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Safe Communities Initiative case studies
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Safe Communities Initiative: case studies
The CRE Midlands Office established a monitoring group to bring together local agencies in the Midlands to share information and agree action on combating racist groups.
The objectives of the group are to:
The CRE Midlands Office was concerned about the effect which the racist far right were having on community tensions in the Midlands region. Many areas in the region were electoral targets for racist political parties and leaflets had been circulated exploiting community concerns and misrepresenting facts, particularly about asylum seekers.
CRE Midlands organised a conference in Walsall in March 2004: "Combating Racism through the Ballot Box: Meeting the Challenges of the Racist Far Right". It was attended by 200 people from local organisations, received a large amount of positive press coverage and made a big impression locally. It was followed up by a conference report concentrating on the practical action which local organisations can take to counter the myths spread by racist organisations.
The conference identified a need to bring local agencies together to look more systematically at organised racist activity and working in partnership to tackle it. To fill this gap, the CRE Midlands Office decided to establish the Midlands Monitoring and Networking Group on the Far Right.
The meetings are organised and chaired by CRE Midlands and held at their Birmingham offices.
The Safe Communities Initiative (SCI) Team attends every meeting. They share information about their work programme and provide the group with information about national policy.
The membership list for the group includes:
Several organisations in the region were keen to get involved because they recognised the threat which organised racist groups posed to community relations in the region. The group meets every three months and meetings are usually attended by around 12-20 people. They agreed to widen their original aims to look at general community tensions and religious, as well as racist, extremism.
The meetings provide an opportunity for sharing information on community tensions, potential hotspots and good practice in tackling racial hatred. They exchange advice and agree ways to work together to achieve the aims which their organisations have in common. Meetings also provide an opportunity for representatives of different communities to share their views on the effect which racist activity is having on them.
The group has played a valuable role in shaping the policy and practice of the Safe Communities Initiative. They have provided SCI with robust intelligence on community tensions in the Midlands and have acted as a think tank, advising on the development of SCI's agenda. They also provided SCI with support and advice with their 2005 Defeating Racial Hatred Conference (See SCI Case Study 8).
The group is able to respond quickly to rising tensions in the Midlands region. Following the London bombings on 7 July 2005, the group met promptly to share information. This was followed a few weeks later by a community briefing meeting, attended by around 40 people from a variety of organisations. The meeting was an opportunity for West Midlands Police and the CRE to tell local agencies about how they were dealing with racial, religious and community tensions following the bombings. It also allowed agencies let police know about the effect which the bombings had had on communities in the Midlands. The meeting was inevitably tense, but a clear agenda kept it focused while allowing everyone to have their say.
The group provides a sounding board for Race Equality West Midlands publications, such as What Happened to Far Right Political Parties in the West Midlands in June 2005. The report looked at the performance of political parties with core beliefs which embrace racism in the General and Local Elections in 2005.
The group produced an outline joint party statement for local areas to adopt in the run up to elections. The statement provided an opportunity for local politicians to make a commitment to the multicultural make up of their area and to making sure that their political campaign is conducted fairly and free from racial hatred and prejudice. The statement was adopted by many areas in the region including Derby, Solihull, Coventry and Leicester.
CRE Midlands Office established the group and organised the meetings
Voluntary and Community Organisations, especially those working in the race equality sector, attend the meetings to share information and advice on local racist activity
Statutory Sector Organisations, especially West Midlands Police, attend the meetings to share information and consult on their strategy for tackling racist activity
The meetings bring local agencies together to discuss organised racist activity and how they can work together to tackle it.
Attendees share information on community tensions, potential hotspots, good practice and community perspectives.
The CRE Midlands Office acts as an honest broker for the meetings, bringing together the voluntary and community sector with statutory organisations.
CRE Midlands is able to mediate between the different perspectives of these organisations as they have established contacts in both sectors and are respected as race equality experts
The meetings give different agencies the opportunity to discuss racist activity. However, the meetings also focus on producing practical outputs.
They have been involved in organising a conference on defeating racial hatred, contributing to publications produced by Race Equality West Midlands and producing an outline joint-party statement for local areas to use in the run up to general and local elections
The group was established by the CRE Midlands Office as a permanent forum.
SCI attends meetings to share the national policy perspective and gather information on good practice on regional community tensions.