Agenda item

JW talked the forum about International Men’s Day, activities included:

Information Stalls

Grey Dog Trust Playing Music

Male Choir

Boxing sessions

Role Model of the Year awards

Look to continue the awards for the next year.

Q: How did you bring publicity to the event?

A: There was posters, radio, press releases, posters on social media etc.

RB: New team planning all outreach and organisation.

SS: What’s the story podcast.

Identified areas where there was lack of diversity but always asked where’s the evidence?

This was where the idea of the podcast came around, this is available on all platforms.

Diversity can be enhanced so much more if people know the stories of people and their history.

What is going on? Pitfalls in society?

Look to have social bias broken down and understand different communities more so.

Diverse Actors Company

Created to help create content which reflects Northamptonshire and create opportunities for diverse individuals.

MB: Stories that are told are often told from a white bias. This cuts a lot of people off and doesn’t give people as an ethnic minority the chance to get roles. A lot of acting schools you have to pay for and this continues the trend of what we have now and limits diversity. It is not a level platform and this means that writers/actors aren’t coming through to tell their stories.

SS: It’s about providing a platform for people who have different experiences to white people. This is here to create a space for different minorities to express their talents. The podcast will link in to the actors company as this will act as inspiration. This will be a company for adults as there are more opportunities for the youth out there.

Q: Have you have contact with Screen Northants?

A: Yes, I used to work really closely with them.

PW: You should speak to Weekes Baptiste.

AF: Some of the individuals from ToS have been in community theatre so would be happy to be involved in this project.

SS IMD winner.

RB and MMu to get in contact with SS about the podcast.

MMu: sharing of stories is so important, this creates more understanding and this project sounds great.

Power of the mind storytelling project runs once a month, two people came last Saturday and talked about mental health and we also had a worker from Mind come in and speak to the community, it was a very useful event.

In February, there will be an event about domestic violence, we will ask people if they would like to share their stories and we will also invite professionals to help those who have been or are in this situation.

PW: Should be a paper about interpersonal violence which was carried out quite some time ago. There were workshops which produced evidence statistics to go to a scrutiny panel, this lead to funding and a paper produced.

Look at this document and see how it can help.

ACTION: MM/JW to look for scrutiny report regarding interpersonal violence.

MMu: This would be good for us to build on instead of starting from the beginning.

PW: It would be good to build on the existing information as the community isn’t changing, it is just getting bigger.

MMu: If we can have individuals who worked on that who are happy to help us we would love for that.

AA: Northamptonshire’s campaign against FGM

Looking to engage with the community and open conversations through the social club and cafe. Trying to spread awareness of the issue and to educate the community of what FGM is and help clarify questions surrounding the issue. Why are men talking about FGM?

This is a family issue, a human right issue and a health issue.

A reason this is done is to prevent sex before marriage, this is based on culture and not religion. We are looking to change the thoughts of people and help build bridges between people like social workers and the community.

Northampton has had families investigated, this is a very sensitive topic and although it is illegal, there is no structure to deal with an issue when this might be the case.

Friday 23^rd November at the UoN from 9am-4pm there is a variety of workshops regarding gender equality.

JH: You are right, the problem has been identified and there is training for people who work in schools but then it is knowing how to deal with issue this once suspected.

PW: The project showed that there was issues with inclusivity between men and women, and questions were asked such as “should men be included in these conversations”.

It is good to see Abade continuing with this work and that police and schools are working together to raise awareness of issues regarding things like FGM and interpersonal violence.

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PW: That’s why it is important to build on previous work because it keeps it alive.