Suffolk
MECAN (Minority Ethnic Community Action Network) Project
Overview:
The Project is funded by Change-Up and being run in partnership between SAVO (Suffolk Association of Voluntary Organisations and ISCRE. The overall aim of this project is to define a network for Minority Ethnic Community and Voluntary groups. The objectives are to manage and promote joint action between public and voluntary sector organisations to:
- Encourage greater responsiveness and understanding of Minority Ethnic communities’ cultures, faiths and hopes for the future
- Identify gaps in these services
- Ensure that Minority Ethnic Communities and individuals are involved in policy and decision-making with affect their interests
- Improve existing services and infrastructure support
- Develop new and tailored services to address the needs and gaps in services to Minority Ethnic Communities
- Improve the sharing of information between all communities and the agencies and organisations serving them
- Ensure the communication methods used are understood by all, and accessible
Activities:
The Project’s activities will include consultation with stakeholders and communities to develop the best strategy that will engage all the communities and provide a co-ordinated approach to all BME work in Suffolk. Currently there is little co-ordinated approaches to BME work in Suffolk by agencies, which not only provides conflict of interest between sectors but drains the BME communities’ resources by being over-consulted. A network will allow agencies to share information and identify common actions and allow BME communities to be consulted and follow the progress of the consultations. The network needs to be established, sustainable, applicable and culturally relevant to BME individuals, BME groups, service providers and agencies.
The outcome will be a network that will support, inform and develop all areas of minority ethnic communities, service providers and agencies. The Project’s achievements will be monitored by the take-up from BME communities, service providers and agencies. Progress reports will be made to the Steering Group and the Suffolk Joint Diversity Working Group. A final report, drawing together the results from the consultation together with the structure of the network, will be produced.
Facilitators
Four Facilitators have been appointed to perform face-to-face consultations with BME groups during August 2006 and produce reports.
The Facilitators will contact members of BME voluntary and community groups and arrange meetings with them to carry out the questionnaire exercise. They will be establishing the needs required by each BME group from infrastructure organisations (‘infrastructure organisations’ are those who provide support, information, training and funding to voluntary groups). There may be other BME groups who are not yet part of this consultation process. If you know of any such groups, please let us know, as we would like them to be involved.
Facilitators will also be establishing how much knowledge BME voluntary and community groups have about the Suffolk Compact (the Suffolk Compact is a partnership agreement framework between local public agencies and voluntary community groups in Suffolk that governs how they will work together to provide services to the communities) and providing individuals with a copy of the draft BME and Diversity Compact and compact questionnaire for them to answer in their own time and return by post.
Using the information gained from the consultation, facilitators will compile a report to be handed to the Project Leader (Fran Limerick) to feed into the final report.
If you would like further information on the MECAN Project, please contact either:
Fran Limerick at ISCRE tel: 01473 408111, or Tracy Ray at SAVO tel: 01473 275198
African History Month
African History Month is organised every October in Suffolk by the Nia Project. Each year the programme ushers in exciting events, just giving you a flavour of the richly diverse history and culture of Africa and Africans of the Diaspora.
For more information contact the Nia Project on 01473 221715 or email niaproject21@yahoo.com
Befriender Project
Age Concern have three Befriending Services operating in Suffolk: Ipswich area, Lowestoft area and Sudbury area. They also have a Telephone Befriending service to offer social contact to people where visits are not possible or a telephone call is preferred. In addition, the Befriending Network Manager works with other groups in the community who offer a visiting service.
The free Befriending Services aim to make life more fulfilling for older people who may be socially isolated, by being visited in their own home on a regular basis. Volunteers often become really good friends with those that they visit and the beneficial effect for the older person is often amazing.
Visits or calls are made weekly. Care is taken to match the interests of the older person and the volunteer as far as possible.
For more information contact Wendy Herber on Tel: 01473 288047, Fax: 01473 287955 or Email: wendy.herber@ageconcernsuffolk.org.uk
Back top the top
Optua Leisure Project
Optua Leisure organises sport and leisure activities, day trips and taster sessions for disabled people across Suffolk.
The aims of Optua Leisure are to encourage disabled people to become more active, which improves health and well-being, and to give them the opportunity to enjoy regular activities and to try new ones. Optua Leisure also encourages sport and leisure facilities to develop better access and helps to make existing clubs more inclusive.
The service is available to anyone with a physical, sensory and/or learning disability who is aged over 16. Registration is free, and comes with a quarterly newsletter packed full of exciting activities and events, news topics and articles from service providers and service users.
For more information about Optua Leisure call 01473 836770 or email leisure@optua.org.uk.
Back top the top
|
