INTER FAITH WEEK 2012, DAY 4: INTERFAITH EVENTS DAY AT BROOKSBY MELTON COLLEGE

Today is a complex logistical task - probably the trickiest working day so afar in post, at least in terms of where I have to be and when. Effectively, I have to be in three places at once. Today. I have to make sure the Highcross exhibition is ticking over, set up and front (for part of the day) our shared table at the second Choice Unlimited event in the Tigers stadium and help run the Interfaith Events Day at Brooksby Melton College.

Despite the early start and the complex arrangements, I couldn't resist staying up late last night, as Gold was showing that episode of I'm Alan Partridge where Alan pierces his foot on a spike climbing over the security fence into Choristers Country Club. It's quintessential Partridge: "The Colour of Alan".

I'm not harping on about how complex today is in a misguided attempt for your sympathy, faithful reader. I certainly wouldn't want you to get that impression. Far from it; not at all. I love these missions. I thrive on this sort of thing. Nothing excited me more when I was younger than dashing hither and yon to achieve some mad objective that others wouldn't touch with a bargepole or would tell me is impossible. I've worked hard to earn my reputation as the Can Do guy for these situations. So here's how the early part of this morning pans out:

• Stage 1: Leave home 0645, get to the Welcome Centre for 0730, pick up materials for our display in Choice Unlimited at Tigers stadium
• Stage 2: to the Tigers to set up our table-top display and banner before 0800
• Stage 3: from the Tigers back to the Welcome Centre for 0830 to grab the materials needed for Brooksby Melton College
• Stage 4: to Leicester Station to catch the 0918 for Melton - just one stop, only a quarter of an hour away. But the train sits there … and sits there ... for 40 minutes. After having kept to time so well so far, I have to say it's a bit frustrating.

I get to the college about 1015 and we're all set up ten minutes later. As far as my participation today is concerned, this event is “dual-badged” for Leicester Council of Faiths and Faith Awareness (the inter faith programme of Christians Aware). We have one of the Council of Faiths “generic” pop-up banners borrowed from the Highcross exhibition, as well as a range of the giveaway literature that's also available there. We have a variety of books published by Christians Aware: Food, Festivals and Faith; Meeting Buddhists; Meeting Hindus; Meeting Jews; Meeting Muslims; Meeting Sikhs; Religion – Life Itself. I've also brought a laptop, on which I run a slideshow of 50 or so images associated with various faith communities in Leicester. The Council of Faiths has the more visible presence today, but it's with Faith Awareness that I hope to be able to establish long-term relations with college and community.

I've asked Rita Green, the sole Bahá'í in Melton, to help me here today. Rita has made efforts in recent years to get inter faith work off the ground in Melton, with events, exhibitions, presentations and talks in venues such as the public library. I've known Rita for nigh on 30 years and hope that she'll be able to help me establish an active inter faith group here in the near future. Rita is on the left in the photo above.

The college has put on a nice display here today with lots to see and do, signposted and trailed throughout the campus.

Nicola's colleague, Humera Aziz, has loaned some costumes and outfits from her personal wardrobe for students to try on. There's a well-stocked Fair Trade display. There are tables for the local Anglican churches and Melton Mowbray Baptist Church. Chris Corps, multicultural storyteller and interfaith minister, performs a number of tales and plays ethnic wind instruments. Nicola is offering henna tattoos and I get my first ever one! Can you tell what it is yet? No, nor can I ...

The event climaxes with a dance display in the college theatre, which gets strong support from students and staff alike.

Stuart Wright, Head of Learning, has the last word, describing how the college is obliged to provide students with an education not just for living now in Melton, but for the wider world and later life. Students have to be more aware of different cultures, ethnicities and faiths.

It's all over by 1415. A quarter of an hour later, I'm on the train back to Leicester, heading for Choice Unlimited at the Tigers.

MEET STEVIE-JADE HARDY, RESEARCHER FOR LEICESTER HATE CRIME PROJECT

This afternoon I'm at the Welcome Centre with Tony Nelson (representative of the Leicester HebrewCongregation on the Board of Leicester Council of Faiths, its Treasurer and my Line Manager). We're meeting Stevie-Jade Hardy, Research Associate at the University of Leicester Department of Criminology.

The Department of Criminology is home to the Leicester Hate Crime Project, a two-year funded project exploring the experiences of victims of hate crime – people who have been victimised simply because of who they are. The |Leicester Hate Crime Project wants to hear from anyone who has suffered from hate crime, including those who have been singled out because of their identity or because they were seen as especially vulnerable or somehow "different’" in the eyes of the person who targeted them. Throughout the duration of the project, the team will be working closely with criminal justice agencies and other service providers collectively to challenge hate and prejudice in Leicester.

In discussing how the Council of Faiths might assist the project, we offer the possibility of one of our Open Meetings early next year taking Hate Crime as its theme. This has definite potential but will need to be refined to make it workable. I'm sure we have not heard the last of this topic - or seen the last of Stevie-Jade!

GO GO AMIGOS!

On the way from BBC Radio Leicester to the Welcome Centre early this morning, I come across some friends and colleagues setting up marquees, tables and tents in Town Hall Square. Its all for the benefit of the Leicester Masaya Link Group (whose Claire Plumb is holding the flag of Nicaragua in the photo above). Amigos Bike Rides is holding sponsored cycle events to raise money to help relieve poverty in Masaya, Leicester's twin town.

FLAGSHIP DIAMOND WOOD

To celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the Woodland Trust is helping millions of people across the UK come together and plant six million trees. With HRH The Princess Royal as Patron, the Jubilee Woods project aims to create hundreds of Jubilee Woods and 60 special Diamond Woods, transforming the landscape in a generation and providing a lasting and meaningful tribute for many years to come. This includes the Trust’s exciting new flagship Diamond Wood in the heart of the National Forest in Leicestershire, which will be a haven for wildlife and open for all to enjoy.

After all the bunting has gone, the trees planted for the Jubilee will leave a lasting legacy that will leave a lasting legacy that will transform neighbourhoods, school playing fields, hospital grounds, rural and urban areas – creating homes for wildlife and areas for people to relax, explore and enjoy.

A delegation of seven from Leicester Council of Faiths is attending the event at the National Forest today, at which HRH The Princess Royal is guest of honour. There they are outside Pilgrim House, about to board a minibus and head off (left to right: Ajay Aggarwal, Gursharan Kaur Thandi, Cllr Manjula Sood, Tony Nelson, Sewa Singh, Inderjit Singh Gugnani, Keyhar Singh). They're all well enough turned out to meet a royal personage; I'm not sure how they'll get fare if they're asked to wield a spade or push a wheelbarrow today! Still, to coin a phrase, "Any sleeve can be rolled up." I just made up that ancient Chinese proverb, but I think it's “Pretty good; pretty, pretty good.”

I'm not going on this trip today. I have an hour's worth of Stronger Communities Partnership Self Assessment Sub-Group at the City Council this morning. I just wanted to make sure I got this photo for the blog. But seeing me here this early, one of my colleagues asks if I slept in the Welcome Centre, adding that he wouldn't be surprised. Perish the thought! I'm clearly overdoing it - and I should take heed of that, today of all days, being my fifth anniversary in post.

CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS

A meeting at the Welcome Centre this morning between myself and Tony Nelson (for the Council of Faiths) and Roy Roberts and Amita Miles (for Leicester City Council).

We've been informed that our three-year contract with Leicester City Council, which was due to expire on 31 March 2012, has been extended to 30 September. During that six-month period, the City Council will carry out a review of its relations with the several Voluntary and Community Sector organisations that it helps fund.

Roy is in overall charge of these contracts and is leading the review. Amita is our newly-appointed Monitoring officer, to whom I directly report on our outcomes each quarter.

We’re going to receive an amended contract to cover this six month extension. At the moment, there’s some duplication of tasks and duties, largely as a result of us having some responsibilities as part of our “Core Service” and others as part of our “Host Organisation” duties for Leicester Strategic Partnership, a role which came to an end in March 2011. These will be rationalised for this short extended period, avoiding duplication in our monitoring regime.

It may appropriate to describe here what these duties, responsibilities, outputs and outcomes are at present. There's a misunderstanding that the Council of Faiths is funded by Leicester City Council and we're free to do what we like with the money. That's untrue. We're set a number of tasks and are only paid what is a very small amount of money in public terms when we can evidence sufficiently that we have performed these duties.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF CORE SERVICE

Leicester Council of Faiths will encourage and promote knowledge and understanding of, and between, the different faith communities in the city and will work with Leicester City Council to achieve this.

SPECIFIC AIMS OF CORE SERVICE INCLUDE

• To encourage and promote knowledge and understanding of the beliefs and practices of the various faith communities in the city
• To consult and co-operate in social issues
• To increase understanding and tolerance of religion for public benefit by bringing together members of different faith communities

ACTIVITIES TO BE DELIVERED AS PART OF THE CORE SERVICE

• To ensure that the Board is wholly representative of the communities served
• Provision of information on inter-faith issues
• Contribute fully to SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education)
• Organise public inter-faith events
• To consult and co-operate in social issues and other matters of concern
• To raise the profile and public awareness of faith issues within the communities of Leicester
• To act as a partner on inter-agency planning and service development
• To work in partnership with the City Council and its delivery groups to enable effective two-way consultation and communication, in order to convey the views of the city’s diverse communities to be taken into account in the planning and development of services
• To undertake consultative duties to support the Council and its delivery groups in ensuring that its policies and procedures are designed and implemented to eliminate discrimination

A WELCOME VISITOR

Having been at my desk in the Welcome Centre since early this morning, I'm surprised to hear a very light tapping on the door around 0845. I open the door to Irene Zempie, who introduces herself as a Research Student and Tutor at the University of Leicester, Department of Criminology.

We sit and chat for half an hour or so; Irene's unexpected visit reveals itself to be a piece of serendipity. She tells me that her specialist area of research is that of harassment, persecution and victimisation of Muslim women who wear the niqab in public. She has been struggling to obtain local contacts who would be willing to help with her research and just happened to be on her way to a volunteering appointment at Victim Support (our next door neighbours in Bishop Street) this morning when she saw the big poster in the window of our downstairs office, which led her to come upstairs and knock on our door.

Irene's work is highly relevant to recent discussions I've been having with some of our partner groups and organisations in the city in relation to the forthcoming International Hate Crime Day (Friday 28 October), which will be marked with a day-long event at Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre. In exchange for advising her about local contacts who can help with her research, Irene may be able to assist us on 28 October. I look forward to us being able to come to a mutually beneficial arrangement - watch this space.

PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT GROUP

Meeting with my Personnel Management Group this morning in the Welcome Centre. Leicester Council of Faiths has a lot on its plate just now - and mine is stacked especially high! We have a very focused couple of hours, concentrating on some of the activities, events and opportunities coming our way over the next few months, e.g.

• Our Leicester Day (Sun 11 Sep)
• Leicester University International Students Fair (Wed 28 Sep)
• De Montfort University Student Community Fair (Thu 29 Sep)
• Everybody’s Reading Week (Sat 1 – Sun 9 Oct)
• Leicester University Faiths Trail launch (Fri 7 Oct)
• Leicester Speaks: AKA Local Democracy Week (Wed 12 – Wed 19 Oct)
• International Hate Crime Day (Fri 28 Oct)
• Community Media Week (Wed 2 – Tue 8 Nov)
• National Inter Faith Week (Sat 20 – Sun 26 Nov)

COUNCIL OF FAITHS BOARD MEETING

Meeting of the Board of Directors of Leicester Council of Faiths this evening at the Welcome Centre, Bishop Street, Town Hall Square. Of our eight member faith communities, five are represented in this meeting (Bahá'í, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim). Among topics discussed this evening: our annual Peace Pilgrimage coach tour of selected places of worship around Leicester; our 25th anniversary; our Annual General Meeting (the date for which is fixed this evening on 11 October, although we haven't agreed a venue or guest speaker); Holocaust Memorial Day 2012.

ENGAGING WITH LEICESTER'S FAITH COMMUNITIES: HINDUS

Meeting in the Welcome Centre this afternoon of a small working group, progressing the latest booklet in the series, "Engaging with Faith Communities in Leicester". These are being produced under the aegis of Leicester SACRE (Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education). This booklet, the fourth in the series is on the city's Hindus. The earlier booklets (on Sikhs, Muslims and Christians) are virtually finished.

While I wouldn't call the Hindu booklet "nearly finished", I would say that with the good will that characterises the collective approach to this series of booklets, it's not far off it. An important byproduct of the process is the collaborative network that has spread pretty wide to take in all the faith communities, schools and other stakeholders involved. The creative process is valuable, as is the product created.

In the photo, some members of the working group dealing with the Hindu booklet (left to right): Jill Carr, Secretary of SACRE; Kishan Devani, teacher and education consultant; Hiten Bhatt, Director of Be Great Training & Development Ltd; Dr Angela Jagger, Associate Lecturer in Religious Studies with the Open University and member of Leicester Council of Faiths.

LEICESTER SPEAKS 2011 PRE-LAUNCH EVENT

Pre-launch event for Leicester Speaks today. We’ve taken over one side of Gallowtree Gate in the city centre, setting up our stalls from 0800. We’re on display to the public (officially) from 0930 till 1530. There are 23 organisations on display (including us). Most are from the Voluntary and Community Sector, but there’s also a good show of support from Leicester City Council.

• Afro Innovation Group
• B-inspired
• Brahma Kumaris
• Curve
• Human Excellence
• LAMP Direct
• Leicester Adults Skills and Learning Service
• Leicester City Council Community Services
• Leicester City Council Young People’s Council
• Leicester Secular Society
• Leicester Speaks
• LeicestHERday Trust
• Leicestershire Aids Support Service
• Multi-Access Centres
• Network for Change
• NHS Leicester City
• Pakistani Youth & Community Centre
• Recovery Resource Charity
• Shama Women’s Centre
• Silver Star
• touchRainbow
• Voluntary Action LeicesterShire

It's lovely weather, the sun shines all day and there's hardly a cloud in the sky. There's a warm, inviting and positive vibe up and down the stall. No one attempts to keep a tally of how many people take an interest, but it'd be safe to say that several hundred people stop and chat on at least one of the exhibits, and pick up flyers, freebies etc.

Our stall is right in front of Dorothy Perkins. I think it would be fair to say that it was constantly busy, with a small number of people enquiring at it or lifting our leaflets, cards, stickers or key fobs. Have to be careful though - when they ask how much the key fobs are and we tell them they're free, they're tempted to take half a dozen!


Two members of the public ask me, why no mention of Pagans and Quakers? Why aren't they shown on our logo and our literature as members of the diverse faith communities of Leicester? These questions in particular are asked virtually every time we make an appearance in public.


Based on our experience last year, I'd say that the challenge for the Council of Faiths involvement in Leicester Speaks this20112 is threefold, namely:

• content
• engagement
• venues

In terms of content, last year we staged a series of "daily dialogues" across four days, public meetings in a variety of venues, involving an individual from one of our member faith communities in conversation with an individual from another, discussing the topic, "What does our community bring to Leicester?" This was intended to bring together communities who are not normally seen in dialogue with each other in the city or elsewhere. So we had a Jain / Sikh dialogue to start with (in Leicester Adult Education College), a Bahá'í / Christian dialogue (in the Welcome Centre), a Buddhist / Muslim dialogue (also in the Welcome Centre), and finally a Hindu / Jewish dialogue (in the Screen Room at Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre). This last one was recorded and an excerpt was posted on YouTube. As good as I think this was (and I do think it was good), we can't just repeat it this year. I'm open to ideas and suggestions, faithful reader.


In terms of engagement, we're never able to draw on large numbers of people from our member faith communities for events such as this. It's difficult to get support for one reason or another; that's usually the hardest task when arranging our participation in such activities. it was difficult just drumming up enough numbers to help our at this one today. Even those member communities who do support in strength (from an internal point of view) tend to be those which are small in number to start with, so even if we get a large percentage of those groups turning out, it's not necessarily impressive to an outsider. I tried to take account of this for our involvement in Leicester Speaks last year, with deliberately small scale meetings, that would work well with small numbers. but it would be a good thing to be able to expand the numbers from the faith communities involved this year.


In terms of venues, I'd love to find a way to get out into the wider community. All the meetings we staged last year were in the city centre. Perhaps including other venues is the key to greater numbers participating too. Since Leicester Speaks runs for eight days in total, perhaps each of our member faith communities can host a day at a venue of their choice.


Thanks to those who helped out on the Council of Faiths stall today: Rahat Ahmed, David Clarke, Minou Cortazzi, Rosemarie Fitton, Janette Macdonald, John Moore (not forgetting Harry and Gracie as Scooter Gang!)

Thank you Rahat!

Today Rahat finishes her six-week long internship with Leicester Council of Faiths, based at the Welcome Centre. She's been a great help in preparing the groundwork for a successful celebration of our 25th anniversary.

Rahat has done a great job and she's made a lot of friends through this short period of work, all of whom will wish her the very best for her future. I hope we'll be able to draw on her assistance with many of our activities in future. And whatever we do to celebrate our 25th anniversary, Rahat will be invited to be at the centre of it.

In the picture above, our Chair, Councillor Manjula Sood presents Rahat with an orchid as a small token of our appreciation of her work.

Dropping in on Rahat, while there's yet time

After I took the opportunity last night to speak at the full meeting of the Council of Faiths about the work that Rahat has been doing toward a successful celebration of the Council of Faiths 25th anniversary, some of the members said they'd come by the Welcome Centre to meet her, before she comes to the end of her internship on Friday.

First, Minou Cortazzi (on the right in photo above, with Rahat) popped in. Minou is immediate past Chair of the Council of Faiths (2007-09) and a representative of the city's Bahá'í community popped in. She spent an hour or so here, asking about the project and making some interesting proposals about a high level conference (with suitably high level speakers) to cap off our celebratory period.

Shortly after Minou leaves, we're visited by Alex Keller, who represents the Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation on the Council of Faiths (and is a member of the sub-group working on the 25th anniversary). Alex is on the right in the photo immediately above, with Rahat). While Alex is here, he helps me formulate a proposal to Phoenix Square Film and Digital Media Centre for a short season of faith-related movies during National Inter Faith Week in November.

Council of Faiths full meeting

Full meeting of Leicester Council of Faiths at the Welcome Centre this evening. There are sixteen people here, representing six of our eight member faith communities. Among topics we discuss this evening are our upcoming Annual General Meeting, issues related to burial and cremation, and ways to mark our 25th anniversary.

Events in Norway are never far from our thoughts this evening. In recent years, Leicester has developed a relationship with the Norwegian city of Drammen. Dr John Hall, director of St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi-Faith Society, speaks about contact with friends in Drammen since last Friday, which brings closer to home the effects of the dreadful events that have rocked Norway and all of Europe.

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!

WELCOME ABOARD, RAHAT!

Today is the first day in post for our summer intern, Rahat Ahmed. She'll be with us for six weeks (till the end of July) helping to co-ordinate our 25th anniversary celebrations. Hence her title: "Silver Jubilee Promotions Assistant".

Rahat has come to us through an internship scheme promoted by De Montfort University, where she graduated in Psychology. Among other experience, Rahat has worked with Leicester City Council as Communications and Research Officer in the Corporate Equalities Team; with LeicestHERday Trust as an interviewer on the Alice Hawkins Project; and as a Student Sexual Health Advisor at De Montfort University.

I'm looking forward to working with Rahat during this short period. I'm confident that she'll help us make the most of the opportunities that present themselves to Leicester Council of Faiths in our Silver Jubilee year.

NEW CITY COUNCILLOR VISITS WELCOME CENTRE

I'm glad to meet Councillor Sundip Meghani this afternoon at the Welcome Centre. Sundip was elected Labour Cooperative Councillor for Beaumont Leys (in the north west of Leicester) earlier this month. He's a lawyer by profession and has been a newsreader and presenter on MATV as well as Public Relations Secretary for the British Hindu Forum. We've been connected through Facebook and Twitter for a while, but I was paying particular attention to his tweets last Sunday, while I was in Glasgow. Sundip was tweeting regularly throughout that day, as he visited different places of worship around Leicester, on what appeared to be a personal pilgrimage. The places he visited were, in order:

Christ the King Church, Beaumont Way

Shree Sanatan Mandir, Weymouth Street

The Church of St James the Greater, London Road

Leicester Hebrew Synagogue, Highfields Street

Central Mosque, Conduit Street

Jain Centre on Oxford Street

Guru Nanak Gurdwara, Holy Bones

I've included links to each of these faith centres' wesites so that you, faithful reader, may have the opportunity to undertake a virtual pilgrimage of your own. If you know Leicester well enough you can reconstruct the route for yourself. if not, you can take advantage of one of the great affordances of the internet and jaunt from one to the next!

I tweeted Sundip from Glasgow, saying that I was impressed with his dedication, commitment (and stamina) and that since he so clearly had a personal interest in the diversity of faiths in Leicester, we should meet when I get back.

Sundip's an accomplished, charming and interesting fellow, with an obvious interest in faith community issues and social cohesion. We talk about such things for an hour or so. I give him a potted introduction to Leicester Council of Faiths and we discuss its history, current condition and future prospects. I'm sure this will not be the only time our paths will cross and I look forward to meeting him again.

I also wish him all the best in his work as a newly elected City Councillor.

That's Sundip on the left in the photo above, alongside Rosemarie Fitton, who's on short-term placement with the Council of Faiths as part of her MA Studies at St Philip's Centre for Study and Engagement in a Multi Faith Society. There was a small moment of unexpected connection between the two of them when Sundip mentioned that he arrived at the Church of St James the Greater on Sunday afternoon, just as a service dedicated to The Laura Centre (a local charity that provides bereavement counselling to adults and children in Leicester and Leicestershire) was about to start. The purpose of this service was to call to remembrance those who have died in the past year, whose families and friends have sought assistance from the Laura Centre. Rosemarie told Sundip that she had been given the commission to refurbish the children's rooms at the Laura Centre, a job that was completed only within the last few weeks. I like these unexpected moments of positive crossover - serendipity is magical.

A quick wave

At the Welcome Centre this afternoon, I get a call from Sam Newton, editor of the Leicester Wave, the young people's paper that's distributed free with the Leicester Mercury once a month. They gave us a great front page feature during National Inter Faith Week in November last year.

Sam tells me that they're intending to do a feature on young Muslim women and the burka; would the Council of Faiths be interested in lending them a hand with this? Of course we would. I offer a few suggestions how we might approach the subject. We seem in general agreement and make arrangements to start moving this potential feature on at the start of next week.

Council of Faiths Board of Directors meeting

The Board of Directors of Leicester Council of Faiths meets this evening in the Welcome Centre. Of our eight member faith communities, five are represented. After months of uncertainty, we're in more buoyant mood as our meeting with Contract Officers at Leicester City Council earlier this week has left us relatively optimistic about our future.

RELIGION, BELIEF, DISCRIMINATION & EQUALITY PROJECT

A meeting in the Welcome Centre this morning with Dr Sariya Contractor (photo above), Project Researcher from the University of Derby on the Religion, Belief, Discrimination and Equality Project, which is being conducted there. She's focusing on Leicester for the next four weeks, at the start of this project. The project is explained in the text below, which is copied from a news release sent out by the university.

Religion, Belief, Discrimination & Equality in England and Wales: Theory, Policy and Practice (2000-2010)

The experiences and views of communities and individuals in Leicester about religion and belief, discrimination and equality are being sought as part of a national research project.

The University of Derby is leading a three-year academic study investigating how attitudes and experiences of different religious and belief groups in England and Wales have evolved since 2000 in the light of changes that have taken place during this period in the law, among religions and in society.

It is working with academics from the University of Oxford and the University of Manchester on the three-year study entitled: Religion and Belief, Discrimination and Equality in England and Wales, Theory, Policy and Practice, 2000-2010.

Paul Weller, Professor of Inter-Religious Relations at the University of Derby, is the Principal Investigator for the study. The study has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and is part of the joint Religion and Society research programme.

University of Derby researcher and colleague, Dr Sariya Contractor, is preparing to visit the neighbourhoods, streets and suburbs of Leicester this month (March). She seek to build up as detailed a picture as possible of local people's experiences and understanding of issues to do with equality and discrimination on the basis of religion or belief to feed into the overall study.

Leicester is the first location in a series of qualitative research studies to take place in key geographic areas. Later in the year, Sariya will visit Cardiff, Blackburn, Newham in London and Norwich.

Sariya said: "This is a major national research project and I will be looking to capture the experiences, views and feelings of a wide range of groups and individuals as part of the work. I will be involved within the community, gauging views and building as comprehensive a picture as is possible."

As well as talking with people from a wide range of religious traditions, communities and groups Sariya will, in each location, be organising a focus group with around a dozen participants who understand themselves to be 'non-religious'. She will also conduct interviews with participants from a variety of civil society, public, private and voluntary sector organisations.

Sariya will be identifying a range of organisations to seek out participants to take part in the research. She is also willing to hear from people living and/or working in Leicester who may themselves be interested in taking part. She can be contacted in Leicester during March, via her email which is S.Contractor@derby.ac.uk

Sariya joined the University of Derby having completed a PhD at the University of Gloucestershire, related to Muslim women being given the opportunity to tell their stories and how these could facilitate inter-community dialogue and social cohesion.

The latest study will build on previous Home Office commissioned research led by Derby (1999-2001) entitled Religious Discrimination in England and Wales which found evidence of unfair treatment especially in education, employment and media, particularly as reported by Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus.

The Religion and Society research programme has been supported by the two research councils (AHRC and ESRC) with a contribution over five years of £12.3m to fund research of the highest quality on the interrelationships between religion and society.

The Religion and Society Programme aims to foster collaborative research across the arts, humanities and social sciences; to build capacity in the study of religion; to engage interested parties in academia and beyond; to further understanding of religion in a complex world. The programme started in January 2007 and will end in December 2012.

AHRC Chief Executive Professor Rick Rylance said: "This is a great opportunity to embark on what promises to be a remarkable and illuminating project - and one that is very timely."

Other research approaches being used in the study include a postal questionnaire; a comprehensive review of relevant data from various sources such as the 2001 Census and the Home Office Citizenship Survey; and a series of national seminars to take place next year with key individuals from religion and belief organisations, the law, and the public, private and voluntary sectors.

COUNCIL OF FAITHS BOARD MEETING

Our Board of Directors meets in the Welcome Centre this evening. Seven out of our eight member faith communities are represented. Despite the same sort of uncertainty related to funding overshadowing our future, as it does with all Voluntary and Community bodies - or Organisations of Civil Society or however such groups are supposed to be known these days - our work continues unabated. Particularly in this, our silver jubilee year.