A4 CC+ by The Design Mill

MID-TERM EVALUATION OF

The Connecting Communities Plus Programme

Contents

Cover Photographs

Executive summary

Top Left: PATH National worked in partnership with the Association of London Environmental Health Managers (ALEHM), the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) and Middlesex University to create a national programme that addressed staff recruitment and retention issues in the environmental health sector.

1. Introduction

2. Monitoring and support

Bottom Left: Poplar Housing and Regeneration Community Association (HARCA) completed a vigorous study course to train Health Outreach Guides for work in the community. Over 20 people of all ages and backgrounds took part and certificates were awarded to the proud graduates.

Right: The Jinnah Day Care Centre supported by Groundwork Bury provides day services for the elderly and disabled. It supports people to maintain their independence and provides activities centred on social stimulation. The service users visited the Walnut Allotment scheme and the Philips Park Orchards to find out how plants and fruit and vegetables are grown.

3. Improving access and outcome inequalities

4. Improving confidence in public services and the labour market

5. Tackling racism and extremism

6. Community cohesion

7. Learning the lessons

8. Conclusions and recommendations

Author: Kamila Zahno T: 020 8341 2196 M: 07767 811117 www.zahnorao.demon.co.uk

Appendix 1: Strategic partners

Appendix 2: Projects funded

Consultant: Clare Rhule A4e www.a4e.co.uk The Foundation for Social Improvement www.thefsi.org Design: www.design-mill.co.uk 2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Background 1.

Improving access and outcomes for Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in education, health, housing, the criminal justice system, or the labour market ? Increasing BME confidence in public services ? Tackling racism and extremism ? Improving community cohesion

The Connecting Communities Plus (CC+) programme was launched in October 2005 to support the cross-government strategy Improving Opportunity, Strengthening Society (IOSS) which promotes race equality and community cohesion. The three-year programme, which runs until March 2009, is the responsibility of the Race Equality and Diversity Division (REDD) of Communities and Local Government (CLG). Funding is available for a small number of strategic grants for national level organisations working in the race equality field; local or regional project grants; and community grants for local community groups. The strategic and project grants programmes are monitored on a day-to-day basis by A4e, and are the subject of this evaluation. This interim evaluation took place midway through the threeyear programme; its purpose being to explore the achievements of the programme so far, to make recommendations on any improvements to the way the grants are managed, and to suggest improvements to the programme to take on board in its final year and beyond. The strategic and project grants are for work linked to one or more of the following themes:

Eleven strategic grants were made, with the value ranging from £120,000 to £454,316 over the three years. The recipients were national organisations and they were seen as strategic partners to the Government, funded to scale up their activities nationally with a view to impacting on government thinking and policy on race equality and community cohesion.

A total of 68 project grants were funded, ranging from a total of £30,000 to £252,353 over the three years. Projects were located in all nine English regions.

A qualitative methodology was employed in this evaluation: a sample of 5 strategic partners and 11 projects were interviewed face-to-face. In addition, 10 projects were interviewed by telephone to ascertain their views of the monitoring process. Grants managers from A4e and policy leads from CLG were interviewed. The main report gives details of a number of case studies demonstrating the impact of the grants programmes on both individuals and public agencies.

The four objectives

Improving access and outcomes was the most popular theme, with 53 projects out of the 68 choosing this as one of their priorities, and 9 out of the 11 strategic partners delivering under this theme. Processes that helped individuals from BME communities access public services included working with the user to overcome any barriers they face in accessing services, for example, language barriers, or awareness of what the service can provide for them. For example, NEWTEC, a project in East London, runs a bilingual support project which uses field trips to public services such as the local library to show what these services can offer. Other projects specifically tried to influence public services so that they would make their services accessible. Age Concern Islington’s Open Access Project influenced the council’s benefits team to promote its services more widely to BME communities.

Improving BME confidence in public services was the major theme of 16 projects and 4 strategic partners. Processes that helped potential service users gain the confidence to use services ranged from information giving and signposting, to empowering people to change their lives. The work of Operation Black Vote (OBV) is particularly empowering in that it encourages people to become civic leaders, such as magistrates. But unless such work is firmly rooted in an understanding of what drives the perceptions of services by people from BME backgrounds, the shift from non-user to user may be difficult to make. For example, the work undertaken by the Terence Higgins Trust (THT) concentrated on engaging with a wide spectrum of African communities to find out what prevented them from accessing sexual health services, and then designing messages that would attract them to use the services. 4

Tackling racism and extremism was the least addressed objective, prioritised by four projects and two strategic partners. However, some of the community cohesion activities would also be linked to this theme. Processes undertaken to tackle racism included working with both victims and perpetrators, as is done by Support Against Racist Incidents (S.A.R.I.), a Bristol-based organisation. Preventative work was also considered very important and much of this is undertaken with young people, as in the work in schools that is done by the Anne Frank Trust and S.A.R.I. which generates an understanding of the impact of racism on the victim. Tackling racist extremism, including the growth of far right politics and the growth of a form of militant political Islam was included in this priority. The 1990 Trust represents a good example of work done with particular communities to disperse anger amongst Muslim youth who may fear a backlash from the far right.

10. Ten projects concentrated on improving community cohesion work. An important part of this work was to reduce local community tensions. This can be done by working in a neighbourhood to solve particular community tensions and disputes (as in Unite’s project which does this through local mediation), and/or to bring different communities together to go on trips, take part in festivals, or undertake voluntary work. Engaging and integrating new communities into British culture is also very important, and this objective overlaps to a great extent with projects, such as NEWTEC’s in East London, which also aim to give new communities the confidence and knowledge to access mainstream services.

14. Changing the public sector mindset was possibly the greatest challenge projects in particular faced. A number of projects, for example, working with gypsy travellers, face stiff resistance, not only from local communities but also from public agencies. Many of the projects need to work together with the public sector to gain the greatest impact. There have been some excellent examples, however, such as CSV (Community Service Volunters) in Ipswich which takes part in and influences the Multi-Agency Forum for refugees and asylum seekers in Suffolk. Recording impact on public services is difficult, but some projects have set up systems to do this; S.A.R.I. (Support Against Racist Incidents) has an exemplary system of recording events complete with quotes from beneficiaries and public agencies, such as schools and the Police.

Impact of the programme 11. Impact has been assessed by qualitative methods. Both projects and partners had very different definitions of outcomes according to the activities chosen to meet the delivery of the objectives. This interim evaluation has concentrated on assessing how grant recipients have had an impact on individual BME users, statutory service providers, central government policy, and on the organisations themselves. 12. For projects, the CC+ programme has made a difference at a local level. Organisations were able to specify a project that fits with both the IOSS strategy and their mission, rather than creating projects that follow the funding. The grant has been used for a broad range of activities that specifically benefit BME communities. However, projects have also addressed other equality strands, for example, in targeting BME women suffering domestic violence, BME disabled peoples and BME older people.

15. All strategic partners were keen to influence central government policy and practice. Min Quan, a project set up by The Monitoring Group (TMG), has been successful in this in its work tackling racist crime against the Chinese community. It has organised events where Chinese businesses meet with statutory agencies such as the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) which is able to explain how it takes incidents of racist crime very seriously. However, partners would like to use their status with central government to influence policy, and would like there to be a mechanism for the relevant government departments to use the partnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; contacts and knowledge.

13. Impact on individuals was considerable: projects and partners alike gave examples of individuals who had accessed services such as housing and employment as a result of their interventions, such as outreach and advice work. A key challenge is measuring soft outcomes and progression. To this end, NEWTEC is keen to record soft outcomes for individuals by using The SOUL Record (Soft Outcomes for Universal Learning), a method of measuring soft outcomes and mapping progression of learners attending non-accredited courses.

16. Not least, the CC+ programme has had a stabilising effect on the organisations. The projects felt that the A4e grants managers helped with internal organisational capacity building,

evaluation. Outcomes should include both impact on BME individuals and on public agencies.

and in some cases with further funding. However, there needs to be a greater focus on sustainability in the last year of the grant. Strategic partners in particular have found that the CC+ grant has improved their organisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sustainability, which was in fact a key objective of the grant. The grant was used to scale up the activities of these national organisations so that they could improve their systems and their websites, and were able to expand geographically.

Recommendation 4: The policy lead officers in REDD should undertake a strategic review of how they should engage the strategic partners in a policy role, and help to increase the capacity of strategic partners to do so. Recommendation 5: When linking with government departments to raise the profile of the work of the strategic partners, the lead policy officers should also link in the work of those projects which exemplify particularly effective practice in meeting the objectives of the IOSS strategy.

Recommendations 17. The key recommendations are: Recommendation 1: A4e should improve the monitoring system by providing written feedback to grant recipients within two weeks of the quarterly monitoring meeting. A4e should also establish an early warning system for projects and partners that are not attaining their planned outputs and outcomes. This would entail devising an action plan for getting back on track, and acting in a supportive role to help the organisation meet those timescales.

Recommendation 6: We recommend that a further three-year round of project funding continues. We also recommend that projects should tie their work in more with local service providers. Recommendation 7: We recommend that a further three-year round of strategic partner funding continues, but that a better mechanism for sharing the work with the appropriate government departments is put in place. The grant could cover some core costs (rather than activities) for strategic partners and should be required to describe the impact of these core cost, e.g. impact of a redesigned website. Furthermore, the partners should be required to contribute to government policy: for example, x number of round table discussions, x number of responses to consultations, x number of presentations at government conferences, x number of strategic reports.

Recommendation 2: A4e should help with funding contacts, references and applications to sustain the work. For projects, they should also be helping the organisation mainstream the approach the projects have taken within the organisation, so that the lessons are learned within the whole organisation. Recommendation 3: As part of the final evaluation, a framework should be designed to capture how best to feed in outcomes from a varied set of activities into the final 6

1. INTRODUCTION 1.3 The strategic and project grants were for work linked to one or more of the following themes:

The Connecting Communities Plus programme 1.1 CC+ grants programme was launched by the Home Secretary in October 2005, to support the cross-government strategy IOSS initiated in January of that year to promote race equality and community cohesion. Government responsibility for the CC+ programme was transferred to Communities and Local Government in 2006.

A Improving access and outcomes for BME communities, specifically in one or more of: Education, including work with pre-school, school, further and higher education and lifelong learning ? Health, including activity linked with any and all aspects of physical and mental health, public health and prevention of health-related problems ? Housing, including work linked with all forms of housing and homelessness ? Criminal justice system, including work linked with any or all of the criminal justice agencies and services, including the Police, prisons, courts, CPS and probation services, victim and witness care ? Access to and expectations of the labour market and entrepreneurship, including activity aimed at improving economic activity rates, reducing unemployment, improving progression within the labour market, improving access to senior positions for BME communities, increasing entrepreneurship among BME communities, closing the pay gap and combating workplace discrimination ?

1.2 Total funding for grants to be distributed over three years from April 2006 amounts to £18 million. There are three types of grants: Strategic grants for national level organisations working across the English regions – up to £150,000 per annum for three years ? Project grants for organisations based in at least one of the English regions – between £12,000 and £100,000 per annum for three years ? Community grants for local groups – up to £12,000 per organisation ?

The strategic and project grants are managed by an independent grants administrator, A4e, and this interim evaluation relates to these two grants only.

Project grants

B Increasing BME confidence in public services, including understanding what drives BME perceptions of public services and of the labour market, and improving the confidence of BME communities in public services and the labour market

1.5 Project grants were available to voluntary sector or faith community organisations with a proven track record of delivering outcomes for BME communities through project work, as well as a proven track record of communicating with their stakeholders and the communities they work with.

C Tacking racism and extremism

Statistical analysis

D Improving community cohesion, including bringing together communities from different races and faiths, and promoting a shared sense of belonging

Project grants 1.6 The CC+ programme has funded a total of 68 project grants. The value of the project grants ranged from £30,000 to £252,353 over three years, with most ranging from £150,000 to £200,000. The regional spread is reflected in the charts in figures 1 and 2 on page 9.

Strategic grants 1.4 The strategic grants were available from national voluntary sector organisations whose main work linked to one or more of the above themes. However, funding for strategic partners, as they are known, was not for specific projects, but rather to: ?

provide a relatively stable and flexible source of income that could enable organisations to scale up their work, market their service more widely, and evaluate and understand better how to deliver for different groups of people in different contexts

develop a partnership with REDD of CLG to build knowledge and expertise that informs government policy, and helps it to deliver the shared objectives of race equality and community cohesion

1.7 Projects often said they delivered on all four themes and therefore it was difficult to analyse precisely what the spread of themes amongst the projects was. However, from our knowledge of each of the projects we made a judgement as to which themes most closely fitted the activities funded by CC+: some projects delivered equally on two or more themes, reflected in table 1 on page 9. Strategic grants 1.8 There were a total of 11 strategic grants, with the value ranging from £120,000 to £454,316. All were funded for three years. They were delivering on the following themes, shown in table 2 on page 9.

FIGURE 1: Project Grants by Region 30

TABLE 1: Theme Number of projects delivering* Improving access and outcome inequalities for BME communities: Overall total: 53 • General access to public services 13 • Education 20 • Health 13 • Housing 1 • Criminal Justice System 0 • Access to and expectations of the Labour Market and entrepreneurship 6 Increasing BME confidence in public services and the labour market 16 Tackling racism and extremism 4 Improving community cohesion 10

TOTAL

20 15 10

7 5

2 SE

EAST

LONDON W MIDS

E MIDS

Y&H

* The number of projects comes to more than 68 as some projects were delivering on more than 1 theme: in particular, organisations often prioritised both A and B as improving confidence often goes hand in hand with improving access.

FIGURE 2: Project Grants by Region 10

TABLE 2: Theme Number of projects delivering* Improving access and outcome inequalities for BME communities: Overall total: 9 • General access to public services 1 • Education 2 • Health 2 • Housing 2 • Criminal Justice System 1 • Access to and expectations of the Labour Market and entrepreneurship 1 Increasing BME confidence in public services and the labour market 4 Tackling racism and extremism 2 Improving community cohesion 0

3 10

7 9

EAST LONDON

W MIDS

E MIDS 10

Y&H NE 41

* Number of projects comes to more than 11 as they could be delivering on more than 1 theme

1.11 We also evaluated the grant management and monitoring process employed by A4e. An independent consultant undertook a focus group with the grants managers, and conducted a short interview with 11 organisations to ascertain their experience of A4eâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s process. In addition, we asked all our face-to-face interviewees questions about the management and monitoring process.

Purpose of the evaluation 1.9 The purpose of this interim evaluation which took place at about 20 months into the three-year programme is: To show achievements so far, particularly outcomes for individuals and service providers ? To look at processes employed by both CLG and the managing agent A4e, to see what they do to support the projects and partners and what improvements could be made ? To make recommendations to be taken on board in the final year (2008/09) of the grant ?

Structure of report 1.12 The report is structured as follows: Chapter 2 looks at the monitoring and management process Chapters 3â&#x20AC;&#x201C;6 examines the delivery of projects and partners on the four themes of the programme ? Chapter 7 explores key success factors as well as key challenges faced by projects and partners, and looks at sustainability beyond the grant ? Chapter 8 makes recommendations for the coming year ?

Methodology

1.10 The methodology was primarily a qualitative one and focused on identifying achievement of objectives of the grant under the four themes. It draws out key features of success which can be used to inform CLG with its longer-term policy development on race equality. In conjunction with CLG, a sample of 5 strategic partners (out of 11) and 11 projects (out of 68) was selected for a face-to-face interview to reflect all four themes and the regional spread. In addition, grants managers highlighted a number of projects to exemplify particular issues, and these are referred to in the text. A complete list of projects is contained in Appendix 1, and the organisations participating in the qualitative evaluation are highlighted.

2. MONITORING AND SUPPORT intended milestones, outputs and outcomes against the four themes of the CC+ programme. They field queries on changes to expenditure categories and ensure that there is a financial audit trail in place.

Introduction 2.1 The CC+ programme has a rigorous quarterly monitoring regime, which allowed the grants administrator A4e to ensure that projects and strategic partners were on track in terms of their outputs and outcomes. Each quarter, the A4e grants managers meet or telephone all project organisations to go through achievements and issues. A4e meets with all the strategic partners, together with officers from REDD, to discuss progress three times a year. This chapter describes these processes and makes recommendations for changes and improvement where necessary.

Supporting 2.4 The grants managers offer a supportive and nurturing role, and act as a critical friend in a way that helps funded groups build their capacity. They are able to assess which groups need more support, and thus spend more time with them to help them develop and implement transparent policies. For example they help with project-related issues such as recruitment and staffing where the organisations are relatively inexperienced in human resources matters. They have also had to advise on management issues, including relationships with the Board of some organisations.

2.2 Feedback on the monitoring process has been gained by including a question in the questionnaire to the 17 groups that were interviewed face-to-face, and a further 11 groups selected at random for a telephone interview specifically about the process.

2.5 Larger organisations running a CC+ project have difficulties too. The CC+ project can be quite isolated within the organisation. Grants managers have been able to support larger organisations that manage projects, sometimes at armâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s length, to develop appropriate delegation systems to ensure that the projects have control over their own budget. In one case, an organisation had a much bigger contract from Jobcentre Plus and was not really devoting enough time and resources to the CC+ project which did not have dedicated staff and was not achieving its target

Role of grants managers Monitoring 2.3 The role of the grants managers is to monitor performance through the monitoring forms, visits and telephone contact. The grants managers also ensure funds are being used as declared in the annual Memorandum of Understanding which sets out 11

Agreement with Dudley Metropolitan Council for a community gym. Some project outcomes were dependent on partnerships with service providers that have not worked out, and the grants managers have been able to give advice on how to develop new activities which would result in similar outcomes.

outputs, even after meeting several times with the grants manager. Finally, the grants manager met with the Chair and Chief Executive of the organisation to discuss what should be done and within what timescale. As a result, new staff were dedicated to the project with new leadership and the project has shown a remarkable turnaround.

Grant managers have also been instrumental in advising projects on additional funding sources. The grants managers feel that in some instances organisations lack confidence and knowledge on how to apply for mainstream funding, such as Learning and Skills Council (LSC) funding. It is expected that they will have a key role to play in helping projects and partners sustain their activities beyond CC+ funding, and we come back to this in Section 8.7.

Flexibility 2.6 Grants managers were able to be flexible with funding agreements within the total annual amount given through the programme. There could be underspend by some projects and overspend by others. As long as requests were backed up by evidence of need, different amounts could be negotiated. For example, one project received an â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;in principleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; agreement for Big Lottery funding which did not come on stream until years 2 and 3 of the CC+ grant. CC+ was able to fund the total costs in year 1 as opposed to 50% which was originally applied for. The difference was offset in years 2 and 3 by the Lottery grant.

Networking 2.8 Grants managers encourage projects to network together and offer useful contacts of other organisations they could contact for services, e.g. technical skills in producing a DVD; translation/interpreting facilities. In addition, the grants managers run regular regional network meetings which offer opportunities for projects to showcase their work, network and learn from each other. Recently, regional meetings in three areas were held to discuss how to define and record outcomes which most projects found extremely useful (see Section 2.19).

Funding advice 2.7 Grants managers have been instrumental in helping projects with funding problems. Most projects had other sources of funding which supplemented the CC+ grant, and occasionally this anticipated source did not materialise. For example, in order that the Tandrusti project, a health and fitness project managed by the Workers Educational Association (WEA), could run efficiently, it needed gym equipment. The grants manager supported the WEA with a reference to obtain a Service Level

the vast majority of people spoken to stating that the forms, although rather long, were very clear. They found the format useful in that along with the quantitative information on expenditure, outputs and outcomes, there was space for comments and reflections. Most groups found it useful to track their own progress and some used it to inform their accountants and their Board.

Strategic partners monitoring process 2.9 The strategic partners are seen more as partners with the Government rather than grant recipients. Thus, the monitoring meetings include both the A4e project manager and policy leads from REDD. The A4e project manager undertakes the monitoring of milestones, outputs, outcomes and finance; the REDD policy leads discuss related government policy. The role of the project manager is to facilitate discussion between the strategic partners and the REDD policy leads.

“The forms are really clear and helpful. They are well formatted and not onerous to fill in. They are helpful to recap on one’s targets. It is helpful that information is brought forward from the last form. They are one of the better forms we have to fill in.”

Monitoring forms 2.10 The same monitoring form is used for both projects and strategic partners. This consists of the following information:

“Actually, they are really useful for our own purpose. I have used them to report on progress to my own management committee. They are a good way to reflect on the progress of the project. The form itself is clear, and also A4e fills out some of the data from the last report so we only have to report our quarterly progress or if anything has changed.”

Actual and planned expenditure, enabling expenditure to be tracked, and differences to be noted and discussed ? Details of salaries ? Outputs against all four themes, with room for comments on progress towards achievement ? Outcomes against all four themes, with room for comments on progress ? Milestones with dates and room for comments ? Qualitative report which allows grant recipients to state achievements, problems and publicity ?

2.12 On the downside, some pointed out that the fact that they had to report on all four themes of the programme was rather repetitive. As there can be cross-over between themes, it is sometimes difficult to select which output relates to which theme. Some organisations repeated this information, while others cross-referenced it. It is apparent that most projects and strategic partners think that they have to report on all four themes and some commented that they find this a struggle.

2.11 Monitoring forms are sent to the grants managers each quarter which enables both parties to highlight achievements as well as issues of concern. Feedback has been generally positive with

who have found them extremely useful in helpful to sort out internal issues that were holding the project back: “S/he’s always at the end of the phone when I want.” For example, at the start of the project there were often delays in recruiting the right person, and the projects really appreciated the help and support they were given to re-profile their expenditure and rearrange their milestones and outputs until they got back on track. They also appreciated the clarity with which the grants managers were helping them report on outcomes and impact.

2.13 One strategic partner suggested that it would be good to have a table with milestones, outputs and outcomes on one table so they could be aligned, making it easier to relate outputs with outcomes. There was one comment that it would be useful to have the expenditure part of the form in Excel rather than Word – this would lead to fewer mistakes being made. Another felt that, to get all the invoices in two weeks after the monitoring process was rather too short a timescale. 2.14 Two respondents thought that the financial reporting was too detailed and onerous. One acknowledged that she had only ever had one-off grants to run theatre productions and never had a grant of this size before. The other thought that they should not have to produce receipts for absolutely everything, and believed that the £500 limit on changing expenditure from one category to another too low.

“We find the meetings very useful. The grants manager is interested in the project and is empathetic. S/he is not just monitoring outputs but is flexible and gives advice on how best to achieve outcomes. Where milestones and outputs are no longer relevant, s/he will discuss these and we will adjust. It is an open relationship.” “The meetings are useful. S/he helps with any queries. S/he sometimes wants clarification but is always clear what is wanted and why. For example, we just had a list of bullet points for our activities and s/he asked if we could attach our quantitative data on beneficiaries and volunteers. Also, as regards finance, we usually meet our profile, but when we don’t s/he is flexible about how we spend our money and we can switch between categories if expenditure is under £500.”

2.15 One respondent would like feedback on the monitoring forms as sometimes a period of time has elapsed between when the forms are received and the meetings take place. They would like written comments on how appropriate their outcomes are and more formal feedback on how they are doing. Grants managers said this point had been raised by several grant recipients. Monitoring meetings

“S/he is probably the best monitoring officer we’ve ever had. S/he does not put us on edge or make us feel nervous and she also gives us tips. If we have any queries we can email and s/he will always email us back.”

2.16 Quarterly monitoring meetings are arranged to discuss achievements and progress with both projects and partners. These have been very much appreciated by projects/partners

purposes. For example, one media organisation found it useful to meet other organisations, and as a result has been able to help some of the projects in its location with publicising their activities. Others found that it was useful to learn about good practice; for example, one organisation found that others gave accreditation or their own certificates for mentors who had undertaken training and were going to investigate doing this. But some felt that although it was interesting meeting similar projects, it was difficult to share experiences as they were in different parts of the country. One organisation suggested that there could be some form of more formal mentoring/networking/ action learning set up between projects.

2.17 There were a few criticisms, for example, several projects wanted six-monthly monitoring instead of quarterly. Some projects felt that the grants managers sometimes were ‘nitpicking’ and on occasion some projects felt that suggestions (for example, to contact another organisation for help) came across as an instruction. The more experienced organisations thought that they did not need quarterly meetings, although they did commend the flexibility with which the grants managers were able to deal with underspend. Strategic partner policy leads 2.18 REDD policy leads attend the strategic monitoring meetings, along with the A4e project manager. Partners welcomed the policy input: for example, policy leads had facilitated meetings with other government agencies, such as the Regional Development Agencies. However, it was felt that the role could be more proactive. Some of the policys and research-orientated organisations would have welcomed the setting up of round tables with relevant government departments to discuss research findings, and to share issues of common concern. Other example, arose when partners would have welcomed the CLG taking on a mediation role when a partner was having an issue working with another department.

2.20 A4e ran one of the project networking meetings as a workshop on outcomes. This looked at the difference between outputs and outcomes and gave space for the projects to work on their outcomes. Subsequently, the projects are refining their outcome measures and defining ways of measuring and recording impact. This will be particularly useful in the final evaluation. Projects thought this workshop particularly useful. “This workshop was very valuable. I recommend that this triangle (the Weaver’s Triangle) is used as part of our monitoring form. I have already started to use it and it helps us to see where we are making an impact.”

Networking meetings 2.21 Some projects have not attended workshops because they feel it is not a priority for them. Others have said that their grants manager advises that two people attend which they find too onerous on a small organisation.

2.19 A4e has held networking meetings for projects three times, each time in three different locations (nine meetings in total). Most projects thought the meetings very valuable for networking

Conclusion 2.22 Grants managers did more than keep track of expenditure, outputs and outcomes. They had a supporting and networking role, and also helped with funding advice. The flexibility in the way that grants were managed was mentioned positively by the recipients. In particular, interviewees appreciated the networking meetings on outcomes, and that had received help with funding advice â&#x20AC;&#x201C; whether that was a local authority reference, facilitating contacts with funders, or help with an actual application. 2.23 However, some organisations felt that the grants managers could be too detailed, and there was a feeling in some cases that suggestions came across as formal advice rather than suggestions. Some people believed that the forms could be simplified. Others said they would like written feedback on their monitoring meetings, with recommendations. 2.24 The strategic partners felt that the policy leads could be more proactive in terms of facilitating them to make links across departments, helping them to raise awareness of their policy work, and acting in a mediation role where issues arose between a particular department and a strategic partner.

3. IMPROVING ACCESS AND OUTCOME INEQUALITIES 3.3 This chapter looks at how projects and partners meet the objectives of this strand through the activities provided and the processes used, and explores the impact those activities have on improving access and outcome inequalities.

Introduction 3.1 Projects and partners delivering under this strand aimed to improve access for BME communities to particular public services where they were under-represented, and importantly to achieve better outcomes for them. The CC+ prospectus made reference to five public services: education, health, housing, the criminal justice system, and the labour market and entrepreneurship. In practice, some projects and strategic partners specialised in one service only, while others looked at a range of services, including access to welfare benefits and access to leisure.

Working with the user 3.4 Some projects/partners work intensively with their users in a holistic way to raise awareness of services and provided practical support to access it.

Arachne Greek Cypriot Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Group

3.2 The main thrust behind this strand is connecting the user to the service provider through a two-way process: working with the user to raise awareness of the benefits of the service, and working with service providers to ensure they understand the different needs of BME communities and how to access them. This objective of the CC+ programme has a degree of overlap with the objective to increase BME confidence in public services, and projects tended to deliver under both objectives. Under this strand we include processes which encourage access by raising awareness of services, and in particular those projects which work with service providers to enhance their understanding of the way they can reach BME communities and raise outcomes.

Arachne employs a community development manager to work at the grass-roots and to provide tailor-made solutions to the particular needs of Greek and Greek Cypriot women. It deals with issues as they arise and responds immediately. Arachne also conducts home visits to counter isolation, and to encourage people to use its advice and counselling services. Women are offered a range of activities to suit their individual needs. This can be individual, personal sessions such as counselling, welfare advice sessions, or business support to formal training courses in English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Outcomes: the women have been able to access a wide variety of public services â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from housing repairs to information on flu jabs.

Outcomes: most users have used the course to move their lives forward: for example, several have jobs, including a few who have started their own business, and many have moved onto other courses.

3.6 Access can be improved mainly through removing barriers to access such as childcare and language support. Arachne provides out-of-school activities during Easter and the summer holidays, and also provides translation and interpretation. NEWTEC provides bilingual classes which will enable users to access services.

3.7 Encouraging access can also be improved by signposting users to other agencies, and some projects provided information and advice services which enabled users to make an informed choice. A good example is where local projects work together with public agencies, as in the case study below.

NEWTEC NEWTEC is a childcare organisation in East London and runs a bilingual support project with its CC+ funding. The aim is to develop language and literacy skills to speakers of other languages so their aspirations will be raised, and they will better be able to play an active role in their local community. It uses the bilingual teaching approach so that the native language is used alongside English. This enables the teacher and the group to talk about richer concepts as the emotions come out in a discussion in the native language. The teacher is then able to use expressions which have come up in the discussion to translate into English. This enables learners to see the daily relevance of the language and they are more likely to remember words and phrases.

Keystone Development Trust Keystone Development Trust in Thetford, runs a CC+ funded programme which part-funds META (Mobile Europeans Taking Action). META@Keystone aims to provide IAG to migrant workers in the Keystone area, the East of England and beyond. In response to many inquiries from migrant workers regarding the application for a National Insurance (NI) number, META, in partnership with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) set up an outreach National Insurance Number Service (NINS) in Thetford. META provides the premises, booking service for clients and language support as necessary and the DWP provides the expertise.

The course uses field trips to public services such as the local library as well as bringing in external speakers. For example, a local councillor who was Tamil talked to the Tamil group about why it was important to be part of the wider community and to progress to bigger things.

Based on demand from the migrant workers and the availability of META and DWP staff, the joint sessions are currently held every second Friday. Around 40â&#x20AC;&#x201C;45 people apply for their NI number each time and the service is very popular. There are no major extra costs related to the service. The only limitation is the availability of the staff, but once every two weeks has been found to be possible.

Each learner is referred to NEWTECâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wider Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) service so they can look at their next steps.

brothers. Jermaine is an able pupil and is expected to achieve good grades in his GCSEs. His interests are mostly in sports. Jermaine was referred to the project by his school. Jermaine was constantly given detentions on a regular basis for minor incidents, and for being confrontational when he felt he was unfairly accused of things he or his friends had not been responsible for. He was also on a report card.

Language support is provided in Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Lithuanian. Outcomes: from the clients` point of view, META provides a known local venue for them to come to register for a NI; the language support enables them to attend with the correct documentation, saving travel time and money; and importantly, with their NI number they are available for work.

His mentor has been working with him to set targets around his behaviour. The mentor set a goal to reduce his detentions every week, and gave him pointers to help him to stay focused and to concentrate better in class. Each week his mentor would monitor his progress and find ways to help him to stick with his goal, such as reminders in his homework diary and on his mobile phone. His mentor was consistently positive in recognising the small achievements that he had made and Jermaine enjoyed the challenge to reduce his detentions. Each week his detentions decreased until he had managed not to be given a detention and to stay off report. Jermaine gained a huge sense of achievement in setting this small goal and achieving it himself.

3.8 Mentoring programmes can provide the means whereby users can improve their success rates, thereby improving outcomes for public agencies.

Black Families Education Support Group This project, based in Bath, has been particularly successful in working with local secondary schools to provide mentoring support for BME young people, specifically aimed at reducing school exclusions and raising aspirations and motivation. As a result of the success mentoring has had on the education of young people, local schools now see mentoring provision as an essential part of the support package necessary for promoting the educational achievement of BME pupils.

Outcome: Jermaineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s successes continued with his mentor; he was able to talk about the challenges that were facing him and find ways to overcome these challenges himself. He is now in his final year of school and after completing his GCSEs plans to go into the Police Service.

The case study below outlines the impact of the mentoring support provided by the project on a young person:

*Name changed for confidentiality

Jermaine* started working with his mentor a year ago. He is aged 15 and of mixed heritage. Jermaine lives with his mum and his two

Bridging the gap between users and service providers

Outputs

3.9 Some projects/partners work to raise access and outcomes in a very focused way within a particular service. PATH National specialises in establishing positive action programmes for BME professionals, mainly graduates, within sectors that have an under-representation from BME communities.

3.10 Common outputs under this strand include individual case work, advice and/or advocacy sessions, and numbers of people on training courses. Outputs involving the public sector include user consultation sessions and events. Outcomes for BME users

PATH National

3.11 While projects are good at recording attendance, for example, on training courses or advice sessions (outputs), they find it harder to track progression (outcomes) since follow-up costs time and money, and many people move on and are hard to track. NEWTEC, which has funding from the LSC, has had to record hard outcomes of progression into further training or employment, but feels that softer outcomes are also important to record as this demonstrates the distance travelled by people to get to a point where they are able to achieve hard measurable outcomes such as employment. The CC+ grant resourced the worker to undergo training in The SOUL Record, a method of measuring soft outcomes and mapping progression of learners attending non-accredited training courses. Once this is embedded into the CC+ project, NEWTEC would like it to influence all the other programmes in the organisation.

Having had a success within the planning sector, PATH National uses the CC+ programme to scale up its activities to cover the Midlands and the North of England, and to work across England with new professional sectors where BME managers are underrepresented, and where research has demonstrated that there are likely to be skills shortages at management level in the near future. Outcome: working in partnership with PATH, the Board of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals agreed to start a pilot of 20 professional library trainees within libraries across London. The CC+ grant has been instrumental in allowing PATH to develop relationships with different sectors which it otherwise would not have been able to do.

3.12 Most projects will have excellent qualitative information on the individual experiences of their users in successfully accessing services, for example, through individual casework. Casework tends to uncover multiple problems with accessing services

There are a number of other examples of graduates of the 14-week programme who have now pursued foundation degree courses and NVQ level 3, and three others who have also succeeded in obtaining positions as Health Trainers within the community. Finally, one of the health guides has now become a coordinator in this very programme.

and it is to the credit of many project workers that they are able to deal with these through skilled advocacy. Some projects empower their own participants to act as advocates for others. For example, NEWTEC gives the example of an elderly Tamil man who lived in a privately rented three-bedroomed house which accommodated him and his three sons. Two of his sons left to set up their own home and he needed to downsize to pay less rent. He did not understand how to get on the housing register for social housing, even though the Council was topping up his private rent. Then another learner on the project acted as an advocate for him; they both went to the housing department and successfully got him on the housing register.

Outcomes for public services 3.13 Outcomes in terms of impact of the work on the public sector are hard to track but important to raise in this interim report, since this objective of the CC+ programme is about improving the understanding of public service providers of the needs of different communities and how to access them. It is difficult to track whether anything has actually changed as a direct result of the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work, but some organisations think it is likely that their work has impacted on services. NEWTEC, for example, believes that its bilingual courses should lead to a reduction in the use of interpreters in the local area. It particularly thinks this may have been the case since they are using people on their course to act as advocates for each other. However, projects and partners were less able to prove that their service has actually changed the way service providers do things. Compact for Race Equality in South Tyneside (CREST) is a good example of an organisation that has influenced change. It worked in partnership with South Tyneside Homes to help it communicate its future plans to BME communities appropriately. A series of events and forums highlighted the pressing needs of BME communities in terms of housing management, lettings and refurbishment.

Poplar Harcaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Healthy Living Training Outreach Programme This project provides a comprehensive Healthy Living and Personal Development course aimed at training individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds, mostly BME and women, to become Health Guides within a variety of settings. The programme, BME Health Guides STEP (Success to Training, Education/Employment Portfolio), which includes a mentoring, volunteering and practical element, has transformed the majority of its participantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; lives fundamentally. One participant had been unemployed for approximately 15 years, but after following the course became more assertive and confident, and aware of what she wanted to achieve in her future. The skills she gained from the training, and the experience gained from the volunteer aspect of the programme, helped her to secure employment by the Primary Care Trust (PCT) as a health trainer and she has been working there successfully for nearly a year.

3.14 Age Concern Islington initially found trying to influence the council’s communications methods more difficult. The project worker found that although council workers were keen to make their communications more accessible, they would tend to focus on part of the problem, for example, putting together a database of people who need communication in different formats. There are a number of very good national access guides but they do not address the issue about content. By holding user events which tested the standard council letter and asked for people’s views, Age Concern Islington found that it was able to draft a simpler letter and lay it out in a more accessible way. After concerted efforts to raise this issue at a senior level within the Council, the Council’s Corporate Equalities Strategies has launched a project to improve written communications with their clients which covers all council departments. The council now plans to establish a “Citizens’ Panel” where local people will review its documents and give feedback on how they could be improved. It has asked the Open Access Project to oversee the Panel.

As a result there have been a number of changes including: All publicity that is issued is done so in relevant languages and/or translation services are provided for communities that are very small in number ? A multi-faith calendar has been developed to ensure that refurbishments under the decent homes strategy can take prior account of any religious observations ? CREST is called upon to act as mediators in any difficult cases ? The lettings process has been modified (as most social housing is now through a bidding process) to ensure the full inclusion of the BME community ?

Age Concern Islington’s Open Access Project This programme was specifically set up to influence public services. From its initial work on accessing benefits, the Open Access Project has had some impact on the way the Council’s Benefits Team operates. The team has translated leaflets and the project worker has been able to help them disseminate it to groups in area. The Benefits Team has also produced a bulletin to all organisations referring people to the Team to reinforce its presence. The Benefits Team has also set up a good partnership with Somali groups and is visiting older Somali people’s lunch club once a week or month. Since word-of-mouth recommendations are important, the Benefits Team has written to all people who had received more money through the work of the Team asking: “If you thought we were good, tell your friends.”

Conclusion 3.15 The improving access and outcomes theme was the most popular, with 53 projects out of the 68 selecting this as a priority, and 9 out of 11 strategic partners delivering under this theme. Improving educational outcomes was the most popular activity with almost a third of all projects delivering on this. None of the projects had the criminal justice system as a major theme, although this would be covered to an extent by projects specialising in tackling racism and extremism, but there was

one strategic partner specialising in each of these themes. Processes that helped BME individuals to access public services included working with the user to overcome any barriers they face in accessing services, for example, language barriers or awareness of what the service can provide them. Mentoring was particularly effective in improving educational outcomes for young people. 3.16 There have been excellent qualitative outcomes for individuals but it is more difficult to record impact on the public services themselves. Getting public services to understand how they might be more effective at reaching BME users is challenging. This was the aim behind Age Concernâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Open Access Project which concentrated on raising the awareness of the local authority on how they could make their services more accessible to BME older people.

4. IMPROVING CONFIDENCE IN PUBLIC SERVICES AND THE LABOUR MARKET part of the picture; knowing what is likely to attract the user to a service and gaining their trust is also important, and is likely to be of use to service providers themselves.

Introduction 4.1 Projects and strategic partners delivering under this theme aim to improve the confidence of individuals from BME communities by raising the awareness of local services and how to access them. However, raising awareness is not the only barrier to access. In order to empower individuals, projects had to first understand BME perceptions of local services and why they might find difficulties in accessing them. This objective links closely with the first objective of the CC+ programme: improving access and outcomes.

4.4 Understanding and changing perceptions can also act as a preventative measure to reduce violence. Stockport Women’s Aid (SWA), for example, has worked with young Asian men to discuss their perceptions of domestic abuse.

Terrence Higgins Trust The THT has used its CC+ grant for a Future Leaders programme, a one-year traineeship to develop a new generation of sexual health advisors. It has recruited two trainees to focus on the African Diaspora communities.

4.2 This chapter looks at how projects and strategic partners increased the confidence of BME people to take part in society and to access services. It looks specifically at the impact on individuals and how the work has enabled them to change their lives. It also gives feedback from service providers about how the work of the projects has contributed to their own service outcomes.

One of the trainees has helped to produce an African HIV prevention strategy, which is endorsed by the Department of Health. He makes the point that African communities are heterogeneous. Getting the message across to different African communities – sub-Saharan Africans, Congolese and Somalis – requires different skills. The real challenge is getting all the African communities involved in identifying solutions and this requires an understanding of different practices, customs and ideals. The prevention strategy includes case studies and will be a resource for those working with African communities.

Understanding perceptions 4.3 Improving confidence and self-esteem should go hand in hand with creating a better understanding of what drives BME perceptions of public services. Raising awareness of services and providing people with the confidence to use them is only

taking the view that giving people the tools to take up their own case is empowering and sustainable.

The other trainee undertook a placement with Sigma Research which carried out a significant piece of research surveying 4000 African people on their sexual health needs. In engaging with a wide spectrum of African communities, the researchers, including the CC+ trainee, went into African businesses, retail outlets, barbers and hairdressers, and places of worship. Getting people to fill out forms about sexual practice and acknowledge the HIV epidemic is difficult, especially within places of worship, but the trainee worked with some of the faith leaders to tailor their message to get people involved.

4.6 Other projects produce useful guidance. One powerful message being given by THT is about the prosecutions of Africans for infecting their partners, even though in one case the person was not aware of having HIV/AIDS. The legal argument in such a case appears to be that the person should have known he was at high risk of having the virus because of its prevalence in Africa. The CPS has developed new guidelines around these issues which have recently become available after significant lobbying from THT (these guidelines are available on THT and the CPSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s website: www.tht.org.uk and www.cps.gov.uk respectively. THT has also produced a series of cards which highlights where people can go to get more information on this very serious issue. This is an excellent example of a voluntary organisation taking up a sensitive issue and spreading a necessary but difficult message.

Breaking down these barriers and taboos should help to make people more receptive to taking on board messages about HIV prevention and accessing sexual health services. Outcome: one of the outcomes of this project is that the Harambee Project in South London has seen an increase in the take up of people getting tested for HIV.

Giving information

Empowerment

4.5 Some projects signpost clients to appropriate services. The Refugee Therapy Centre (RTC), for example, signposts its clients through bilingual support outreach workers who provide both appointments and drop-in sessions, directing individuals to services such as GP surgeries, housing advice agencies, ESOL classes, solicitors, law centres and Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). The Refugee Therapy Centre is clear that they do not fill in forms or act as advocates on their clientsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; behalf. They inform people what their rights are and where to go,

4.7 Empowerment of users to change their lives is one of the most powerful things that the CC+ funded projects and partners can do. Empowerment cuts across all four of the CC+ objectives and goes right to the heart of what the voluntary and community sector does best. We place examples in this section because empowerment is about increasing self-esteem and giving people the confidence to change their own lives and make their own choices. Personal development is integral to the work of projects such as A Sporting Chance, which

Operation Black Vote’s Magistrates’ Programme

provides out-of-school sporting activities to children and young people in Birmingham, as well as courses which are accredited through Award Scheme Development and Accreditation Network (ASDAN). Outreach is an important part of this project which employs a worker who goes out regularly with the Police targeting young people who potentially could be served with Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs). A Sporting Chance has close relationships with two police officers based in the Lozells area who have been working with young people with special needs. The officers are hoping that these young people will achieve soccer skills, thus increasing their confidence and self-esteem.

OBV in partnership with the Ministry of Justice, operates an intensive programme to encourage people to become civic leaders. For example, its magistrates’ programme gives people an intensive six months of learning, with experience, plus a road map to guide future direction. Interested individuals are interviewed for suitability, and are twinned with two magistrates who will be their mentors over the six months. They have a schedule of learning which includes shadowing the magistrates in the courts and developing an understanding of the decision-making process. Participants visit a variety of courts and the cells. The key aspect of a magistrate’s work is exposed to them and this is augmented by two full-day training sessions looking at the criminal justice system in its wider context and how the role of magistrates fits into it. After this, participants are encouraged to apply. Thereafter, successful individuals continue as an OBV ambassador, and speak on a number of platforms as an OBV advocate, taking on an ambassadorial role within OBV’s alumni.

4.8 Voluntary work placements can provide opportunities to improve employment prospects, with individuals gaining the confidence and experience to apply for jobs. Thus the RTC provides work placement opportunities for refugee volunteers in areas such as office administration, graphic design, translation and support work. Volunteers receive help with learning about British work culture and can tap into the RTC’s mentoring programme to improve their English or have therapeutic help, should they wish.

Outcomes: of 150 people who have applied to become magistrates since the programme started, 30 have become magistrates and 70 are awaiting a decision. The average age of OBV graduates appointed as magistrates is 35, considerably lower than the average of magistrates which is 57 years.

4.9 Empowerment to take part in civic society is the cornerstone of OBV’s work. OBV is working to inspire a black generation, encouraging it to engage as never before.

Mohammed Athar, Home’s diversity consultant, comments that “housing is a fundamental requirement for every individual, and the understanding of diverse needs and aspirations poses a significant challenge for organisations like Home.”

Access to employment 4.10 Many of the projects encourage people and give them the confidence to access services, but one of the objectives of this CC+ theme is to provide access to employment in senior positions. We have seen how OBV encourages BME individuals to become civic leaders. PATH’s aim is to train black people in sectors that have professional qualifications so they can become tomorrow’s managers.

Keith Richardson, Home’s National training and development manager, comments that “the last traineeship scheme was our most successful to date: three trainees have since competed for and taken up permanent roles in Home, thereby furthering their careers in housing... Home were so pleased at the success of the last scheme that we have no hesitation in embarking on another cohort... with opportunities for six traineeships in our South, Central, North East and Scotland regions.”

PATH National’s traineeship programme ‘Home’ is a national affordable housing and social care provider that provides rented homes to 52,000 households and employs 4,000 staff in over 80 offices. Home’s mission is to provide affordable homes, neighbourhoods where people want to live, and support to those who need it.

Enhancing understanding amongst service providers 4.11 Raising individuals’ awareness of services and increasing their confidence to take part will have better outcomes for individuals if service providers are also involved. Working with local authorities to increase the black vote is a main activity for OBV. In Bristol, OBV ran a councillors’ shadowing programme which won the Local Government Chronicle Awards for its innovative way of bringing so-called hard-to-reach communities into the governance of Bristol City Council. The awareness of how to achieve greater BME representation has encouraged the Council to think about how to increase its proportion of BME staff.

‘Home operates in a number of multi-cultural and mixed community areas, and the organisation’s desire to provide excellent services to all tenants and increase the diversity of the workforce has been the main driver of Home’s relationship with PATH. Home has worked in partnership with PATH to establish traineeship opportunities to attract individuals from BME communities into the workforce – the trainees undertake a two-year work experience placement during which they also attend day release at a college or university to gain a related qualification. Although PATH was working with Home for some years, the CC+ grant has allowed the work to be extended in new locations of the country.

Outcomes for individuals

4.12 Raising the profile of the BME individuals and their potential can serve to change the mindset of public agencies as to the contribution BME individuals make to economic life and society.

4.14 Outcomes in terms of numbers are difficult to record as raising confidence is a qualitative measure. However, OBV can track the success of its magistrates programme (see box in section 4.9). OBV has also looked at how to measure their activities to increase the black vote: anecdotal data suggest that where there has been a concentrated effort in a particular location, voters have increased. In 2006, there was a poor turnout in local elections in London, but in Lambeth, where OBV had worked with the black churches to get the message across to vote, there was a significantly higher turnout.

1990 Trust’s Economics of Colour Commemorative Tour The 1990 Trust organised and hosted the national Economics of Colour Commemorative Tour with Rev Jesse Jackson in August 2007, commemorating the abolition of the slave trade. This highlighted the economic contribution of Britain’s BME communities and launched the Equanomics UK project which focuses on achieving racial justice through economic equality. The tour was attended by over 11,000 BME people throughout nine days in different cities: Bristol, London, Nottingham, Sheffield, Bradford, Liverpool, Manchester and Leicester.

4.15 CC+ projects have been recording impact on the individual through their own evaluation programmes, and A4e encourages projects and partners to give some examples of these on their monitoring forms. A Sporting Chance gives many examples of the impact its programme has had on participants such as trainees becoming employed, young people gaining coaching qualifications and a reduction in anti-social behaviour amongst some of its users. The Centre for Equality and Diversity’s two day Managing Yourself Assertively and Confidently training course aims to provide participants with the tools and skills to realise their potential, and effectively manager their career progression. In the words of one delegate: “The training boosted my confidence and made me more aware of my personal ambition, thus making me more assertive in what I do.” Post-training support allows participants to record the impact of the course after some time: “I attended a follow-up session a few months after the training. This helped me to keep

Outcome: Councillors and civic leaders from the cities were involved in the civic reception, and MPs involved included Ken Livingston, Diane Abbot, Dawn Butler, Tony Benn, Stephen Williams and Jack Straw. There was much media coverage. Outputs 4.13 Outputs are similar to those recorded for the access to services theme and include numbers of people on confidence building courses, events etc.

some of his skills and to increase his confidence and awareness of British society.

my career review on track in terms of supervision at a time when most course information tends to lapse due to other commitments.” The impact of CC+ interventions can be quite profound, and none more so than some asylum seekers who can be awaiting their immigration decisions for several years.

* Name has been changed for confidentiality Outcomes for service providers

Northern Refugee Centre

4.16 Projects and partners are less able to comment on the impact that improving confidence has on service providers, but our evaluation collected several quotations from service providers:

The Northern Refugee Centre (NRC), in Sheffield, provides support to refugees and asylum seekers with a particular focus on supporting the integration of refugees in Yorkshire and the Humber. The Centre’s REACT project, funded by CC+, works with refugees and asylum seekers to raise awareness amongst the wider community of issues they face. The Centre constantly conducts participatory evaluation to gauge satisfaction, or otherwise, with its services. The results of its evaluation, which in the past have taken the form of questionnaires, stickers and pictures, are used to assess impact and shape future service delivery.

Stockport Women’s Aid “SWA offers a great service. I have referred two Asian young women to them. Nabeela has also given a session at our youth club, talking to young women about domestic violence. I have been working as a youth worker for nine to ten years now, and before I got involved with SWA I didn’t know how to talk to young women about domestic violence. It is hard work to get them to open up and talk about physical and emotional abuse. SWA supported me to understand how to set boundaries, unpack the issues and in getting the young women to look at issues. My colleagues from different projects have also worked with SWA in helping them to support young women.

For Chenzira*, an experienced primary school teacher who is an asylum seeker from Zimbabwe, the Centre has proved a lifeline. Arriving in Sheffield, Chenzira had minimal access to support services and was systematically racially abused by local people. Quite by chance he was introduced to someone from the NRC who helped him to get involved in the local community which made him feel less isolated.

It’s great having Nabeela who, as an Asian woman, understands the complexities of the community, and I know that I can refer Asian young women to her knowing they she will be receptive and the information will be treated confidentially.”

Outcome: although, as an asylum seeker, Chenzira is not allowed to work, the NRC has enabled him to volunteer in several primary schools and community organisations, thus enabling him to maintain

Mohammed Yaseem – BME development worker, Services for Young People, Children and Young People’s Directorate, Stockport Council 29

A Sporting Chance

Conclusion

Through working with A Sporting Chance, the Police aim to deter young children aged 6–7 years from crime or becoming victims of crime. Sporting activities burns off energy, breed self-esteem and act as a diversion. The area they work in is very diverse with high volumes of gang-related crime. The project teaches the kids to integrate with others from a different environment.

4.17 This theme was the major theme of 16 projects and four strategic partners, and as was often the case with the ‘improving access’ theme, projects/partners felt that in order to improve access to services, they also had to improve the confidence of individuals. Processes that helped potential service users gain the confidence to use services ranged from information giving and signposting, to empowering people to change their lives. The work of OBV is particularly empowering in that it encourages people to become civic leaders, such as magistrates and parole board members. But unless such work is firmly rooted in an understanding of what drives the perceptions of services by people from BME backgrounds, the shift from non-user to user may be difficult to make. For example, the work undertaken by the THT concentrated on engaging with a wide spectrum of African communities to find out what prevented them from accessing sexual health services, and then designing messages that would attract them to use the services.

Says Nigel Smith, Police Constable: “It is difficult to measure prevention but crime has come down drastically this year in the area by 29%, although we have to take into consideration that a lot of youngsters are not old enough to commit a crime. I can’t say whether the reduction is because of the work of A Sporting Chance but it does occupy the kids, and the joint work means that young people have a different attitude to the Police. They are happy now to stop and talk to the Police because of the relationships built up through sporting activities.” Nigel concludes: “I think the partnership is worth its weight in gold and it should continue to be funded.”

4.18 Projects concentrating on this theme were able to quote many instances of people accessing services, and recorded them in their outputs. For example, OBV’s voting campaigns in areas with high concentrations of black people have resulted in an increased turnout. Anecdotal evidence from service providers does demonstrate that individual projects make a difference. However, what is important is to find out how far service providers are able to mainstream some of these practices by using some of the same targeted methods, and/or by continuing to work in partnership with voluntary and community organisations. 30

5. TACKLING RACISM AND EXTREMISM Introduction

Min Quan Ken* volunteers at the TMG Min Quan centre in Holborn, London, calling catering establishments to find out if they have been victims of racial harassment and to promote Min Quan’s services. The main objective is to listen to people’s experiences. Ken found out that respondents had lost confidence in statutory agencies’ ability to help them, and he found they lacked an awareness of any agencies’ policies towards racial harassment. This, combined with a fear of reprisals, contributes to the vast under-reporting amongst victims.

5.1 Projects and strategic partners delivering under this theme aim to tackle racism by addressing hate crimes, and through education aimed at preventative measures. Extremism is tackled through educational measures and raising awareness of other cultures. Activities tackling potential extremism were often linked with the fourth CC+ theme of improving community cohesion. 5.2 This chapter looks at how projects and strategic partners tackled racism and extremism and explores the impact they have, not only on victims and perpetrators of hate crime, but also on public organisations such as schools and the criminal justice system.

Outcome: Ken feels his work is important in convincing victims that suffering in silence does not help them, and that by increasing their trust in the agencies’ ability to provide appropriate support and action will increase the level of reporting.

Working with victims

* Name changed for confidentiality reasons

5.3 Working directly with victims of hate crime is an important role played by the voluntary and community sector, since they are able to engender trust and to support victims in dealing with the Criminal Justice System. Min Quan, a project set up by TMG, works with victims of racial harassment within the Chinese community in Manchester, London and Southampton. It runs a 24-hour victim support helpline in both Mandarin and Cantonese. Using trained volunteers, it supports individuals and families suffering racially motivated attacks and murders.

Working with people expressing racist views and/or behaviour 5.4 Working with people expressing racist views and/or behaviour is an important way to create an understanding of the implications of their actions, and will hopefully prevent similar actions in future. S.A.R.I. provides an education service working with young people, in schools where problems have been identified. Through assemblies, classroom activities and 31

Outcome: the Trust has had an influence on refining the anti-bullying policies in schools, making them more relevant to young people’s experiences.

one-to-one sessions with young people the work helps to reduce racist attitudes and build tolerance and understanding Anti-racist proactive work 5.5 Anti-racist work in schools is an important way to generate an understanding about the effects of racism amongst pupils and staff. These can take the form of one-to-one sessions and group sessions. S.A.R.I. uses both one-to-one sessions, and classroom and assembly sessions. Anne Frank, a project working in London, challenges racism and prejudice, and encourages positive attitudes and personal respect and responsibility to other communities.

Working with statutory agencies

The Anne Frank Trust UK

Min Quan’s Forum

Working within schools, using an exhibition and workshops, the Trust uses the Anne Frank story to demonstrate what can happen as a result of racism. The exhibition is a travelling one and workshops are customised to the school. The Trust’s staff discuss the school’s policies around tackling racism and bullying, and create a programme specific to that school. Drama delivered by drama specialists is used in the workshops. Students use the school’s racism and bullying policy in a role play situation to see whether they work, and if they do not they offer other solutions. The workshops try to make a shift in how the young people view their own actions and body language, and the impact that can have on other students.

Dealing with racial harassment in Chinese takeaways and restaurants was the subject of a talk and forum held by TMG Min Quan at Little Yang Sing Restaurant in Manchester. The aim of the event was to encourage the local community to record and report racial incidents, to build community confidence in the Criminal Justice System and to introduce government strategic plans and policy on tackling racism. Crown Prosecutor, Sam Makhan, explained the nature of a racially motivated crime and how to ascertain whether an incident was racially motivated. He outlined how the CPS looked after witnesses and liaised with victims. An important objective of the forum was to explain how crucial it was to report incidents, and for the audience to see at first hand how they will be treated seriously, and how people’s lives can be changed as a result.

5.6 There are excellent examples of the way projects and partners are working to influence the way statutory agencies address racist incidents through improved policy and practice. Bringing together statutory agencies, and potential or actual victims of race crime and harassment, can result in a greater level of trust in what the statutory services are able to do.

S.A.R.I.’s work with schools

Outcome: a member of the audience testified how she was supported by Min Quan and could now start a new life in a safer environment.

As part of its work within schools, S.A.R.I.’s education worker worked with a school which had excluded a young black person to ensure the school’s policies worked for him. This casework example demonstrates that the correct implementation of a number of the school’s policies could result in turning a young person’s experience into a positive one. Firstly, it was established that the standard process for instructing and marking school work for an excluded person had not been followed. S.A.R.I. was able to mediate on the young person’s behalf, explaining the incident from his point of view.

S.A.R.I.’s Gypsy and Traveller Steering Group S.A.R.I., based in Bristol but which also operates in Bath and North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire, has set up a Gypsy and Traveller Steering Group to respond to recent legislative and policy changes affecting this community, especially around new accommodation. The Group look at tensions occurring within and against this community. A launch conference has been held to bring key agencies and community representatives together to look at the terms of reference of the future group and the key actions needed to take it forward.

Outcome: as a result, the school agreed that it would follow correct procedures, and further would ensure the young person would not be victimised on his return. It was recognised that the young person would benefit from a mentoring programme being run within the school by a black businessman.

Outcomes: through the work of the Steering Group, the gypsy and traveller community is better able to access relevant services so their needs can be better met. There is an increased trust between community representatives and agencies. Incidents have reduced at local sites and also there is an increase in communication about incidents to relevant agencies so that incidents can be addressed immediately.

Tackling extremism 5.8 The growth of far right politics in some communities, the growth of a form of militant political Islam, and the 2005 bomb attacks in London have resulted in a move on the part of the Government to tackle extremism. This can be done by gaining a better understanding of the profile of those with extremist views and what motivates them, and then developing practical solutions to counter those views. Few CC+ projects and partners tackled extremism in this way.

5.7 Individual work with agencies can result in better policies and better implementation of policies through consistent practices. S.A.R.I., for example, works with schools on their exclusion, anti-racist and anti-bullying policies and procedures.

1990 Trust

The Runnymede Trust

The 1990 Trust has set up the UK Civil Rights Network to establish a common platform on civil rights. This creates a dialogue between different communities: gypsy travellers, Muslims, Christians. The Network hosts three meetings a year to raise the profile of issues such as Islamaphobia, the rise of the far right and the stigmatisation of migrants. It invests in relationship building between communities as a way of developing trust and preventing extremist actions.

The recent report Re(thinking) ‘Gangs’* takes a look at the attention focused by the media, politicians, policy makers and institutions working with young people on ‘the gang’ as a key feature of contemporary urban youth identity, and as an emergent social crisis. It raises critical questions about how ‘the gang’ is portrayed in the media and by politicians and policy makers, making the point that the concept of ‘the gang’ is a contested one, and that labelling ‘the gang’ runs the risk of attributing coherence to what might be transitional youth group formation. This makes it difficult to distinguish between general youth activities, mundane deviance, crime and organised crime, and runs the risk of criminalising all young men in urban public places.

The Trust has also developed a Muslim Support Group which runs youth symposiums. Outcome: the youth symposiums have proved very powerful in dispersing anger amongst Muslims who may fear a backlash from the far right.

In particular, a key point is that the current discourse racialises ‘the gang’, making an explicit link between ‘the gang’ and black communities, or ‘the gang’ and immigrant or asylum seeker communities. So ‘the gang’ problem is seen by the press and politicians as a ‘race’ problem. This serves to implicate and criminalise all BME young people.

Policy and research 5.9 The CC+ grant has been used to generate policy and research on the impact of hate crime and solutions to it. This should have an impact on national and local policy.

The report emphasises that there is a need to shift away from the discussion of ‘culture’ and ‘the gang’ towards a recognition of the broader processes of social exclusion and marginalisation that can lead to youth deviance or conflict. This would move away from a simple ‘blame the victim’ approach, avoid the criminalisation of specific communities, and allow for the examination of individual acts of violence in context.

“The session regarding racism went really well. It made the young person look at racism from a victim’s perspective. The education worker, Ramya*, gave examples which made the session feel real, enabling the young person to relate to each piece of work.

The report calls for more long-term empirical investigation on youth identities and violence that focuses on mundane encounters of everyday life and conflict, rather than ‘the gang’. It points out that while the investment in youth services is to be welcomed, youth initiatives should avoid the labelling and criminalisation of young people as ‘gang members’, and resist the linking of state-funded youth initiatives to the ‘gang prevention’ agenda.

The session included several incidents which have had media attention: Anthony Walker and Kriss Donald. I was surprised that the young person had knowledge of both of these incidents, and he could describe the sequence of events. The young person engaged well.

* Clare Alexander, Re(thinking) ‘Gangs’ (Runnymede Trust, 2008)

Ramya has fantastic communications skills and she developed a good relationship with the young person which created a relaxed learning environment. The input to the young person was at an appropriate level to his needs. The content was excellent and it was essential for the offences he is currently on his Referral Order for.

Outputs 5.10 Typical outputs are numbers of individuals benefiting from sessions, number of sessions held, number of schools benefiting. Impact on BME individuals

I would like to personally thank Ramya for giving this session. I would also like to say that I was impressed with the session and I think it was really beneficial.”

5.11 It is important to capture the impact of such services on the individual, whether they are the victim, perpetrator, or potential perpetrator.

* Name changed for confidentiality reasons

Outcome for service providers

S.A.R.I.’s 1:1 Sessions with Youth Offenders

5.12 An outcome for the Police and other public partners include a higher incidence of reporting of race crimes, due to the raised confidence that reporting will be taken seriously.

S.A.R.I. is excellent at recording the outcomes of everything it does. The quote below gives the view of the staff member who organised the session which was facilitated by S.A.R.I.’s education worker.

Milton Keynes Racial Equality Council’s Reporting Centres

Min Quan) and with perpetrators (as in the work S.A.R.I. does). Preventative work was also considered very important (much of this work is also highlighted under community cohesion activities). Much of the preventative work is undertaken with young people, as in the work in schools that is done by the Anne Frank Trust and S.A.R.I. which generates an understanding of the impact of racism on the victim. Tackling racist extremism, including the growth of far right politics and the growth of a form of militant political Islam was included in this priority, but tended not to be tackled directly with potential members of these groups. The 1990 Trusts represents a good example of work done with particular communities to disperse anger amongst Muslim youth who may fear a backlash from the far right.

Milton Keynes Racial Equality Council’s (MKREC) system of reporting centres is a definite success story. In the two years prior to the project (2004, 2005), the Racial Equality Council (REC) received only 34 and 43 incidents respectively. In 2006, with the receipt of the CC+ grant, this jumped up to 84, and in 2007, 90 cases were investigated by the REC. Due to this increase, the REC built a stronger relationship with Thames Valley Police and was able to ascertain that the low levels of reports going to the Police was due to lack of trust in the Police, partly due to their lack of detection of racist incidents. As a result a dedicated hate crime team was put in position temporarily, and whilst the team has disbanded, the coordinator is still in place and is a person with whom MKREC works very closely.

5.14 Projects such as S.A.R.I. keep careful records on the impact of programmes on individuals, but it is more difficult to record a measurable impact on hate crime statistics. MKREC, however, has been able to record a significant rise in the reporting of racial incidents since it started to implement its CC+ project.

Due to MKREC’s close working with the Police and other agencies across the City by acting as a Reporting Centre, people are encouraged to report incidents which would have previously gone unreported. The REC now has more of an accurate picture of what is going on across the City and can intercept where there are high levels of incidents. Conclusion 5.13 This was the least-addressed objective, prioritised by only four projects and two strategic partners, although some of the community cohesion activities would also be linked into tackling racism and extremism. Processes undertaken to tackle racism included working with both victims (as in the case of

6. COMMUNITY COHESION Introduction

UNITEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mediation project UNITE is a Middlesbrough-based project which received funding from CC+ for a development officer to promote the existing mediation project to BME communities in South Tyneside, Sunderland and Middlesbrough, and to recruit and train more BME volunteer mediators who receive accreditation through the Open College Network.

6.1 Projects and strategic partners delivering under this theme aim to tackle community cohesion by bringing together communities from different races and faiths, and promoting a shared sense of belonging. Projects and partners have promoted community cohesion by raising awareness of other cultures. Often linked with the fourth CC+ theme of tackling racism and extremism, some of the activities undertaken were about diffusing racial tensions which could, if they were escalated, lead to racial harassment and violence.

Conflicts and disputes can be about anti-social behaviour in neighbourhoods but sometimes they have a cultural under-tone to them, for example, late night parties being perceived as coming from one particular community. If these tensions are not nipped in the bud they can lead to tensions amongst different communities.

6.2 This chapter looks at how projects and strategic partners promoted community cohesion, and explores the impact they have on different communities as well as the emotional and mental health of individuals. It also looks at the impact on public services.

The service has received the Community Legal Services Quality Mark. As part of the mediation process, there is a written agreement which is written in the words of each party. The service is not there to sort out this agreement if it breaks down, but the idea is to leave each party with the skills to negotiate and the tools to communicate with each other.

Working to solve community tensions 6.3 Mediation can be one way to promote community cohesion as it is not so much about someone winning and someone losing, but about opening up a dialogue between individuals or communities. It is a win-win approach, aiming to create understanding from two different points of view. This is the skill that mediators have which can be difficult as most people with a dispute want a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;rightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; answer in their favour.

Outcomes: people learn coping skills which impacts on their emotional and mental health. The tools and practical solutions can reduce a number of potential violent situations, which should lead to fewer calls on police time and on other agencies such as registered social landlords. 37

they kept to themselves, by the end of the day they were mingling together.

6.4 Resolving tensions within a neighbourhood is an important part of the work of S.A.R.I.’s community cohesion project. The project uses positive local events to disperse community tensions, such as trips out to local parks. They also run a wellattended Community Leaders Forum which allow community leaders from different communities to network together and discuss concerns within different communities. Talking through particular issues allows people to see that certain incidents can be blown up into inter-community conflicts where whole communities are stereotyped, whereas they may just be one-off anti-social incidents.

Outcome: in the words of Alan Jones, Hillfields Area Housing Committee: “S.A.R.I’s work was invaluable in the area. Excellent. It has made such a difference. You got the communities to talk which was the main thing and things are much quieter now. Most of the Somali families are not happy to stay in the area. There are still the occasional incidents but not really of a racial nature. We are extremely happy with S.A.R.I’s work in Hillfields, and will be approaching you for any similar work in the future when the need arises.”

S.A.R.I. Noah’s Ark Day Trip Hillfields, an estate in Bristol, has an increasing number of Somali families being housed there and this has created tension with the white residents. There is an inter-agency group which includes public agencies and residents’ groups, but local residents found the group did not come up with practical solutions. There was a real problem that summer was coming up and Somali parents were afraid to go to the park with their children. S.A.R.I. suggested that safe walks to the park could be set up with a positive police and Police Community Support Officers (PCSO) presence and with a mixture of Somali and other local white residents walking together. This successful initiative resulted in the Somali community feeling safer and therefore being seen out and about enjoying themselves more with their children, and increased communication between Somali and other residents. In addition, a bus trip to a family farm park, Noah’s Ark, was organised with the help of Bristol City Council and the Area Housing Committee. Somali and white families went together, and if at first

Engaging new communities 6.5 Engaging new communities in a supportive environment can help to integrate them into UK society. A number of CC+ funded projects, such as NEWTEC, work with refugees and asylum seekers to help them integrate and access local services, and are reported under the Increasing Confidence in Public Services objective. The CSV Ipswich Media Clubhouse hosts a CC+ project and provides volunteering opportunities for members of new communities to try out media and technology such as digital photography and radio. The community cohesion aspect is best demonstrated through its Emerging Minority Community Events where potential community tensions can be avoided through discussion on responsibilities as well as entitlements. 38

CSV Ipswich Emerging Minority Community Events

Bringing communities together 6.6 One of the most common ways of promoting community cohesion is to bring communities together through cultural events. Festivals such as the Eid Festival organised by Somali women in the Hillfields area of Bristol gave non-Muslim families the opportunity to celebrate with Somali families. Cultural events also form a major part of CSV Ipswich programme. Although some events are one-off celebratory events such as music and dance festivals, other events involve bringing communities together to do practical things. For example, CSV Ipswich encouraged 20 volunteers from the Zimbabwe Community Association to take part in the Ipswich Rivers Cleanup. This was such a success that CSV Ipswich plans to encourage more diverse volunteers for the Greenways Conservation Group to volunteer throughout the year on environmental projects.

CSV Ipswich hosts regular communications events with different emerging communities. They were approached by Suffolk Constabulary to see if they could work in partnership to help them organise events where they could discuss sensitive issues in a nonthreatening way. The police wanted to talk about aspects of the law where it might be different in the home countries, such as driving, weapons and the age of consent. Different communities may commit offences in ignorance of the law, and this can lead to tensions with other communities. CSV ran the event with different communities, and did a certain amount of ground work with those communities to find out what they were interested in knowing about in terms of British society. The Polish and Portuguese communities were interested in work-related issues and thus CSV organised trade unionists and employment lawyers to speak at the event. The Kurdish people were interested in immigration and so the REC was invited, as well as a representative from Borders and Immigration. Opportunity was provided for attendees to talk privately with the speakers.

Multi agency forums 6.7 The work of multi-agency forums, where statutory and voluntary agencies get together to provide strategic direction to tackle a range of local issues, can be a vehicle for promoting community cohesion. Indeed, such forums can deliver all four of the CC+ objectives.

Outcomes: these events were so useful that Suffolk Constabulary asked them to organise more. Thus, CSV worked with the Keystone Trust (another CC+ funded group) in Brandon for East European communities.

Suffolk Multi-Agency Forum

UNITE expects that its mediation work will have a long-term impact on the emotional and mental health of its participants. Disputes can take their toll on peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s health resulting in stress, depression, and increased smoking and drinking. One woman who had been suffering with noise issues from her neighbour said that after the mediation she was able to sleep properly for the first time in two years. ? UNITE also cites the case of groups of Kurdish men who were gathering outside a barberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shop chatting. As it was a mainly Asian area, some Asian women were concerned that the Kurdish men were looking at them inappropriately. The mediation process got the two groups together to share concerns, and as a result there was a reduction of groups of men gathering in the street three months after the process. UNITE will also follow this up at the six-month point. ? S.A.R.I. and its partners report that BME communities feel safer and are more willing to stay in the area as a result of inter-community events. ?

The CC+ grant enables CSV Ipswich to take part in the Multi-Agency Forum for refugees and asylum seekers (which also included migrant workers) in Suffolk, which brings together a number of steering groups and agencies to produce and implement an action plan to integrate refugees and asylum seekers. Themes include immigration, financial exclusion, access to services, employment and community cohesion, safety and integration. Outcome: CSV Ipswich is part of this action, particularly with regard to community cohesion theme. The work led by Suffolk Constabulary, in partnership with CSV Ipswich, ensuring that migrant workers can access key legislative information is included in the action plan. Outputs 6.8 Outputs for BME individuals under this objective include number of individuals participating in programmes, volunteers recruited, qualifications gained, number of cases, events organised.

Outcomes for public agencies 6.10 Outcomes include the number of agencies engaged with, joint events held etc. but counting such things does no justice to the impact some of the activities and processes have on public agencies. This is because small projects on their own can only contribute to Local Strategic Partners (LSP) targets rather than having a large measurable numerical impact. However, the engagement of projects in service planning is one way of impacting on public agencies. For example, the Multi-Agency Forum on Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Suffolk had

Outcomes for BME individuals and communities 6.9 However, numbers do not highlight the life changes some of the interventions have had on real people. It is hard to measure the lasting impact on communities, but the following examples give some idea of impact:

6.13 Projects can cite individual experiences of participants in community cohesion programmes, which is important. Measuring impact on the local area is more difficult. Local authorities take community cohesion seriously and many have community cohesion working groups, involving a wide range of partners, such as in Ipswich. Local authorities may measure their performance against a community cohesion indicator, and indeed one of indicators of the Comprehensive Area Assessments, due to begin in April 2009, is “the percentage of people who believe people from different backgrounds get on well together in their local area.” It would be interesting to compare whether this percentage increases over time in areas where such community cohesion projects exist.

included some of the activities CSV Ipswich is undertaking. This is an indication of the seriousness with which local public agencies take the work and of their belief in its impact on community cohesion. S.A.R.I. cites that there is more police presence at ‘hot spots’, helping to diffuse racial tension. Conclusion 6.11 Ten projects concentrated on community cohesion work. An important part of this work was to reduce local community tensions. This can be done by working in a neighbourhood to solve particular community tensions and disputes (as in Unite’s mediation work), and/or to bring different communities together to go on trips, take part in festivals, or undertake voluntary work. Engaging and integrating new communities into British culture is also very important, and this objective overlaps to a great extent with projects, such as Newtec’s, which also aim to give new communities the confidence and knowledge to access mainstream services.

7. LEARNING THE LESSONS stable footing. One chief executive of a strategic partner organisation, for example, told us that they now spent all of their time on ensuring the organisation ran smoothly and efficiently, on funding issues, and on raising the profile of the organisation, rather than on â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;front-lineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; work. Another manager told us that the grant enabled them to do proactive and preventative work, rather than always to be responding to crises.

Introduction 7.1 This chapter summarises the key successes and challenges faced by both the projects and strategic partners. It also looks at how the grants impacted on the organisation in terms of learning. Finally, we make some comments about the sustainability of projects and strategic partners. Key successes 7.2 Internal success factors included the management of the grant itself which made for a better project; the dynamism of the CC+ workers and the support of the organisation in which they worked; and being able to improve organisational systems, a factor which was particularly appreciated by the strategic partners. ?

Being able to have funding for three years represented a chance to build up a project and for it to gain impact. Thus Islington Age Concernâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Open Access Project spent two years gathering evidence of the barriers faced by BME older people in accessing statutory services, and the third year will be spent on working with the Council, in particular to put changes in place. The strategic partners, in particular, valued the grant since it was often used as core funding and gave them some breathing space to put themselves on a more

We have recorded in Section 2 how the grants management process was much appreciated by most of our respondents, as it had helped organisations run their projects efficiently and effectively.

The flexibility of the grant was mentioned by many of the respondents. They were in control of their own achievements, setting their own milestones, outputs and outcomes at the beginning of the year, in conjunction with the grants managers. It was pointed out that this process was flexible in that if the situation changed they could discuss this with the grants managers, and re-profile their outputs. Project managers felt that the fact that outcomes could be set by themselves, within the general four themes of the programme, was another good example of the flexibility of the grant. There is a funding trend where funders have rigid output-driven regimes, which have more to do with numbers of people and activities, regardless

only did this increase the number of registrations, but it was also cost effective as less staff time was involved than doing this process manually.

of the quality of the outcome. ?

The point was also made that the way the grant was planned made for good business planning. Both the application process and the way in which the grant is monitored ensured that the project had a good fit with the whole organisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s objectives, and that it actually achieved its own objectives.

The dynamism of the workers was one of the most often quoted success factor. The THT which had a traineeship programme, commented that the trainees have been instrumental in making the programme a success, and that they are future leaders in this field.

The support of the organisation which hosted the project was cited in few cases. For example, one project worker in a nonBME led organisation said that the organisation had already built up links with local BME groups and she was able to tap into these.

Many of the project workers attributed the success of the project to the fact that the grant had enabled them to improve their organisational systems in a number of ways from improved supervision procedures to a full governance review to comply with the Good Governance Code. Some of the strategic partners in particular had been able to improve their websites which gave them a higher profile. PATHâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new website allowed potential trainees to register online and then they would automatically receive an email alert when a suitable traineeship came up that matched their profile. Not

7.3 External success factors included:

The timing of the work was beneficial as it coincided with government policy on integration and cohesion. Furthermore, service providers now understand that they must collect equalities data to prove their services are reaching all communities, and where they are not they recognise the role of the voluntary and community organisations in helping them reach marginalised communities.

The relationship with partner organisations was cited as a success factor (although it could also be a challenge) with the Anne Frank Trust citing the cooperation with schools as a positive benefit, and the THT citing the positive attitude of the partner organisations that hosted its trainees as a success factor. We further discuss the role of networking in Section 7.4.

The opportunity to participate in multi-agency working contributed to the success of some projects since they were able to influence public agencies by their participation. For example, CSV Ipswich was able to engage strategically on the New and Emerging Communities multi-agency group and its activities were included in the strategy.

South Leeds Health for All

The Runnymede Trust cited the fact that the grant had enabled them to raise the profile of their work with other organisations such as Channel 4.

The CC+ project at South Leeds Health for All (SLHFA) provides capacity building support and coordination to existing women’s learning groups serving the South Asian, gypsy and traveller, and asylum seeker and refugee communities in South Leeds. The support assists the groups to reach self-sufficiency and sustainability. The organisation is particularly good at networking with a wide range of strategic organisations, including Leeds City Council, Yorkshire Forward, the Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber, the Joseph Priestly College, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

The buy-in from government departments, local authorities and the community was particularly important for the work of OBV which would not have succeeded in its outcomes had it not been for that participation. Min Quan also cited the support from their CLG lead, particularly in publicising seminars and campaigns on racial harassment of the Chinese community within the CLG. However, in general, the lack of being able to influence local and central government policy has been more of a challenge for projects/partners than a success factor.

Outreach, although resource intensive is very effective, and contributes to the success of projects. Being out in the community and talking face to face not only attracts people to use the project, but also serves to raise the profile of the work in the community.

The satisfaction of users is a motivating force for all front-line organisations.

Outcomes from the networking include year-on-year funding to support groups from Leeds Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and ESOL provision from Joseph Priestly College through the ASPIRE programme when all organisations in Leeds had been informed that ESOL provision was embargoed. The Sikh elders group supported by SLHFA were invited to participate in a children’s multi-cultural play at West Yorkshire Playhouse, and the Bangladeshi Women’s group were invited to share their views in a focus group session with a European Commissioner who was working with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Networking

Key challenges

7.4 Networking is a particularly important factor for the success of organisations since it raises their profile with policy makers and potential funders.

7.5 There were a number of internal challenges faced by the projects and partners.

Projects ?

Projects mentioned a number of challenges typical of small organisations. Unsuitable premises came up a number of times, but it was difficult to look into a move or refurbishment because of the uncertainty of the funding environment. The grants managers said that some smaller and/or newer projects needed quite a lot of support on internal issues such as recruitment, employment and the role of the Board. Furthermore, some needed help with basic project management. Grants managers felt that organisations sometimes left a new project and a new worker to their own devices instead of managing them as part of the whole organisation. The grants managers, thus, had a great deal of basic capacity building as part of their role. Some project workers found it difficult to say â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;noâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and were victims of their own success. Thus the Centre for Classical Indian Dance (CCID) in Leicester, which works with secondary schools using music and dance as a mechanism for young people to explore their own and othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; cultures, originally planned to work with four different schools a year for three years, but in the second year has continued to work with the original four as well as an additional four. The demand for the service is extremely high amongst the schools but they do not have the budget to pay for it. This project has exceeded its targets by 2000, two years into the grant. However, this represents a considerable challenge in terms of keeping up with paperwork and getting the monitoring returns done in time.

Projects mentioned that recruitment of new staff of the right calibre was a problem, which meant that their outputs had to be readjusted in the first year.

Managing the projects within existing organisations was not without its challenges. Some found that the projects were isolated within their organisations. This meant that the project might have minimal impact and that the lessons learned might not be taken on board within the organisation. On the other hand, some projects found they were so well integrated within the organisation that it was sometimes difficult to differentiate which were the project outputs.

Project workers found impact hard to measure. Sometimes impact, for example, in health, would only be felt after many years. However, NEWTEC, for example, was beginning to think about how to track the progress of its learners after they left the project. The workshops on impact that were held by A4e were felt to be extremely helpful, and project workers were beginning to redefine their outcomes in a way that actually said something about the impact of the project.

Partners ?

One of the main aims of the grants to strategic partners was to allow them to scale up their existing activities with the aim of both expanding their business and putting them on a firmer footing. This allowed some of the strategic partners to fund core posts, and to transfer front-line work to other workers, thus stabilising the organisation. Although this was

7.6 Projects and strategic partners faced external challenges and it was difficult in some cases to find a solution.

appreciated, strategic projects said there was some risk in scaling up as it could be costly and the benefits were not certain. Capacity was sometimes a problem and it was hard to meet defined outputs in the first year. In retrospect, the strategic partners felt they should have been more realistic in the first year to allow both expenditure and outputs to be lower, leaving the second and third years to be funded at a higher level. ?

Projects

There is also an issue about how to measure the impact of core funding on the organisation, and how far this contributes to the aims of the IOSS strategy. For example, how far does the release of a chief officer, or finance officer allow the organisation to expand? Has that meant more policy and research work was done, or an expansion of operation to other geographical areas? Or has it meant that the organisation can simply become better or more efficient at what it is doing, as in the example of several better websites being created as a result of the grant? For some partners, this was easy to measure, for example, Min Quan and PATH expanded into different areas of the country. However, for others it was harder to measure and it was difficult to distinguish what activities would have been done regardless of CC+ funding. Recommendation 7 in Section 8 addresses this issue. There are only three monitoring meetings a year and when staff left REDD â&#x20AC;&#x201C; there was a break in continuity as the relationship needed to be built up over several meetings.

The CC+ programme recognises that voluntary and community groups are well placed to reach out to BME individuals, and this is in general true. However, it was pointed out that even community groups found it difficult to reach people who might be isolated within their homes and not attending any neighbourhood venues. Outreach was a particularly important way to reach people and includes knocking on doors or visiting neighbourhood cafĂŠs.

Changing circumstances in the environment left some projects in great difficulty. There were at least two examples where the local council had set up its own services in house (for example, a service giving advice to migrants) and the CC+ projects could not compete. In these cases the outputs had to be re-profiled and other services offered.

Changing the public sector mindset was possibly the greatest challenge, and this is an important point since many of the projects do not work in isolation and need to work together with the public sector to gain the greatest impact. For example, one project working with young people at risk of offending said that the statutory sector did not always understand how the project could be helping their client group through, for example, joint referrals. Projects tackling racism found the lack of response by statutory agencies, including the

within the Government for sharing contacts and knowledge about what the BME voluntary sector is doing, and that this is a missed opportunity. However, there are two opportunities that exist for the partners to influence government:

Police, particularly difficult when they needed a response for their clients. A number of projects that work with gypsy travellers have faced stiff resistance, not only from local communities, but also with public agencies. For example, one organisation that undertakes case work on racial harassment experienced by gypsy travellers found that the Housing Department rarely responds to their correspondence, and currently has four protracted cases where the Council has allowed families to be continually racially abused. On the other hand, there are good examples of public agencies taking heed of the CC+ funded projects and partners (see previous sections on outcomes for public agencies).

Strategic partners meet together twice a year. These meetings used to be internally focused, with two strategic partners presenting their work to the others. However, partners wanted the meetings to be more structured and to link in with current policy development; this has now started to happen. Information about the consultation on the CLG’s Cohesion Guidance for Funders – guidance on how funders supporting community-level activity can promote cohesion and integration – was circulated to all partners and they were offered the opportunity to have a meeting with the person leading on the consultation from the Cohesion and Faith Division.

Another opportunity to influence government could be to link more with the Race Strategy Board, a crossdepartmental group consisting of key civil servants and facilitated by REDD, whose remit is to discuss how government policy can impact on race equality. A4e attended a board meeting to discuss the role of the strategic partners (and indeed the projects) and how they could link more with Whitehall. Members of the Board were interested in making such links, for example, if they had a particular item on the agenda which could be informed by the work of the strategic partners they could ask for a presentation. They could also use both partners and projects as case

Partners ?

A challenge for the strategic partners was in trying to influence central government. All partners interviewed were keen to have more influence. One organisation said that it opened doors to other public agencies if it was known that they were strategic partners with the Government. However, that said they added: “It opens the door but doesn’t allow you to change policy.” Some of the more research-oriented partners wanted to know how best to influence particular departments. They felt that their lead officers in the CLG were helpful, but that they wanted them to be more proactive in linking with relevant central government departments. One organisation pointed out that the Government knew how to respond to commissioned research because they own the work, but were unsure how to respond to non-commissioned research. Partners felt that there was no real mechanism

impacts on everyone’s work and the quality of service delivered by all staff, as the knowledge of different cultural aspects is shared by all. As with the strategic partners, a few organisations felt that the grant funding had given them extra capacity to do more strategic activities such as go to strategic meetings and to respond to the consultation processes of statutory agencies. A few noted that the grant monitoring process had enabled them to focus on creating and updating relevant organisational policies, which has had a lasting benefit for the organisation: “It has helped us professionalise the organisation. There have been significant changes in governance and management of the organisation.” All these aspects will help the organisations to be more stable and thus more sustainable.

study examples of work done in the voluntary and community sector to illustrate policy documents. Internal impact and sustainability 7.8 Strategic partners, in particular, have found that the CC+ grant has improved their organisation’s sustainability. Part of the purpose of the grant was to put these national strategic BMEled organisations on a more secure footing. The Runnymede Trust believed the grant had very much helped them with core costs since they had been able to recruit good policy and research staff, leaving the director free to plan the strategic direction of the organisation. It has been able to do more fundraising and bring in more projects work which has also contributed to core costs through full cost recovery contributions. PATH has used the grant to expand into the Midlands and the North of England, thus getting more of a national coverage and this will fit well with the recent merger with Novas and the Scarman Trust, both national organisations. Other strategic partners are already starting to draft funding strategies for the future.

7.10 However, in spite of the considerable impact of the grant, many of the organisations hosting CC+ projects had barely started thinking about financial sustainability. When asked what their intentions for the third year were, most said they would just continue as they had for the past few years, whereas we feel they ought to be thinking about reflecting on the results and how the project fits in with the overall strategy of the organisation with an eye to the future. Some organisations were thinking of sustainability. CSV, with the help of the grants manager, had successfully applied for European Integration Fund money; Arachne had taken up a suggestion by the grants manager and had called all their current funders together to discuss the funders’ priorities so they would be able to tailor their services more effectively. However, too many organisations were not thinking about the strategic fit of the

7.9 Organisations hosting local CC+ projects gave examples of how the grant had enabled them to try things out and to learn from the experience. Generic organisations, in particular, said that the organisation was now more aware of how to take a greater inclusive approach, and would now mainstream this approach, regardless of whether they managed to obtain further funding to keep the project as it is. Thus SWA now has more BME staff, including six Muslim women. It believes this

project within the organisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strategic plan and fundraising strategy, giving the impression that some projects were rather isolated within the organisation. Conclusion 7.11 In conclusion, we found that the grant had helped organisations increase capacity and to streamline some of their procedures. For some, it has helped them to raise their profile, especially for those organisations that used the grant to network with public agencies and funders. However, a key challenge for projects is changing the mindset of the public agencies, particularly to encourage them to work jointly with voluntary and community organisations to gain the greatest impact. This has, in certain cases, been an inhibiting factor, in spite of an awareness by central government that the two sectors can add value by working together. In particular, the strategic partners would like a clearer mechanism to influence appropriate central government departments, as was the intention of the grant. 7.12 Strategic partners have found that the grant was invaluable in making them more sustainable, in that it has enabled them to obtain a higher profile and to free up management time to submit future funding applications. The picture is very mixed for projects and many had not started to think about sustainability in the future. This needs to be a priority in year three if the impact is to continue.

8. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Although specifically targeting BME communities, it also addressed other equality strands.

Introduction 8.1 This chapter summarises the impact of the grant and recommends:

8.3 Projects delivered under all four objectives, although under Objective A (improving access and outcomes) none prioritised delivery of the criminal justice system as a main priority, although some have done this in a general way (for example, by giving legal advice along with other information and advice). Strategic partners delivered under three of the objectives, but none prioritised Objective D (community cohesion) as a main priority, although The 1990 Trust and the Runnymede Trust did deliver outcomes under this objective, along with the other themes (see Chapter 6). Between them, therefore, all objectives were covered.

how the management and monitoring process could be improved ? how sustainability should be tackled ? what could be done to help projects and partners record their overall impact of their work to enhance the final evaluation ? how CLG could help the strategic partners influence central government policy ? what might be the future of the grant ?

Impact of the grant 8.4 As both projects and partners had very different definitions of outcomes according to the activities chosen to meet delivery of the objectives; it is not appropriate to measure things in a quantitative way. The CC+ grant is not meant to be a national programme delivering the same product to all who qualify for access onto that programme. For example, the DWP is able to measure the impact of New Deal on BME participants because it is a national programme delivered in the same way across the country with the same outcomes.

8.2 The CC+ programme has enabled projects to make a real difference at a local level. The grant is not tightly defined to a specific outcome, as are many grant programmes. This enables organisations to specify a project that fits with both the IOSS strategy and with their mission, so they are not creating projects that â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;follow the fundingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. The CC+ programme has funded a broad range of activities that benefit BME communities. However, the grant has benefited BME communities who have complex needs: BME women suffering domestic violence, BME disabled people, older BME people.

the grant management process itself helped them put better procedures in place, which should help towards sustainability. Some projects appeared to act in isolation within the larger organisation. The third year will be an important one to ensure, through the management process, that organisations themselves take a hard look at how they might mainstream the approach taken by projects, and/or how the projects might be sustained in the future. A further outcome would be to record how far service providers have been able to take on the particular approach, whether that is to commission external providers or to take it in house.

8.5 Instead, the projects/partners were meant to be demonstration projects using their own particular approaches to achieving broad outcomes under the four objectives. This evaluation has therefore concentrated on a qualitative impact analysis, looking at how grant recipients have had an impact: a) on individual BME users, b) statutory service providers, and c) central government. Internally, it was also important to look at the impact on the grant on the organisation itself and on the sustainability of the work. These aspects have all been covered in the body of this report but are summarised very briefly below: ?

Impact on individuals has been demonstrated by case studies and examples, but one of the main points to come out of the evaluation was the importance of tracking individuals beyond their stay in the project.

Improving management and monitoring 8.6 There are some basic improvements that could be made to the management and monitoring of both projects and strategic partners.

There was some good practice demonstrated in terms of impact on service providers, but also some challenges where service providers did not appear to use some of the approaches taken by the projects to their own advantage.

Recommendation 1: A4e should improve the monitoring system by:

Impact on government policy was difficult to prove and this remains a challenge, particularly in respect of the strategic partners.

putting in place the minor suggestions made in Chapter 2 encouraging grant recipients to select the most appropriate objectives they are delivering under, and to record outputs and outcomes under those; there should be no duplication of outputs and outcomes ? providing written feedback to grant recipients within two weeks of the quarterly monitoring meetings ? establishing an early warning system for projects and partners that are not attaining their planned outputs and outcomes. ? ?

Impact on organisations was, in the case of the strategic partners, considerable, allowing them both some degree of stability and to scale up their work. This should contribute to sustainability for these national organisations. The impact on projects was variable, although some of the smaller ones said

Recommendation 3: as part of the final evaluation a framework should be designed to capture how best to feed in outcomes from a varied set of activities into the final evaluation. Outcomes should include both impact on BME individuals and on public agencies.

A4e, together with the organisation, should compile an action plan with activities and timescales to be undertaken to get back on track, and should act in a supportive role to help the organisation meet those timescales. Sustainability

Projects and partners should be encouraged by the grants managers to collect rigorous information on individual user satisfaction to be used in the final evaluation ? They should also be encouraged to record examples of impact on public agencies, demonstrating not only what has been done, but what has actually changed. Public agencies should be asked what impact it has made on the way they do things now and in the future. ?

8.7 Sustainability will be an issue in this third and final year, for projects and partners alike. The grants managers have a key role to play in this respect. Recommendation 2: A4e should help with funding contacts, references and applications to sustain the work. For projects, they should also be helping the organisation mainstream the approach the projects have taken within the organisation so that the lessons are learned within the whole organisation.

Enhancing the policy influence of strategic partners 8.9 Strategic partners in particular wanted to influence central government policy through contact and discussion with appropriate departments. They also wanted a better mechanism to disseminate and make their work more influential. REDD is keen to help strategic partners to create a better profile within Whitehall.

Evaluating impact 8.8 The managing agents A4e have been discussing how projects in particular, can record their outcomes in a way that reflects their real achievements. Many outcomes previously recorded are quite similar to outputs, while for others the impact has been hard to prove. The workshop on outcomes was very important in this respect and projects have really taken this on board. Now is the time to think about how these outcomes can be fed into the final evaluation.

Recommendation 4: the policy lead officers in REDD should undertake a strategic review of how they should engage the strategic partners in a policy role, and help to increase the capacity of strategic partners to do so. In undertaking such a review it is recommended:

The future of the grant

The REDD policy leads should hold a discussion, together with A4e, with each of the strategic partners to explore how the partnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work best links with government objectives and policy, and how they might provide an influential voice.

REDD should take an advocacy role on behalf of the strategic partners. It should make links with particular policy officers in the relevant government departments so that the latter would be informed on a regular basis of particularly good approaches and research findings to inform the work of their department.

REDD should make a more formal link with the Race Strategy Board to provide the opportunity for strategic partners to inform the Board of their work. For example, if there were an item on the Board agenda that REDD felt could be informed by one or more of the partners, they could invite them to engage in a discussion on the item.

8.11 Local projects have had, in the main, a good local impact, and the grant has been, in some cases, crucial to the survival of small BME-led projects who might otherwise have struggled in a difficult funding environment. CLG will have to explore its other commitments before thinking about another CC+ round. However, the grant has been valued because it has allowed projects great flexibility in thinking of their own approach to meeting the aims of the IOSS strategy. This has allowed for great creativity at the same time as meeting unmet demand. Recommendation 6: we recommend that a further three-year round of project funding continues. However, we also recommend that projects should tie their work in more with local service providers. This could be done by asking a specific question on the application form about what knowledge the organisation has about local policy/strategic groups (e.g. health and social care networks, equality networks, the LSP etc), and how the projects will be informed by the work of these groups/networks.

Feeding in the work of projects 8.10 Some of the more strategic projects have policy lessons for the Government and provide good case studies. These need to be captured and used to spread good practice.

8.12 Strategic partners have used the grant to scale up their work and extend their coverage either geographically or by theme. It has also helped enormously by enabling the organisations to improve their websites or to free up management time to undertake more effective management which should have an impact on both productivity and sustainability. We feel this strand of CC+ has been very effective, enabling BME national organisations to stabilise.

Recommendation 5: when linking with government departments to raise the profile of the work of the strategic partners, the lead policy officers should also link in the work of those projects which exemplify particularly effective practice in meeting the objectives of the IOSS strategy.

Recommendation 7: we recommend that a further three-year round of strategic partner funding continues, but that a better mechanism for sharing the work with the appropriate government departments is put in place. The grant could cover some core costs (rather than activities) for strategic partners and the partners should be required to contribute to government policy: for example, x number of round table discussions, x number of responses to consultations, x number of presentations at government conferences, x number of strategic reports. They should also be required to report precisely on what the core costs have covered and the benefits of these: for example updating the website which has resulted in a particular benefit, contributed to fund-raising which has brought in x amount of funding.

Appendix 1: Strategic Partners

Strategic Partners Black Health Agency

Activity BHA is a charity dedicated to improving the lives and changing the futures of people from BME and other marginalised communities. It provides a number of unique services specifically for Black African, Caribbean, South Asian, South East Asian and East European people, enabling them to improve their health and well-being. For more information go to: www.blackhealthagency.org.uk

Black Training and Enterprise Group

£485,743 CC+ funding has been used to set up the Centre for Educational Success to raise the attainment of BME groups, in particular, children and young people from black African, black Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. BTEG does this by developing partnerships with schools, local authorities, community education providers and national organisations; providing training and training materials; carrying out research to inform local and national policies; involving parents/carers, children and young people, teachers and other stakeholders; holding national and regional events such as conferences and seminars to bring together stakeholders; advising government departments and national bodies on policy issues. For more information go to: www.bteg.co.uk

Housing Association Charitable Trusts

£120,000 The hact pioneers housing solutions for people on the margins. It prioritises work with older people, people with support needs, refugees and new migrants, and people living in poverty. It identifies and maps emerging issues, tests and share solutions and learning to inspire change in policy and practice. Every project hact develops, tests or promote, supports independent living and/or realises vibrant and inclusive neighbourhoods. For more information go to: www.hact.co.uk

The Monitoring Group – Min Quan Project

£438,517 TMG provides casework, advocacy and support services to victims of hate crime. Its Min Quan project provides these services to victims of racial and domestic violence from the Chinese community. The work includes representation and advocacy, training, information dissemination, a helpline, open surgeries and actions against the Police for misconduct. CC+ funding has enabled the project to expand its service nationwide and now has offices in London, the North West and South West of England. TMG’s helpline number is 0800 374 618. For more information go to: www.monitoring-group.co.uk 56

Grant 2006–2009 £426,962

Strategic Partners National Black Boys Can Association (Theos Hodos Ltd)

Activity The National Black Boys Can Association aims to provide black boys between the ages of 9–16, with educational opportunities, valuable life skills and the self-esteem, confidence and determination to succeed, and to raise their academic aspirations and achievements to their full potential. The Association aims to break the vicious cycle of underachievement, unemployment, crime and imprisonment. This is achieved by: providing an effective personal development plan which is appropriate to the particular needs of black boys in their own local communities; upskilling parents to enable them to provide effective support for their children; empowering local communities to run their own ‘Black Boys Can’ projects; working in partnership with mainstream education; influencing policy for underachieving black boys; and providing a relevant service to other key stakeholders.

Grant 2006–2009 £392,500

CC+ funding is being used to support its ‘Community Franchise Programme’ which enables the Association to replicate its activities across the country. For more information go to: www.blackboyscan.co.uk 1990 Trust (The)

The organisation aims to bring different grass-root groups together to increase their capacity to improve racial harmony, to discuss and resolve mutual interests in their communities and to share information. This includes working in partnership with the public and statutory sector, and support leaders to create a platform for cohesive communities. Central to this is the theme of economic equality and empowerment. For further information go to: www.the1990trust.org.uk

£450,035

Operation Black Vote

Working on a local, regional, national and international level, OBV aims to ensure that BME communities are afforded equality of opportunity to play a full and positive role in civic society, and are equitably represented in all areas and at all levels within the decision-making institutions. Its activities includes the MP, Magistrates, Councillor, Commissioner and Welsh Assembly Shadowing Schemes to address the under-representation of BME communities within political and civic life. The schemes are helping to change the face of civic and political society with many graduates becoming Councillors, magistrates and school governors, and have won a number of awards, including most recently the Channel 4 Political Awards for the Welsh Assembly Scheme. For more information go to: www.obv.org.uk

£448,510

Strategic Partners PATH National

Activity PATH is a skills development agency which aims to increase diversity within the workforce; eradicate barriers to employment; and address the under-representation of BME individuals in a range of professions. This is achieved through a range of training interventions – in particular, PATH work with a range of public sector employers to establish traineeships that allow people from BME communities to become a part of the workforce, gain work-based experience and study a related professional or academic qualification. PATH has a head office in London. The CC+ funding has enabled PATH to establish a new office base in Birmingham to develop and extend its services into the Midlands and the north of England. For more information go to: www.pathuk.co.uk

Grant 2006–2009 £279,917

Race Equality Foundation

REF aims to improve health and housing services for BME. It does this by gathering and disseminating evidence of what works in promoting race equality through a series of ‘Better Health and Better Housing’ briefing papers, which are practice-focused documents that bring together the latest research and other evidence outlining practice implications and examples of what might work. It also runs a programme of conferences, seminars and workshops to help embed the evidence, promote good race equality practice and encourage and facilitate change.

£449,777

REF’s programme is aimed at front-line staff and managers in health, social housing and social care in the statutory and the voluntary sectors. Integral to this is the engagement of service users in all aspects of its work as well as partnerships with BME voluntary and community organisations. For more information go to: www.reu.org.uk

Strategic Partners Runnymede Trust (The)

Activity The Runnymede Trust is an independent action research and social policy charity focused on equality and justice. Runnymede’s core mandate is to challenge racial discrimination, influence anti-racist legislation, and to promote the inclusion of BME people and communities in all areas of life in Britain and the rest of Europe. It does this by providing information, research and advice to promote “a society where citizens and communities feel valued, enjoy equal opportunities to develop their talents, lead fulfilling lives and accept collective responsibility, all in the spirit of civic friendship, shared identity and a common sense of belonging” (from the Runnymede report on The Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain).

Grant 2006–2009 £360,539

Runnymede acts as a bridge builder between various minority ethnic communities and policymakers – in both the public and the private sector – bringing them together in workshops, seminars and conferences, and thereby stimulating debate and promoting forward-looking strategies in areas such as education, employment, criminal justice and citizenship. For more information go to: www.runnymedetrust.org Windsor Fellowship

WF is national educational charity that runs personal development and training programmes that enable talent from diverse communities to be realised. WF works in partnership with leading organisations from the private, public and voluntary sectors to develop relationships with schools, universities and community groups throughout the UK. The WF’s fundamental values are: diversity, excellence, community, integrity and leadership. The aim is to ensure that the brightest and best can become leaders irrespective of colour or creed by facilitating excellence in education, employment and citizenship CC+ funding is being used to scale up their work with students approaching their GCSEs by expanding geographically to the five cities with the highest concentration of BME young people. For more information go to: www.windsor-fellowship.org

£454,316

Appendix 2: Projects Funded

Projects Funded African Child (The) London, NW10

Activity The African Child delivers a wide range of services aimed at overcoming barriers, particularly related to health and empowerment of BME families and young people. This partnership focuses on addressing health inequalities and educational needs of children and young people from BME families. It has created a range of supplementary programming within local schools and community centres, and is working with professionals and parents on a range of intervention and support measures.

Angelou Centre (The) This is a research and development project that was established to identify cultural and institutional Newcastle upon Tyne, barriers regarding recruitment and employment faced by young BME women. The project, through North East regular and on-going contact with women, helps to inform them of the support, services and opportunities that are available to help them achieve their career aspirations. Importantly, the project also focuses on the barriers faced within their own families and communities. As a key on-going priority, the project has ensured that the voices of diverse ethnic communities are reflected in the data collected and the impending report/recommendations to be published.

Grant 2006–2009 £129,954

£108,775

Anne Frank Trust UK (The) London, NW5

£169,161 The Anne Frank Trust aims to educate the community about the dangers of prejudice and discrimination, and empower people to challenge discrimination through exhibitions and work in prisons using the story of Anne Frank. This project has, to date, delivered a broad range of education and community programmes across inner and West London boroughs that have high BME populations. It has also been working on innovative programmes within the prison and rehabilitation networks in London and nationally.

A Sporting Chance Birmingham, West Midlands

Working closely with local schools and community police officers, this project provides structured holiday and after-school sporting activities to promote healthy lifestyles amongst children and young people, and divert them from crime, and promote social cohesion. It also provides volunteering opportunities, work placements and opportunities for young people to become qualified coaches in various sporting fields.

£168,023

Projects Funded Adfam London, SE1

Activity This project works to support the Somali community. CC+ funding has been used to employ a bilingual Somali-speaking development worker to identify needs of Somali families across London who are affected by alcohol and drug abuse, or are in contact with the criminal justice system. It also provides training to other professionals to work within these communities.

Grant 2006–2009 £144,412

Arachne Greek Cypriot Women’s Group, London, N7

CC+ funding has enabled the sustainability of the existing Community Development Manager (CDM) who manages and coordinates a range of services to Greek Cypriot women and their families, such as information and advice, training courses and holiday play schemes.

£169,858

Ash-Shifa Trust Banbury, South East

The project aims to raise the educational achievements of BME groups, through social education and recreational activities. It also provides a free interfaith consultancy to local schools and statutory bodies.

£170,755

Baseline Southampton, South East

Baseline provides a homework club for young people from the Somali community. To promote community cohesion it organises 5-a-side football leagues, multi-racial trips and events, and provides outreach support to encourage involvement from young people from the recently settled Eastern European community.

£102,752

Black Families Education Support Group Bath, South West

The project provides a comprehensive education programme consisting of: out-of-school learning for 5–16 year olds; widening participation and work experience programmes; a weekly supplementary school; and mentoring scheme. All activities are primarily aimed at raising attainment, aspirations and opportunities in education and employment for young people from the BME community.

£90,868

Bradford Community Broadcasting Bradford, Yorkshire & The Humber

BCB is a community-based radio station that acts as a driver for community cohesion and cultural expression. The radio station offers a range of services including, encouragement, support and training of volunteers; development of specialist refugee and asylum seeker programmes and a youth radio project and work with community elders to share their heritage. The project provides a much needed voice for under-represented BME groups and provides a safe space to encourage dialogue on sensitive City of Bradford issues.

£218,339

Projects Funded Bromley-by-Bow Centre London, E3

Activity Grant 2006–2009 £189,000 The Bromley-by-Bow Centre is a voluntary organisation that promotes regeneration and social integration predominantly (although not exclusively) working with BME groups. This project continues to improve young people and adults’ health by delivering the third year of its sports and health programme at its centre. It delivers taster sessions and more formal specialist coaching, as well as having created 3 part-time jobs for young people as Local Community Health Leaders.

Centre for Equality This project provides for the funding of the salaries of a project development officer, administrative & Diversity support and associated costs to provide Information Advice and Guidance (IAG) on employment. Dudley, West Midlands CfED also provides personal development courses and other training to enable people to be more effective in their jobs and chosen careers.

£155,776

Centre for Indian Classical Dance (CICD) Leicester, East Midlands

CICD works with young people in schools and organised community settings using Indian dance as a mechanism for young people to be encouraged to share and accept each others cultures. Working with up to 12 primary schools at a time, and in at least 4 individual community settings, tutors provide dance workshops that are open to all young people. These workshops culminate each year in a number of small participant performances followed by an Annual Showcase held in March, where all participants are brought together to perform in front of an audience of more than 300 people.

£197,648

ContinYou London, N7

CC+ funds a field worker who works with secondary and primary schools and with extended school programmes to research into the impact supplementary schools has on mainstream performance. The projects also provides anti-racism and anti-discrimination activities which help to develop learning and teaching tools and communication protocols, broker inclusion, and facilitate collaboration opportunities.

£179,509

Core Arts Ltd London, E9

CC+ funding is enabling Core Arts to create a new Social Enterprise, namely, ‘Core Music Productions’ that develops artistic performance and collaboration via gigs,, workshops, mass events and through the web. The initiative is developed and managed by service users.

£105,000

Projects Funded CREST South Shields, North East

Activity Grant 2006–2009 £206,881 The primary aim of this project is to raise cultural awareness within communities. This is achieved through a number of individual themes including provision of a men’s project that increases access to health services for BME men. In addition, the project supports South Tyneside Homes which is the Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO) set up in place of South Tyneside Councils Housing Department, to communicate appropriately with BME communities on matters such as tenancy agreements, allocations policies and lettings policies. A residents association is also supported by the project. A further priority of the project is to raise parental understanding of the UK education system in BME communities.

CSV Media Clubhouse This project works with BME communities to promote learning and volunteering opportunities in a Ipswich, East supportive environment, and celebrates the economic and cultural benefits refugees bring to the UK. of England

£169,946

Derby Racial Equality Council Derby, East Midlands

£127,322 Derby REC is funded to run a secondary schools diversionary project which provides a programme of activities diverting young people away from unacceptable behaviour. Through its ‘Adopt a Country’ competition, young people are encouraged to share each other’s cultures and learn how to work together to find multi-racial and multi-faith solutions, at a local level. A number of schools are involved in the competition. Local people are recruited and trained as workshop leaders who then facilitate this process. At present, there are workshop leaders from the West Indies, Pakistan and India. Adoption processes currently underway include Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ethiopia and Cameroon.

Doncaster CVS Doncaster, Yorkshire & The Humber

This project is in the process of establishing a Gypsy and Traveller Forum to assist the existing Gypsy and Traveller Strategy Group in Doncaster, in ensuring that the gypsy and traveller community have a strong and representative voice on issues that affect their lives and to develop access to appropriate services and advice. In the long term, the project will assist in the establishment of a Gypsy and Traveller Resource Centre, for which premises have now been identified. The team employed on this project have, to date, consulted with numerous gypsy and traveller communities and have provided advice and signposting on issues such as health, education, benefits and welfare rights, housing/sites and racist incidents.

£118,111

Projects Funded East Potential London, E15

Activity This project is working in two main areas: a programme of motivational work with young men from BME communities to raise levels of achievement and engagement; and the development, piloting and roll out of a new Challenging Anti-Racism Life skills programme.

Grant 2006–2009 £165,738

Everyman Theatre Cheltenham, South West

This project targets 3 schools, containing significant numbers of BME children, in Gloucester and facilitates workshops with 60 children from each school who then create and performs a play on stage at the Everyman Theatre.

£34,189 (one year funding)

Family Welfare Association London, E3

The FWA undertakes research and provides a range of services and grants for individuals and families in need. Amongst these services is ‘WellFamily’ that works with Vietnamese, Turkish, and Kurdish communities. CC+ funding has enabled the organisation to extend its work to Somali and Congolese families.

£159,573

£108,375 First Step North East This award-winning project delivers accredited learning in subjects including ICT, childcare, Newcastle upon Tyne, adult learners support, Numeracy (at differing levels) and languages. The project also facilitates North East volunteering opportunities, along with provision of advice and guidance throughout to assist its clients develop plans for their futures. The pre-employment support aspect of this project has proved to be very successful with numerous women going on to secure meaningful employment. An important element of access to employment for BME women delivered by the project has been built on the successful autobiographical methodology developed by Sheffield Hallam University. Fitzrovia Youth in Action London, W1

FYA works with young people in central London providing sporting and other activities to improve community relations. CC+ funding has enabled the organisation to develop a previously annual sporting event into one that runs throughout the year, culminating in the annual FA cup tournament. Funding also resources a series of preparation workshops in conflict management.

Foleshill Women’s This project aims to support BME women and particularly Bangladeshi and Pakistani women into Training Ltd, Coventry, training and employment. West Midlands

£186,988

£190,133

Projects Funded Groundwork Bury Bury, North West

Activity This project aims to bring together different race and faith groups through activities that help build their capacity to take part in local neighbourhood regeneration, and through such activities enhance community cohesion. The communities are nurtured and encouraged to work on activities such as green-space environmental projects including Castle Croft and St Marys ‘Green-Flag’ park improvements. In addition, the project provides community cohesion events where race and faith is celebrated and shared. The project also provides training such as ESOL, Every Action Counts and Greening Your Home.

Groundwork Pennine Lancashire Blackburn, North West

£150,000 This project aims to bring together different race and faith groups through activities that help build their capacity to take part in local neighbourhood regeneration, and through such activities enhance community cohesion. Local communities are encouraged to work on environmental, heritage and culture projects in their local neighbourhoods. Activities include; health walks, recycling fairs, planting sessions, and making nature masks and garden pots. The project also delivers NCFE- (Northern Council for Further Education) accredited training in sustainable development.

Highway to Opportunities Oldham, North West

This is a women-only project that provides services designed to remove barriers to accessing vocational learning, volunteering and employment. A very important element of this project is a specially adapted double-decker bus that visits more than 7 local sites to deliver accredited training such as ESOL and ICT. There is also childcare provision on the bus. In addition, supporting activities take the form of information advice and guidance services, job search support and work-taster opportunities in local Asian Communities. The project acts as an important two-way link between local employers and the client group.

Grant 2006–2009 £30,000

£187,008

Projects Funded Hyndburn Cultural Association Accrington, North West)

Activity HCA works with schools, mosques and Connexions in identifying young people most in need of mentoring support and self-development. Through significant one-to-one mentoring, young Asian people are provided with support that helps them to address issues of high unemployment, poor health, poor academic achievement and high drop-out rate in further education. As part of the programme, the project provides team- and character-building residential activities which are accessed not only by the mentees but other young people. The mentors who engage with the project are also appropriately trained and supported, and many have achieved success with enhanced employment opportunities as a result.

Grant 2006–2009 £114,058

Islington Age Concern London, N7

This project seeks to ensure that BME older people maintain their self-respect and independence, and that they are able to enjoy freedom of choice by improving their access to, and confidence in, public services such as health, social care, employment and leisure. Two main barriers are being addressed: barriers arising within the services and those from within the culture of different communities. Feedback from the project has been disseminated to the local council and relevant statutory bodies.

£152,788

Keystone Development Trust Thetford, East of England

This project works primarily with the Eastern European community, especially within the Thetford area, to assist them to access local services, employment and volunteering opportunities.

£177,119

Kickstart Programme – Crime Concern Trust (UK) London, SE11

Through the Kickstart project, Crime Concern UK is facilitating multi-agency input into target estates as a way of reducing tension between young people and older residents. The project has been providing training and development opportunities using the local community centre as a one-stop shop, to develop residents’ learning and improve opportunities for accessing social support and employment training. In addition, it provides activities that promote cohesion such as conflict management training.

£165,016

Projects Funded Marylebone Bangladesh Society London, NW8

Activity Grant 2006–2009 £144,096 The MBS partnership project is bringing Bangladeshi and other BME (particularly Arabic) young people together through a broad range of activities such as interfaith activities, conflict management, and youth clubs to promote community cohesion.

MDMD Arts London, E8)

£204,982 CC+ funding has enabled this organisation to provide creative activities for young people on the Nightingale estate in Hackney. It provides a structured community arts tuition service for 200 children and young people (employing 8 tutors), and delivers weekly sports and leisure activities, outings and Community Arts Showcase events for all ages.

Media for All London, SE8

This project has enabled young people to gain accredited qualifications in Broadcast Media and Radio. It consists of two media accredited training programmes – the Community Television Programme and the Community Radio Production. Both programmes enable the clients to learn new skills within a community environment, and gain industry work experience in the media through Media for All’s industry work placement schemes. A central focus has been the inclusion of disabled young people through an integrative programme that sensitises the young people to community needs and is also a platform for raising awareness.

£178,338

Milton Keynes Racial Equality Council Milton Keynes, South East

CC+ funded the organisation to set up and develop 34 reporting centre’s (where racist crimes are reported) and to offer support to victims. The project, aka, the Anti-racial Harassment Group, constantly monitors racist incidents through data collection and research and tries to anticipate potential flashpoints.

£171,290

Minority Ethnic Network Eastern Region (MENTER) Cambridge, East of England

CC+ has funded MENTER to develop and support existing multi-agency networks focusing on refugee and asylum seeker, gypsy and traveller and migrant worker issues. Funding has also been used to set up new regional forums and multi-agency partnerships, conduct research and exchange good practice, develop local integration strategies, and, importantly, ensure that the target communities are involved in this work.

£220,497

Projects Funded Mothertongue Counselling and Listening Service Reading, South East

Activity Grant 2006–2009 £145,726 The project provides culturally sensitive counselling and support services for people from BME communities in Reading and surrounding areas. The project aims to increase clients’ access to statutory and other services, and uses Cross-Cultural support workers (CCSW) to deliver the service.

New Theatre Peckham London, SE5

This project provides accredited training in performing arts for young people aged 16+ with the aim of increasing their aspirations, skills and qualifications, and their progression to further training and careers in the creative industries. It also provides inter-generational (parents and children) routes to volunteering, through events such as a festival of dance.

£199,605

NEWTEC London, E15

NEWTEC is a centre of vocational excellence in childcare offering day care nursery facilities, associated learning programmes, business services and employment skills to BME communities. This project, which is now complete, has provided two bilingual tutors offering a range of programmes including courses and short-term support across a diverse range of communities.

£64,594 (two-year funding)

Norfolk Community Law Service Norwich, East of England

The NCLS project provides high-quality grass-roots legal services. CC+ funding supports the discrimination advice and representation service that has been set up, which also provides interpretation services for NCLS, CABs and advice agencies in Norfolk.

£121,393

North West Kent Racial Equality Council Dartford, South East

North West Kent Racial Equality Council is an established REC working with BME communities in NW Kent to promote a shared sense of belonging, and to increase BME confidence in public services. This project includes a wide range of events across the county to encourage community interaction using sports, music, drama and volunteering, which is delivered in partnership with other agencies. This is underpinned by community consultations and questionnaires and other ongoing events over the three years, such as sports festivals and conferences on BME issues.

£137,512

Projects Funded Northern Refugee Centre Sheffield, Yorkshire & The Humber

Activity NRC was established to provide support to refugees and asylum seekers with a particular focus on supporting the integration of refugees in Yorkshire and the Humber. This project supports refugee and asylum seekers around common issues such as housing and benefits, and if not more importantly, it trains refugee volunteers to deliver high-quality training/workshop sessions to key service providers. This enhances their ability to shape their services and the way that they respond/deliver to refugee and asylum seeker communities.

Pakistan Youth & Community Association Leicester, East Midlands

£174,434 PYCA is a very well-established BME organisation that manages a local youth and community centre from which it provides educational, social and cultural support to its users. The CC+ element of the project offers a programme of complementary educational support to predominantly (but not exclusively) young BME people who are failing or underachieving at school, and who are excluded or are at risk of exclusion. In excess of 100 students receive support in the three compulsory subjects, English, Mathematics and Science at all Key Stages up to and including GCSE. In addition the project provides National Curriculum advice for parents to enhance their understanding and thus their ability to support their children, alongside which a programme of workshops to promote school governorship in BME communities is also delivered.

PATRA East Midlands Ltd Nottingham, East Midlands

PATRA delivers positive action training in order to increase the representation from BME communities at managerial and professional levels. CC+ funds the delivery of training to young BME individuals, and also engages with employers in terms of their equality and diversity policies to promote better community cohesion in the workplace of potential employers. In addition, the project provides capacity to building support to small local BME organisations with the aim of promoting positive activities and long-term sustainability.

£164,977

Poplar Housing and Regeneration Community Association London, E14

HARCA has employed a number of part-time health development workers who have successfully recruited and trained volunteers from Poplar’s BME communities, to become Health Champions providing outreach services in the target area. The overall aim of this is to empower the BME community to play an active role in the shaping and delivery of local health services and to engage BME-led faith groups in new health developments.

£217,248

Grant 2006–2009 £130,523

Projects Funded Refugee Therapy Centre London, N19

Activity RTC provides advice, support and psychotherapy-associated treatment for refugees in and around London. This project delivers a range of associated services, including bilingual outreach work to a broad range of diverse communities, volunteering and own-language counselling. The project has also developed appropriate learning materials and training programmes for mentors.

Grant 2006–2009 £168,608

St Mungo’s London, EC1

This project continues the work established by Revolving Doors Agency, providing a link worker Scheme which ensures there is a model of care that meets the needs of BME offenders in HMP Holloway. In addition, the scheme partners other agencies operating in the prison creating coherent pathways of support. The grant funds one link worker plus a contribution to line management costs, clinical supervision, development and evaluation of the project.

£151,655 (project transferred from Revolving Doors in 2007)

Shpresa Programme London, E12

£138,944 Shpresa supports the Albanian-speaking community in greater London to settle and fully participate in society through a range of activities. This project employs an education development worker to support the Albanian speaking communities in 4 schools and their parents. The funding has also included focus on educational and support work with the parents relating to ESOL, familiarisation with the educational system in the UK, and dealing with difficult issues such as domestic violence, etc.

Sompriti Lewes, South East

This project is continuing to develop and expand a model piloted in the previous CC grant that addressed racism in a semi-rural context. Sompriti’s main focus is to promote a holistic model of tackling racism in semi-rural areas by delivering capacity building services to BME communities, and working in partnership with the key local statutory agencies in East Sussex and the surrounding areas.

£163,729

Projects Funded South Leeds Health For All Leeds, Yorkshire & The Humber

Activity SLHFA project works with partners such as Joseph Priestly College, the Health Authority and the EU-funded Aspire Project to deliver training and courses on both a health awareness and learning basis, these include: Diet and Healthy Living, Yoga, Breast and Cervical Cancer Awareness, ESOL, ICT for Beginners and British Sign Language, amongst many others. In addition, SLHFA provides support and coordination to the community groups which serve the Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, gypsy and traveller, asylum seeker and refugee communities. To assist the groups in reaching selfsufficiency and sustainability, it provides support on matters such as organisational development, project and funding application development, and project management.

Grant 2006–2009 £118,235

Stepney Community Trust London, E1

SCT operates a range of ICT training and related services from a community centre in Stepney. CC+ has enabled the organisation to develop its training arm and provision, and employment-related activities to all ethnic groups in an area of high BME residents. It has also provided ESOL certificate courses to enable greater employability within the community.

£120,837

Steps to Work Walsall, West Midlands

The project provides IAG, training leading to qualifications, upskilling, employment opportunities and brokerage to the unemployed and low skilled from Wolverhampton and Walsall’s most deprived communities. The project targets BME communities.

£158,306

Stockport Women’s Aid Ltd Stockport, North West

CC+ funds a BME worker at this established women’s refuge to provide specialist emotional and practical support to women from BME communities who have, or who are, suffering from domestic violence. It also funds a children’s outreach worker for children exposed to domestic violence and who need support in learning about its consequences. In addition, SWA supports other key service providers in learning how to set boundaries, and talk about and unpack the issues involved in domestic violence, so that they might better support their own clients.

£156,428

Projects Funded Stop Hate UK Leeds, Yorkshire & The Humber

Activity Stop Hate UK works primarily in 2 specific areas in Leeds, providing in-depth community cohesion work where BME communities have a history of under-representation, and in addition where there is a significant record of hate crime. The project is achieving this through the establishment of Hate Incident Reporting Centres and the development of local action groups to strengthen voices on housing and community safety issues. It works with the Police and other agencies. Work in these 2 areas also involves recruiting volunteers to work in the communities and the provision of language/translation facilities. In wider East and South Leeds, the project provides opportunities for communities to interact through a programme of events such as coffee mornings, Bollywood dancing and football tournaments.

Grant 2006–2009 £199,044

Support 4 Progress Manchester, North West

This project uses one-to-one counselling and group support to help children and young people tackle barriers to productive relationships with their families, teachers and the wider general community. It also offers courses on conflict resolution and a fully accredited counselling course leading to degree level entry and/or qualifications. It provides training packs to support parents, teachers and carers. Based in Moss Side, Manchester, the project has a particular focus on the African-Caribbean community, and, along with other agencies, is a very important contributor in helping to tackle topical issues such as knife and gun crime in the area.

£238,351

Support Against Racist Incidents Charity Ltd Bristol, South West

The project provides specialist support services to victims of racial harassment, and advice, support and guidance for agencies to initiate best practice approaches to tackling racism in the wider community. CC+ has resourced a community cohesion and conflict resolution worker and an educational worker to expand its work across the South West.

£184,760

Terrence Higgins Trust London, WC1

£128,250 THT provides competency based training for people from BME communities who are committed to a career in HIV prevention and sexual health promotion. CC+ will have funded three trainees over the life of the grant who will have gained a variety of valuable experience through placements at partner agencies involved in the project.

Projects Funded Theatre Royal Stratford East London, E15

Activity The project works with young refugees in the Newham district to write and perform plays in schools and communities that look at racism and prejudice. It also supports young people in their life choices and sensitising them to the diverse needs of their communities.

Grant 2006–2009 £66,960

Trinity Housing Resource Centre Birmingham, West Midlands

The project provides training programmes to BME communities as well as offer information and advice to the public on housing matters.

£192,559

UNITE Ltd Middlesbrough, North East

This project runs a conflict resolution programme within BME Communities working with existing neighbourhood wardens. It aims to resolve neighbourhood disputes and prevent anti-social behaviour. It runs a trainee programme targeted at BME communities. Trainees undertake a 10-week mediation training course and are allocated a mentor who is appropriately qualified to support them. The formal training involves both practical and theory work, and portfolios are developed and submitted for assessment. Following the course (theory) the trainees then spend a full 6 months engaging in mediation cases as part of the overall accreditation. UNITE engages fully with a number of other partners/service providers to ensure that it is fully integrated in to relative service provision.

£91,938

United Response Gateshead, North East

United Response support people with learning disabilities and/or mental health needs and their families. The CC+ funded project engages with groups and individuals that need/would benefit from service provision, but that would not normally engage with central service providers. It has established neighbourhood satellite carers group in partnership with other agencies. Users of the group are signposted to Oldham Carers Centre, who, as the main central service provider, facilitates their engagement in other activities such as carer’s courses, free leisure passes, access to particular equipment for disabled people and free courses.

£178,684

Projects Funded Wandsworth Community Empowerment Network London, SW11

Activity The network exists to provide forums, training and to distribute community chest grants locally in Wandsworth. This CC+ funded project delivers a broad range of activities: including engagement through new forums, networks and partnerships (e.g. mental health forums and Interfaith networks). It also focuses on training BME, refugees and other individuals in advocacy and community empowerment. A special focus has been in working with young people on conflict resolution, and preventing gang crime in unique events and activities in partnership with Operation Trident.

Grant 2006–2009 £162,425

WF BME Alliance London, E17

This project has been funded to undertake community research particularly around issues affecting BME communities in Waltham Forest.

£252,353

Wheatsheaf Trust Southampton, South East

CC+ has enabled the organisation to increase its activities that promote social inclusion, economic development and lifelong learning in Southampton. These include access to IAG services, ESOL classes, job brokerage and employability training for BME individuals.

£177,300

Windsor Fellowship Birmingham, West Midlands

CC+ funds the organisation’s Junior Fellowship programme which works with young BME pupils to enhance their GCSE outcomes. It also delivers training to teachers and school support staff to increase their capacity to work more effectively with young BME pupils.

£178,320

Women’s Therapy Centre London, N7

CC+ funds the therapy link worker to translate information about its service and other services relating to mental health in a number of different languages. In addition, the project provides outreach services, taster workshops and training for the staff and volunteers of Refugee community organisations.

£157,642

Workers Educational Association Birmingham, West Midlands

The project builds on the organisation’s Tandrusti project, a health and fitness project for BME communities which aims to: develop a number of community health champions, work with public bodies to reduce health inequalities; map health journeys of clients, and evaluate and disseminate the information to shape future service provision.

£115,617