CREATIVE COFFEE LEICESTER, 5 JUNE 2013

It's the fortnightly meeting of Creative Coffee Leicester this morning at Phoenix. After having had speakers or "table experts" several sessions on the trot, today is a bit of an Old Skool turn, with loose and relaxed conversation among a smaller number.

Stacey Beazer & Cynthia Rodriguez

As is always the case at these meetings, there are a few first timers, among them Stacey Beazer of Dance Select Agency. I'm pleasantly surprised to discover that Stacey and I have something in common: we both have experience of working at the Watershed Youth Centre. I used to work there for ReMit (Leicester City Council's education service for adults with long-term mental health issues) and Stacey works there now (part time) for the City Council's Young People's Services. These two agencies of Leicester City Council shared that space in a somewhat uneasy and unequal relationship for several years, till ReMit shipped out to Leicester Adult Education College in Wellington Street. We may have crossed over in our working time at the Watershed, but neither of us can recall meeting each other there.

As well as chatting with Stacey, I catch up with Cynthia Rodriguez, of Cynthiaescribe. Over the past few months, Cynthia has become one of the stalwarts of these fortnightly gatherings.

LEICESTER CARIBBEAN CARNIVAL

I take Harry and Grace into the city centre this afternoon, to see the Caribbean Carnival (both the procession down London Road and the main event in Victoria Park). We take our position outside the railway station, perched on the fence dividing the two sides of London Road (which is closed for this period, of course). I don't know what's up with this spot, but it seems hard, if not impossible, to get a decent photo of the procession here. I know I'm just using an iPhone, but then again, a bad workman blames his tools. I've put a photo at the top of this post, taken at the same position from which we watched the procession, by a better photographer than me, with a better camera. These photos are taken from the Leicester Festivals & Events Facebook album, Leicester Caribbean Carnival 2012. Check it out for a lovely selection of pictures. I took the photos below though. The fellow carting the big union flag behind him is on roller skates. There should be on Olympic event dedicated to doing what he's doing!

Though I don't have figures or any such evidence, I get the feeling that the procession is smaller than on previous occasions. But it's still wondrous to behold. There are some good causes promoted through the floats, including the Watershed Youth Centre, where ReMit (Leicester City Council's education provision for adults with long-term mental health issues) was located when I went to work for them several years ago.

We reach Victoria Park for the main static part of the Carnival (just as the rain begins to fall). First order of business is getting some grub (especially as my blood sugar is getting low).

The carnival takes up much less space in the park than I've seen it do before. There are food stalls, bouncy castles, vendors of ephemera and memerobilia (especiall stuff marking the 50th anniversary of Jamaica's independence this year). But the big rides, major concession stands and tents and the variety of VCS organisations on show is well down on previous years. The biggest single display is taken up by Time to Change. This is currently the biggest project in England working to end stigma and discrimination against people with mental health problems. Time to Change has a pop-up village in the park today. You can read their own report about it on their website. I speak to a few of the organisers in their pop-up village; hopefully these conversations will have practical and mutually beneficial outcomes.

Time to Change pop-up village at the Caribbean Carnival in Victoria Park

RETHINK YOUR MIND LAUNCH EVENT

This evening I'm at The Cookie Jar (downstairs at The Crumblin' Cookie on Leicester's High Street) for the launch of Rethink Your Mind. 

Rethink Your Mind is an innovative new mental health project from Safe Inside Safe Outside (SISO), a well-being organisation run by service users for service users, supported by Advance Housing and Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust. SISO encourages and empowers service users to engage in creative outlets (e.g. music, writing) as part of the process of dealing with their conditions.

I found out about this project through Pete Hirst (who is a member of the board of SISO). Pete has gained a strong positive reputation with his band Refuge. I first met him when I taught Creative Writing for ReMit (Leicester City Council's education provision for adults with long-term mental health issues) at the Watershed Youth Centre. Pete was in my Tuesday afternoon group there. That’s Pete in the photo above (all smiles, on the left) with Lyndsey Shaw, Manager of SISO.

Rethink Your Mind will feature a competition, starting October 2012, based around the positive brief, "With good mental health I have ...”. SISO ran a similar competition last year, the entries of which were quite dark. They’re going for a different outcome this year, hoping to create a new public profile for mental health.

Cllr Manjula Sood, Assistant Mayor, who holds the Cabinet brief for Health and Adult Social Care (and, of course, Chair of Leicester Council of Faiths), speaks in support of SISO, of this project and of Pete in particular.

Lord Kamlesh Patel, Patron of SISO, will host an award presentation for the completion in the House of Lords next year.

When event kicks off, there are two dozen people in the room. By the time I leave, some two hours later, that’s grown to at least three dozen. And the evening wasn’t over yet as Refuge were yet to take the stage for a live set.

Everybody out!

There's a full meeting of Leicester Council of Faiths at 1930 this evening in the Welcome Centre. This is a meeting that all members of the Council of Faiths are entitled to attend and to which they are all invited: that's about 40 potential attendees.

I usually prepare and present a written report of my activities since the last full meeting, about which the members are allowed to ask questions. I pick out highlights of those activities and speak about them, as well as giving special emphasis to anything coming up in the immediate future in which members can get involved or for which I'd like their assistance.

The main agenda item that I'll be speaking to this evening meeting is our upcoming 25th anniversary. I want to do justice to the amount of work Rahat has been doing on this, and jildy along members of the sub group that's been appointed to attend to this important matter.

I want to do a nice job speaking on this topic, so decide that it would be nice to illustrate it. Leicester City Council has offered to get behind the anniversary and support it in any way it can - short of giving us any money. There are a number of ways in which we hope the City Council can make good on that promise. For example, we could be the subject of a feature in leicesterlink, the civic magazine that it has been publishing and distributing free of charge to every home in the city for over 25 years. It is currently also available as a downloadable PDF and as an electronic file that can be read aloud by appropriate software. City Council also has a number of Adshells around the city, announcing activities and events in the city for each month. I decide it would be a good idea to go out and take photos of some of these Adshells to show at this evening's meeting. I go out just after 1515  to take some snaps. For one reason or another, I get waylaid around town and get back to the Welcome Centre after Rahat has left for the day at 1630. It's not until I get to the door that I realise that my keys are locked inside. I'm locked outside.

Ajay told me earlier that he'll be back after 1800 to set out the Welcome Centre for the meeting. That seems a long time away. It's not only my keys that are locked inside, but my money, my cash card, my iPod, my insulin - everything except my iPhone. So much for preparation!

While waiting around in Bishop Street, I'm thankful of the accidental company of Kirti Joshi (whom I taught on a course at the Writing School in Leicester Adult Education College) then Bez Kileen (Youth Worker with Leicester City Council, whom I used to work alongside when I was employed by ReMit at the Watershed Youth Centre). Both of them take pity on me and stop for lengthy chats. And I get the chance to show off our new big poster, which is nice.

Come 1830, I've never been so pleased to see Ajay. At least it wasn't raining!

networking at Network for Change

This afternoon I'm meeting with the Management Committee at Network for Change, on London Road. Network is a support group for adults with long-term mental health issues, offering assistance to a diverse user group on a variety of fronts. I taught at Network, in their Resource Centre, for more than five years, when I was employed by ReMit (Leicester City Council's education service for this client group). I taught basic literacy and Creative Writing here and was a member of the Management Committee.

The Management Committee is having a special session today on sustainability and identifying new funding streams. I've been asked to take half an hour to present something about how I've made my own post at Leicester Council of Faiths sustainable way beyond the end of initial funding from central government (which ran out in March 2008). Of course, I've only had to bring in enough revenue to keep my own post alive, while Network has much grater and more complex needs. I hope that some of what I say proves useful and adaptable though.

Find out more about Network for Change:
http://www.networkforchange.org.uk/

CATHEDRAL A.M.

An early start at Leicester Cathedral Visitor Centre for Cathedral AM, starting 0730. This bi-monthly networking event brings together people with a special interest in the city centre - living there, working there or otherwise concerned with it. Following a light breakfast, we listen to this morning's guest speaker: Anna Ellis, Manager of the Dawn Centre.

The Dawn Centre is a project for homeless people providing temporary accommodation, support, advice and assistance on health, housing, life skills and education all in one place.

I'm pleased to hear Anna's talk, for two reasons in particular. Firstly, the topic of homeless people has come up at just about each and every one of these meetings I've been to. Because of that, I've prompted Julie-Ann Heath and Barry Naylor (who run Cathedral AM) to get someone from the Dawn Centre to come along and speak. Secondly, I used to spend part of my working week there, teaching adult literacy skills, when I was employed by the City Council on its ReMit and Reach adult education programmes.

X MARKS THE SPOT

A few days ago, these images began appearing all over Leicester city centre, as reported on Citizens' Eye. No one claimed responsibility for them and there was no explanation of their meaning. Today the mystery was cleared up. After much speculation, it turns out that they're part of a campaign to get out the youth vote for the General Election. John Coster and Citizens' Eye were in on it all along - well, you've got to create a bit of a buzz for some things! Among the team doing this today is a friend from way back, Bez Kileen (or "The Lovely Bez" as I used to call her). Bez and I worked side-by-side (literally) at the Watershed Youth Centre when I was employed by ReMit (Leicester City Council's education provision for adults with long-term mental health issues). She's a Youth Development Worker in the City Council's Children and Young People's Services. We spent a lot of time disagreeing on each other's musical tastes (for such a right-on, kick-ass, politically engaged and activist woman, she seemed to like an awful lot of middle-of-the-road fluff) but we were united in our adoration of The West Wing. Good to see her again today - though I had to get out of her way and let her get on with her job when a reporter needed to interview her about this youth campaign - and good to see that she's still fighting the good fight! And here she is, caught holding the proverbial smoking gun ...

2009'S TOP 10: 9

Andy Cooke Show,

Eava FM,

Wednesday 8 April 2009

I'd met Andy a few weeks earlier, at a meeting of the short-lived Leicester Community Network which was held in the LCB Depot, Rutland Street. He'd asked me then (in principle) if I'd appear on his morning show on Eava FM, which goes out daily, live for an hour, from 0900-1000. Eava FM is a multilingual community radio station, with licence to broadcast only within Leicester. I was the only subject on this edition of Andy's show and, apart from four or five pieces of recorded music, the whole hour was given over to the two of us chatting. I got to talk about my early experiences in inter-faith work in Glasgow and what I did before taking up my current post with Leicester Council of Faiths; so I got to big up ReMit and Network for Change while talking about my teaching adults with long-term mental health issues. We covered some interesting ground on the show, such as how an organisation like Leicester Council of Faiths would relate to the increasing number of people in this city and country who describe themselves as being "spiritual" but not necessarily "religious" - those who express a genuine and lively interest in values and lifestyles that go beyond the merely material, while not aligning themselves to any religion or belief system. In this context I got to explain, live on air, how the pickling classes at Network are one of the most spiritual activities I've ever heard of! Only two people whom I know told me that they'd actually listened to the programme, since I didn't have much time to alert anyone about it.