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BUILDING COMMUNITY From the outset our main aim has been to promote good relations among all people locally in Loughborough & Charnwood. In the beginning it meant working to offer information and advice and engage with members of minority ethnic groups. Over the years we have responded to changes in economic, social and political circumstances and have broadened our remit to tackle discrimination against members of groups with protected characteristics (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation). We work in partnership with statutory services, voluntary and community bodies, and with faith communities to build good, strong bonds. Our partnerships are long-standing and positive. We are funded by Charnwood Borough Council as Strategic Partners and work in particular with their Community Safety Teams. We appeared in their official guides to the Borough, describing our multi-lingual and exhibition centre. We contribute to the Health and Wellbeing Forum, to pool and exchange information among local bodies and to sign-post people to relevant agencies. Our network reaches Health, Social Services, Police, Schools, Housing and other statutory and voluntary bodies.
We work with Charnwood Arts and others to stage the MELA, an annual event in the town centre. It started as a small event celebrating the town’s cultural and ethnic diversity, and now is an important part of the Loughborough summer festival. The MELA brings together South Asian arts and culture, from spectacular Bollywood dancing to storytelling, poetry and henna painting, celebrating national heritage and the more recent history of British citizens. Along with Charnwood Arts, we are involved in research by Loughborough University into memories of partition.
