Equality and Diversity

Equality and Diversity has become a key driving force in Government policy. The separate bodies responsible for parts of the equalities agenda and legislation are joining forces to become the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Equality and Diversity is increasingly making its presence felt in the public and private sector. It has long time been integral to the work of the voluntary and community sector (VCS). The Government programme ChangeUp, which aims to build the capacity of the voluntary and community sector, has Equality and Diversity as one of its key objectives.

The concepts of equality and diversity are common but there is still a need to define what we mean when we use these words. RAISE has adopted the following definition:

Diversity is the acknowledgement and respect of differences within and between groups of people. Equality is the framework that enables opportunity, access, participation and contribution that is fair and inclusive.

In 2007 the Government launched the final Equalities Review report. We live in an increasingly diverse society, where many groups in society have had to continuously fight discrimination and unfair treatment. Inequalities do exist and prevail for many sectors of the community including women, people with disabilities, mental health service users, older people, people from ethnic minorities, people from minority faiths and people who face prejudice on the basis of their sexual orientation.

RAISE is committed to assisting voluntary and community organisations in the South East engage with and promote the groups and organisations that deliver support to these communities. From January 2007 RAISE, with support from GOSE (Government Office for the South East), wants to ensure that Equality and Diversity is a central theme that runs throughout policy development and implementation in the South East. This involves:

• Supporting the work that has been undertaken from the Additional Support Programme (ASP) in developing the BME Regional Network.
• Undertaking a mapping exercise of VCOs that represent diverse communities within the South East.
• Developing an advisory group to enable the development of an Equality and Diversity Network for the region.
• Working towards a situation where representatives have a seat and a voice on key statutory boards.

Further developments in this area will be posted on this website, the RAISE newsletter and e-bulletins.

Developing a Regional Voice for Equality and Diversity

RAISE is encouraged by the level of interest generated by calls for self nomination to form the Equality and Diversity Advisory Group. We would like to thank everyone who has shown an interest in the group. We were oversubscribed with nominations and therefore followed a clear procedure to assess the nominations received and matched these nominations against specific criteria.

Members are: Mary-Ann Nossent, Medway Older People’s Partnership, Tony Evans, Rainer, Patricia Robertson, Surrey Users Network (SUN), Annie Whelan, SEAP Mental Health Advocacy Service, Megal Aspel, Let’s Link, Dianne Yexley, Chrysalis, Gino Meriano, Gay Surrey, Kim Davies, Q:alliance, Navrita Atwal, Milton Keynes Race Equality Council, Chris Whitwell, Friends, Families and Travellers, Revd Colin Griffiths, Well Interfaith Community and Dr Nabil Mustapha, Elmbridge Multi-Faith Forum.

RAISE Equalities Toolkit

The full toolkit can be downloaded here.

Useful Links

Community Action Hampshire's Diversity Network Project
http://www.action.hants.org.uk/index.php?id=50

Equality and Human Rights Commission
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/Pages/default.aspx

The British Institute of Human Rights
http://www.bihr.org/index.html

Equality and Diversity Forum
http://www.edf.org.uk/index.php

The Equalities Review
http://www.theequalitiesreview.org.uk

NAVCA Equalities Resources
http://www.navca.org.uk/localvs/equalities/

Report of NCVO/BIHR Roundtable: Human Rights and the VCS
http://www.bihr.org/downloads/NCVO.pdf

ChangeUp (Additional Support Programme)
http://www.raise-networks.org.uk/changeup/yourArea/localDocuments.html

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