Our work

Our work

• We supported the Commission for Racial Equality campaign to safeguard funding arrangements for race equality work within the Equality Bill before it became law earlier this year.
• We continued to work with a small number of public authorities to make sure they were making progress in meeting objectives to achieve race equality outcomes.
• We produced a briefing following the July 7th bombings in London and we were involved in multi-agency discussions that followed.
• We were commissioned to undertake research on behalf of Merton College about racist attitudes and behaviour at the College.
• We pursued the issue of disproportionality in police stops and searches of people from black and minority ethnic groups through the Recommendation 61 Monitoring Group. This is an issue that requires definitive research to be carried out in order to determine to what extent racial discrimination plays a part.
• We submitted detailed comments on the draft Community Plan, not only in the areas where race equality issues are easier to detect, but also in all the thematic areas of the Plan.
• We worked with local communities in preparation for, and during Black History Month. This involved giving talks to three local primary schools and speaking at group events.
• We also supported the activities of the Merton Multicultural History Group and the launch of its educational CD Rom “Reimagining Merton” in Black History Month, which explores the Asian, African and Caribbean connections in Merton.
• We gave support to the development of a Black and Ethnic Minority Forum set up by Merton Unity Network. We were also engaged in meetings with Merton Unity Network and the Minority Ethnic Network (Minet) in preparation for Merton Unity’s “Are you Ready for Change?” conference.