Equality Forum

This forum is a space for staff to share information and discuss issues about equality, diversity and inclusion.

It’s an active forum intended to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and stimulate discussion and debate.

Please join in by sending us a post or by replying to one of the comments or posts already listed.

Visit our website for more information Equality and Diversity website

The Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England has published a report on ‘Children and Equality — Equality evidence relating to children and young people in England’.

Click here to download the report: http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/content/publications/content_566

Amnesty International has published a report called ‘Choice and Prejudice. Discrimination Against Muslims in Europe’.

The report focuses on discrimination on grounds of religion or belief and illustrates some of its consequences for Muslims in Europe. Click here to download the report:

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR01/001/2012/en/85bd6054-5273-4765-9385-59e58078678e/eur010012012en.pdf

There are over 75 countries in the world today where it is a criminal offence to be gay. These countries punish women, men and children because of their sexuality and in seven countries the punishment is death.

An International Day Against HOmophobia (IDAHO) provides a platform for everyone to make a powerful statement to demand improvements for the quality of life for LGBT people. The day can be used to raise awareness of homophobic issues that are negatively impacting on people’s lives and to showcase success stories where a positive change has been achieved.

If you wish to organise something for IDAHO, please contact equality and diversity on

Email: diversity@staffs.ac.uk    

Tel: +44 (0)1782 295842

This survey asks about your experiences as a lesbian, gay, bisexual or trans adult living in the European Union or Croatia. The survey is conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and is available online until the end of June 2012 at http://lgbtsurvey.eu.

The survey wants to know about your everyday experiences and any discriminatory treatment you feel you’ve been exposed to. It is completely anonymous and will not register any information about your real or online identity. You can complete it in English or another European language. 

Giving just 20 minutes to fill out the survey will really help to better represent the experiences, opinions and needs of LGBT people.

Race to the Top: the Experiences of Black Students in Higher Education is the first in a series of reports looking at the experiences of particular groups from non-traditional backgrounds within Higher Education and the challenges faced by that group in gaining employment. This first report focuses on the experiences of Black students from African & Caribbean backgrounds and is the result of a nationwide consultation, which took place over a two year period and engaged over 2500 students.

 http://www.bowgroup.org/files/bowgroup/Race%20to%20the%20Top%20-%20Bow%20Group%20-%20Elevation%20Networks%20(April%202012).pdf

Graduate Hands

The Amnesty International report Choice and prejudice: discrimination against Muslims in Europe, exposes the impact of discrimination on the ground of religion or belief on Muslims in several aspects of their lives, including employment and education.

It focuses on Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland where Amnesty International has already raised issues such as restrictions on the establishment of places of worship and prohibitions on full-face veils. The report documents numerous individual cases of discrimination across the countries covered.

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/muslims-discriminated-against-demonstrating-their-faith-2012-04-23

Amnesty logo

After 60 years of community relations policies – from assimilation, to multiculturalism, to community cohesion, to a new, Big Society approach – are we anywhere nearer to solving the problems of integration? And while we’re at it: what actually are the problems associated with integration?

This new report from ‘brap’ explores these ideas and more. Based on recent research into the frontline activities of organisations involved with the Awards for Bridging Cultures, the report looks at:

• how past approaches to community relations (such as multiculturalism) have affected the way communities interact
• the activities, initiatives, and projects that are taking place on the ground as communities focus on what unites us, rather than what divides us
• how integration can be promoted in an age of austerity
• the skills local authorities and community groups need to establish better relations between people from a range of backgrounds

Click here for details

Global Face

There is less workplace race equality in the UK than there is the US, especially during times of recession, new research has found.

A paper presented on 13th April at the British Sociological Association’s annual conference in Leeds claims that through successive governments “failing to protect minority ethnic groups” the unemployment rate among black people in the UK has risen significantly at times of economic hardship.

For the full article see the link below:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/13/black-people-unemployed-britain-us?newsfeed=true

US - UK joint flag

The Lesbian & Gay Foundation have recently launched our Evidence Exchange, an evidence base of thousands of statistics about LGB&T needs and experiences. This free community resource contains information on a range of topics from healthcare to homophobia and from schools to safer sex.

The Evidence Exchange brings together national, local and international research on LGB&T issues in one place for the first time, making information easily accessible to a range of audiences. It is continuously updated to include new research, and all records are fully referenced allowing users to trace the original reports.

The Evidence Exchange can help you with:
- information on LGB&T equality
- comparable data to understand your local population
- evidence for funding bids for your LGB&T group or organisation
- statistics for coursework and dissertations on LGB&T topics

You can search the evidence base here:
http://www.lgf.org.uk/evidence-exchange

A new project has been launched to explore LGBT understandings and experiences of ‘community’, and impact on LGBT health, wellbeing and ‘quality of life’.

The terms ‘LGBT community’ and ‘LGBT communities’ are often used, but how much do we know about how these terms are understood – and how people experience this ‘community’ or these ‘communities’?

This study aims to address these questions via the following activities:

1. A review of the literature to bring together research related to this area from a wide range of subject disciplines
2. Consultation with LGBT participants and stakeholders through a number of workshops and an interactive website
3. Final project report summarising study outcomes
4. Project website to share literature review sources and other study information
5. Final project event to share study outcomes

You can participate and contribute your views and experiences in three ways: via the project website, through attending a workshop, or by completing the survey.

The project will run until late 2012 and is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of the ‘Connected Communities’ programme of work. The reasearch is being carried out at Sheffield Hallam University

Click here for further information

Click here for survey

Stoke Pride 2010