Welcome to Ryedale

The ‘Ryedale Together’ BME Forum met on 18 November to discuss the future of the BME Project.  From 1 January 2010 the Engagement Officer will work 13 hours per week instead of 18.5, and the current project will end on 31 March. 

After this ‘Ryedale Together’ has decided to develop itself as an Equalities Forum.  This means that, as well as issues of race, ethnicity and culture, the Forum will work to promote equality in Ryedale around age, gender, sexuality and disability.  

The Forum will be looking for funding to develop a new project for equality and human rights in Ryedale.  We’d like to hear what YOU would like this new project to do in Ryedale.  Please share your ideas by replying to this post or emailing the Engagement Officer Christine@rva-cvs.org.uk.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is looking for evidence from people who have experienced discrimination. 

The EHRC says: 

“Our job is to promote equality and human rights, and to create a fairer Britain. We do this by providing advice and guidance, working to implement an effective legislative framework and raising awareness of your rights.

“Every three years, the Commission must publish a report that demonstrates how far society is making progress in equality, good relations and human rights.  [The next one will be published in October 2010.] … Over the next year, we will be actively looking for input and feedback from everyone who has an interest helping us identify the main challenges that face our society.”

Discrimination is when you have been treated unfairly because of where you come from, your race, colour, gender, sexuality, religion, age or disability. 

For more information go to http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/fairer-britain/triennial-review/ or ask a question by replying to this post.

Jobcentre Plus has just revised its programmes for helping people back into work.   The programmes say what kind of help, advice and training is available to you while you are looking for a job.  If you would like more information about these, please reply to this post.

Workers at the Propak factory in Malton welcomed visitors from the ‘Ryedale Together’ partnership on 6 November to learn about the services available to them in Ryedale.

Nigel Pearce from the Fire and Rescue Service and Christine Bailey from RVA’s BME Project gave out Polish Welcome Packs, adaptor plugs, health information and leaflets in a variety of languages about local services.  We also encouraged people to sign up for a free home fire safety check. 

Audrey Slaughter of Pro-pak and Nigel Pearce from the Fire Service display leaflets in the canteen

Thanks to Audrey Slaughter from Propak for allowing us to spend the afternoon in the canteen meeting people.

If you’d like a free fire safety check for your home, please get in touch!

This is what people from the community of Ryedale were aiming to do when they met in early October to promote Ryedale’s twelve Third Party Hate Incident Reporting Centres.

36 people from 20 organisations met to learn about the effect that hate incidents can have on victims.   

Hate incidents range from offensive leaflets and verbal abuse to vandalism and physical assault.  Such incidents are classed as hate incidents when they are believed by the victim or a witness to be motivated by prejudice or hostility on the grounds of the victim’s age, disability, sexuality, gender status, race or religion.

The event, which was fully funded by Safer Ryedale, was opened by Cllr Keith Knaggs of Ryedale District Council who spoke of his own experience of hate incidents and affirmed the Council’s commitment to supporting victims through the third party hate incident reporting centre scheme.  Che Bishop from Stop Hate UK graphically demonstrated the extent and impact of hate incidents and Khalida Ashrafi of the Equality and Human Rights Commission described the national and regional context for the Ryedale scheme.  Insp Tim Hutchinson of North Yorkshire Police described the setting up of Ryedale’s centres.

Delegates then had the opportunity to attend one of two workshops, on the themes of ‘exploring the role of the community in encouraging people to report incidents’, and ‘overcoming barriers to reporting’. 

For a full list of Hate Incident Reporting Centres in Ryedale see the Feel at Home Here page.