| 4th November 2008 |
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Minutes from the network meeting of 4th Nov 2008
Minutes from meeting of Calderdale LGBT Network held at North Bridge Leisure Centre, Shibden Room 4th November 2008 Present: John Rodgers – Acting Chair Viviana Archer-Todde - CMBC – Cohesion Section (Minutes) Kate Bell – CMBC Lindsey Merifield – Pennine Housing 2000 Angela Bradshaw – Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation John Jackson – CMBC Register Office Tahir Mohammed – Horton Housing Leanne Clay - West Yorkshire Police Sarah Cooper – CMBC Harvinder Gill – West Yorkshire Fire Service Mark Whittlesea - NHS
1. Welcome and introductions John Rodgers opened the meeting welcomed everyone and asked for a quick round of introductions. 2. Apologies Apologies were received from: Tim Fagan, Iain Low, Debbie Greenwood, Sail Suleman, Tahira Iqbal, Ed Sherwood and Denise Cunningham. 3. Minutes and matters arising It was reported that the drop-in session advertised following each of the working group had not been successful. 4. Working Group updates John Rodgers informed the group about the latest training carried out by the Network. Viviana Archer-Todde informed the meeting that there had been two sessions in one day. On the morning of the October 20th they had been invited to attend an LGBT Training Session for the senior managers at Leeds City Council and on the same afternoon in Birkenshaw at the West Yorkshire Fire Service. She reported that both sessions went very well and the aural feedback (written still to be received) was very positive. Angela Bradshaw asked who/what was the Working Group was. John Rodgers informed her that the Working Group met monthly to progress the work identified at each quarterly open meeting. After detailing some of the projects, John made a plea for people to join particularly if interested in either the web site or the future Pride event. 5. Hate Crime Reports The new Hate Crime Co-ordinator for West Yorkshire Police attended the meeting and informed the group that in the month of October there had not been any reports of homophobic or disablist attacks. Angela Bradshaw asked if this was a true reflection of the reality of ‘isms’ in the borough. A long discussion ensued which included ways of promoting and encouraging reporting. Viviana Archer-Todde informed the meeting of the Holocaust Memorial Day event on the 27th January 2009 which was being used as another tool to promote hate crime reporting as the theme for this year’s event was ‘Stand Up To Hatred’. Details available from Viviana Archer-Todde (01422 393307), This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ). Booking essential but all places are free. 6. Web Site update John Rodgers updated the group about the web site. It was suggested a sub working group be developed to move this forward. Sarah Cooper suggested making contact with Roger Livsey at the Equity Centre in Bradford. Kate Bell added that another useful link might be with the young people from GALYIC who designed the web site at the organisation. John Rodgers informed the group that Tim Fagan was progressing training for people to use the web site. ACTION – ALL – to consider joining the sub working group for the web site 7. Calderdale Pride Event A long discussion took place at the last meeting so it was felt that this subject area had been given a lot of thought. John Rodgers informed attendees that the Working Group had made the suggestion of two dates – 20th or 27th June and that it would be held in the Piece Hall in Halifax. Additionally, the Working Group was looking at pulling together a list of events for LGBT History Month in February 2009. 8. LGBT History Month It was agreed that the theme for the February meeting (February 9th) will be around the needs of older LGBT people. The Network has already booked Stella Duffy (author and actor) to speak and to compere the evening. It was suggested that the dedicated LGBT Worker for an organisation in Manchester be contacted to attend the meeting. A number of suggestions were made with regards to organisations locally that addressed the needs of older LGBT people. Mark Whittlesea also agreed to investigate what his organisation could offer for the evening. ACTION – Viviana Archer-Todde to invite the worker to the meeting on 9th February 2009. ACTION – Mark Whittlesea to discuss issues raised with the network working group. 9. Network Members’ information exchange Viviana Archer-Todde asked about monitoring; whether anyone was carrying monitoring on sexual orientation and what effect this had on service delivery. Lindsey Merifield stated that Pennine Housing 2000 had completed a survey called ‘Knowing Your Customer’. 12,000 properties had been leafleted (approx 24,000 people). 3,191 forms had been returned in ten months. Out of this number 13 people described themselves as bisexual, 15 as gay men, 2,255 as heterosexual and 16 as lesbians, 889 preferred not to answer the questions. She said that this would help housing officers e.g. monitoring particular neighbour nuisances related to sexual orientation. She added that on some forms people had crossed out the word ‘heterosexual’ and written ‘normal’. Pennine Housing 2000 were monitoring because it was a Housing Corporation requirement. Harvinder Gill said that the West Yorkshire Fire Service had carried out an internal monitoring form for employees only as the organisation believe that in the particular area of work there is no need to monitor service users. 2,200 forms had been sent out, not all had been returned. Only one person has access to the information so Harvinder did not know the finer details, she has been told, however, that there are odd remarks written on the return forms. Leanne Clay from the West Yorkshire Police said that monitoring was only carried out at the recruitment stage and it had no affect on service delivery. Sarah Cooper mentioned that Bullying Week would be launched at Heath Training Centre on the 19th November – this included homophobic bullying in schools. 9. Any other business Viviana Archer-Todde informed the group of an EIA being completed by Sail Suleman (Hate Crime Co-ordinator for Calderdale Council). Sail would like to consult with the Working Group for feedback on how the service could affect LGBT people. It was agreed that Sail Suleman would be invited to the next Working Group meeting. ACTION – Tim Fagan to set another Working Group meeting and inform Sail so that he can attend. John Jackson commented that whilst he appreciated we are all very busy, it would be appreciated if the minutes and agenda were sent out a lot earlier than the two days before the meeting for the next date. Other comments were added to ask for reminders to be sent earlier to attend the meetings, it was acknowledged that the low turnout was due to the late receipt of minutes and agenda. ACTION – Tim Fagan and Viviana Archer-Todde to send out agenda and minutes a lot earlier. John Jackson asked if Bernadette Livsey could be added to the mailing list. ACTION – Tim Fagan and Viviana Archer-Todde to add Bernadette Livsey to the mailing list. 10. Date, time and venue for the next meeting The date for the next open quarterly meeting is on the 9th February 2009 and will be held in the Green Room at the Victoria Theatre in Halifax. This event will be a celebration event of the two year anniversary of the Network. Appearing will be author and actor Stella Duffy. Please book places through Viviana Archer-Todde or Tim Fagan, leaflet to be sent out shortly. ACTION – Tim Fagan and Viviana Archer-Todde to devise and send out leaflet. John Rodgers closed the meeting and thanked everyone for attending. |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 08 March 2009 ) |
