Leicestershire Police's Prevent Engagement Team, while Ravinder works for Leicestershire County Council's project LWA: Living Without Abuse. They're quickly talking about ways in which they can work together after this event. They're shown together in the photo below (Billy on the left, Ravinder on the right).

My immediate task now is to get a couple of banners and some of our free literature out to Leicestershire Police HQ in Enderby, where our Faith in Family seminar is taking place this evening. What with phone batteries running out, parking in the wrong street etc it's not quite as smooth a procedure as I'd have hoped. Eventually, Fayyaz Suleman (Vice Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths) swings by Pilgrim House to pick up the stuff and get ti to the venue on time.

I'm not attending the seminar myself. We've had no one come forward to fill the Tuesday evening slot and we can't leave the exhibition unattended during opening hours at Highcross, so I'm on duty here for a couple of quiet hours.

After Highcross closes, I head back to Pilgrim House and wait for Sughra Ahmed to drop off the banners and literature, since I'll need to use them very early tomorrow. She brings them back at 2145 - with some nice munchies left over from the seminar.

Here are some of the things that visitors and volunteers have written on the labels and hung on our little white tree today:

The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens

Hate creates hate, love creates love. May love concure [sic] over hate

It's only when we believe we can't make a difference ... will humanity end!

Multiculturality - more of it please!

For all those who are not going to get better

It's your actions that define who you are and not what labels you give yourself

I wish my grandad gets healing from spirits! Love, Tara, Sarita, Simren, Bobby xxx

God bless everyone at Christmas

I wish the peace everywhere around the world

Mutual respect and appreciation

The unexamined life is not worth living

I'd bought a set of mixed coloured Sharpies for people to use when writing on these labels. I left them in the OMG mug on the table at our display overnight. Sometime between the end of last night and the start today, someone nicked them. I can only hope that some underprivileged person will be getting a nice set of Sharpies for Christmas.

INTER FAITH WEEK 2012, DAY 2: HIGHCROSS EXHIBITION

Today is the first day of our week-long exhibition in Highcross for Inter Faith Week. First volunteers are Barbara Butler (of Christians Aware) and Allan Hayes (from Leicester Secular Society). There they are in the photo above, either side of me. For the first time, we have literature from both Christians Aware and Leicester Secular Society on display.

The photo was taken by John Coster of Citizens' Eye. He and Tina Barton (of Somewhere_To) are early visitors. I should have tucked my shirt in - but I'd just finished putting the exhibition together and was a wee bit more dishevelled than I would have liked.

Our very first visitors, though, are a couple who want to know why Pagans aren't represented in the exhibition. I give them a flier and ask them to put their query in writing so that the Council of Faiths can respond properly.

This is the fourth year running that we’ve been asked to put on this display in Highcross. After we’d been bumped up to First Class last year in terms of location and space, we’re pretty much back where we were in 2009 and 2010. That’s fine though – if it felt a bit more special last year, that's because it was our 25th anniversary. We couldn’t have that space this year anyway because it's being used for a special promotion:  let’s face it, nothing says “Christmas” like a Mini Cooper dressed up as Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Anne Fishenden (member of Leicester Quakers and Chair of Leicester SACRE - Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education) and Narendra Waghela (from BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir) volunteer on the display in the early afternoon.

I have to stand in for a couple of unscheduled hours in the afternoon when both volunteers for one slot cancel on account of illness. I should be at St Paul's Catholic School in Evington for their Sixth Form Philosophy Panel, but they'll have enough participants to go round. I phone the school with my apologies of course.

During these two hours I have interesting chats with a Christian couple who had seen a couple of lines about it being Inter Faith Week in the parish notes at church yesterday and had set out today to find evidence of it and with a pair of Iraqi fellows who recommended some adjustments to Highcross's Faith Room.

Deirdre O'Sullivan, Stephen Foster and Clare Carr (photo below) help out on the display, late afternoon and early evening. Deirdre is Lecturer in Archaeology the University of Leicester School's of Archaeology and Ancient History, which produced the Mapping Faith and Place in Leicester and the Leicester Faith Trail, the banners and booklets for which we have here this week; Stephen is Co-ordinating Chaplain at the University of Leicester Chaplaincy; Clare was of great help to the Council of Faiths for years when she was Schools Worker with Global Education Leicester-Shire.

One innovation on the exhibition this year is our little white tree, on which visitors and volunteers are invited to hang their hopes, dreams, prayers and wishes for themselves, for friends and family, for Leicester or for the wider world. Clare has spent several hours making labels with ribbon and I've put out a nice multi-coloured collection of Sharpies. Here's a selection of what some people write on the labels and hung on the tree:

Things can only get better! *lol*

Living in Leicester is a global experience! I am part of the world family of Faiths ... it's a good thing!

Love Leicester: United Nations in Leicester

In loving memory of Paul. Friend and husband of Denise. Sleep well xxx

I hope all religions have a good relation and peace

"Beyond our ideas of right and wrong, being is a field - I will meet you there" - Rumi

A hope and a prayer - that the children of the world will be healthy, happy and loved

I pray that one day soon there will be peace amongst all nations and faiths

BUILDING SHARED HERITAGES: CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN LEICESTER

At the University of Leicester (Fielding Johnson Building) this morning for an open day: Building Shared Heritages: Cultural Diversity in Leicester.

Building Shared Heritages is a co-sponsored project at the University of Leicester. Along with the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement (NCCPE) and the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the University of Leicester is assisting local groups to apply for grants of up to £10,000 to explore their local heritage.

The University of Leicester has a wide range of expertise and resources relating to local and community history in Leicester and Leicestershire. It is looking to widen access to these resources. The key areas that it is interested in developing with community groups are as follows:

• Trading heritage in Leicester
• Sport, music and social heritage in Leicester
• Civic and public heritage in Leicester
• Open spaces and the built environment in Leicester
• Memory of community, home, and local area heritage in Leicester

It’s the last of these five categories that offers potential for the Council of Faiths to get involved.

Deirdre O’Sullivan (Lecturer in Medieval Archaeology) gives a half-hour presentation to the audience of 80 or so about the Mapping Faith and Place project and the Leicester Faith Trail. She made several complimentary references to Leicester Council of Faiths during her presentation. she also described the next stage of the project, which is going to change tack from the general and historical to the particular and contemporary. They'll be focusing on one particular place of worship, Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara on East Park Road. They'll keep updating  the Faith Trail, of course, which will include publishing a new version of the booklet.