In the South West region, there are a number of regional and
county based organisations and forums working for race equality.
It is important to be able to share learning between these organisations
and plan joint initiatives in order to make best use of resources.
It is also important to join our voices in order to give weight
to a South West perspective in national decision making. In particular,
rural Race Equality Councils need to join forces in order to
remind government of the factors that make rural racism an issue
requiring particular attention.There are also many agencies in
Devon and regionally, who have set up initiatives to promote
race equality, but who are unaware of each other's activities
and yet have much to learn from each other. It is important to
build up a clear picture of local activity and of the people
who are building up experience in this field, and to help people
network with each other and avoid unnecessary duplication. By
virtue of its role in the county, Devon REC is at the hub of
this ever evolving information network, and our informal mapping
work has aroused great interest among people who have seen its
results. With greater administration capacity, Devon REC would
like to formalise and disseminate its mapping work.
Under the law, public bodies are obliged to fund the sustainable
operation of the Racial Equality Council. This means that Devon
REC should have a number of funding partners. As the public bodies
operating in Devon respond to their funding duty, Devon REC will
be liaising with these strategic partners, in order to report
on its activities and show value for money. It is important to
stress here however, that whilst Devon REC's customers are the
public bodies, its prime beneficiaries are the minority ethnic
people of Devon, and therefore the independence and autonomy
of the Devon REC is incontrovertible.
The Commission for Racial Equality's names for this
work:
 Leadership
- showcasing good practice
Cross community
work to tackle isolation and lack of support in rural areas
Alienated
communities - rural areas
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