The voices of Devon's minority ethnic population are among the least heard by service providers and by the people who have power to make decisions about our lives. The Devon REC is now often approached by agencies who are aware of this problem and hope that we can speak for the minority ethnic population. Our aim, rather than to rely upon assumptions and intelligent guesses about the minority ethnic population's views, is to empower people to speak up for themselves. The manner of doing this in rural Devon requires a special approach which can cope with the rural context in which the Devon REC operates: The situation for race equality work in Devon is different to other areas, because it is a large rural area (the third largest in the UK), whose black and minority ethnic population does not consist of geographically clustered minority ethnic communities as is typical in many urban areas and some other rural regions. Instead, the black and minority ethnic population in Devon is characterized by a wide diversity of rural dwellers living as individuals and families, not usually as communities. Whilst there are a small regional black network and a Chinese Association in the South West, and some informal networks around nationality and religion, most black and minority ethnic people in rural Devon are not formally networked and there is no real black and minority ethnic voluntary sector or infrastructure.

The key characteristic of the minority ethnic population in Devon, is that it is composed of a great diversity of individuals and outlooks. This, combined with rural distances and isolation, means that there are no factors in common which cause people to network spontaneously. All service providers are now effectively obliged by the law to engage the minority ethnic population in shaping services. For urban authorities, this will usually be done by developing relationships with people living in identifiable, geographical communities and with their community spokespeople, and by seeking representation from religious and community-organisation leaders. In Devon, there are no comparable means of engagement or representative structures. At present, a few people from the Exeter Mosque, the Far South West Black Networking Group and black and minority ethnic authority staff are typically called upon to represent the voices of black and minority ethnic rural dwellers. This is a start, but it does not constitute true representation or real community engagement.

Hence the need for a special approach. To this end, Devon REC is proposing the creation of rural peer support networks, facilitated by community development workers, through which members will be enabled, in a systematic but creative fashion, to continuously identify the issues of concern to them in their lives, as they arise, and to put these issues to service providers. This is an innovative consultation mechanism that will maximise use of consultation resources in Devon, remove unnecessary duplication and incoherence from current consultation practice among agencies, and increase both quantity and quality of consultation data available to agencies and multi-agency forums. It will also, importantly, enable the Black and Minority Ethnic population (rather than the service providers) to set the consultation agenda, and will provide a feedback mechanism to the network members, thereby bringing about agency accountability. It will also enable people to become aware of services, initiatives and employment opportunities and be supported in gaining access to them.

Importantly, the proposed peer networks are also the mechanism by which we propose to develop the capacity of the Black and Minority Ethnic Population to self-organise in order to overcome disadvantage through their own means. Our proposal is designed to overcome the factors which prevent people from drawing support from one another, and to build the capacity for development of a Black and Minority Ethnic voluntary sector and development of communities of interest.

The Commission for Racial Equality's names for this work:

Community development and engagement
Research
Critical friend role
Participation in local audits
Promoting community cohesion
Leadership - developing influencing skills among local communities, and showcasing good practice
Cross-community work - undertaking public education, fostering links between the young and elderly, women and faith communities and tackling lack of support and rural isolation
Alienated communities - rural areas