With the loss of equalities organisations as Office for Civil Society (OCS) Strategic Partners in April 2011, Voice4Change England is bringing together current partners to consider how the more general infrastructure organisations can provide support to, and meet the needs of, those with ‘protected characteristics’.

Building on the Big Unfair Society campaign in the spring, Voice4Change England wants to ensure that Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities and the organisations that support them continue to be heard at a strategic level.

The organisation has secured support from Barrow Cadbury Trust to create a space for constructive dialogue, learning and reflection to find ways of meeting the needs of BME organisations.

Barrow Cadbury Trust has a focus on social justice and tackling inequalities.

The event will bring together chief executive officers and chairs from the Strategic Partners with key race equality stakeholders to discuss issues and develop consensus on how to engage Black and Minority Ethnic voluntary and community organisations, in policy development and programme delivery.

This is the first opportunity for the Office for Civil Society Strategic Partners to collectively discuss how their status as Strategic Partners can be used to address inequalities in the Big Society.

The residential event Mainstreaming equalities; rhetoric or reality? will be held at St George's House, Windsor, on 8th and 9th December 2011.

The aim of the event is to provide Office for Civil Society Strategic Partners with a better understanding of the needs of equality-led organisations, particularly BME organisations, and to increase understanding of the issues facing the BME voluntary and community sector in the context of the Big Society.

Elizabeth Balgobin, chair of V4CE, said: “We are delighted that most of the Strategic Partners are keen to attend the event and look at ways that they can better support equality in their work. As a result of the event, it is hoped that current strategic partners will better be able to ‘fill the gap’ left in the portfolio of previous strategic partners regarding equalities perspectives.

"Specifically we hope the remaining strategic partners will reaffirm and reinvigorate their commitment to actively promoting race and other equality issues at this very difficult time. We hope this will take the form of agreeing a framework of co-operation between the 9 partners and Voice4Change England.”

Speakers at the event include:

Dr Rob Berkeley, Runnymede Trust, director
Ratna Lachman, Just West Yorkshire, director
Sanjiv Lingayah, London School of Economics, PhD researcher
Vandna Gohil, Voice4Change England, director
Imran Khan, Imran Khan & Partners, solicitor for the family of Stephen Lawrence

Two of the Strategic Partners, NCVO and NAVCA, will also be sharing their perspectives and plans.

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