Agenda and minutes

Contact: Partnerships and Communities Team  0300 330 7000 e-mail:  forums@northampton.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Welcomes, introductions and apologies pdf icon PDF 185 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

ATTENDANCE: Vicki Rockall (VR, NBC), Chloe Nelson (CN, NBC), Lauren Dyball (LD, Student), Michael Macleod (MM, NBC), Siobhan Tatum (ST, NBHA/NREC), Bruce Greenberg (BG, NIFF), Christian Buckenham (CB, Police), Kamila Poole (KP, Police), Imran Chowdhury (IC, CFPPP), Ken Howlett (KH, NIFF), Janet Gordon (JG, Royal and Derngate), Jamie Wells (JW, NBC), Anne Wankiiri (AW, Zimwomen Association & United African Association), Pindy Chahal (PC, SCCYC).

 

APOLOGIES: Morcea Walker, Diana Belfon, Neelam Aggarwal-Singh, Mary Clarke.

2.

Minutes and matters arising

Minutes:

Minutes were accepted as accurate.

 

VR explained the move to a daytime and the low attendance and low productivity being key to this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.

Chloe Nelson - Tull100 Project

Minutes:

CN talked through the Tull100 project.

 

Ways that community groups could qualify for “medals for Tull” would be to “read for Tull, write for Tull, art for Tull and play for Tull” for example.

 

ST: Northampton Black History Association have Walter Tull packs which have different activities for different key stages.

 

ACTION: MM to send out Tull100 information sheet via e-mail to Forum members.

 

 

4.

Louise Cuzner - Moulton College

Minutes:

Louise Cuzner sent her apologies.

5.

Action plan

Minutes:

VR talked the Forum through the objectives of the Diverse Communities Forum which are in the NBC constitution and how the Forum can move forward and add new items to the action plan.

 

Forum members said current issues are burglaries and hate crime.

 

IC saying we could try and engage more with the Bangladeshi community to try and give people role models/more integrated.

 

IC: Everybody is feeling very threatened by the recent spike in burglaries, people have come to the point where they will not even order any products online so not attention is raised at their address.

 

VR: There will be a meeting tonight regarding this and how the Asian communities can be supported with this issue. There will be ideas generated after the meeting to see how the people can be supported.

 

IC: It is the members of the household who are scared such as the women and their children.

 

CB: There are meetings taking place with the MBA to try and combat this recent spike. The meeting tonight should hopefully generate some answers.

 

PC: Window alarms are useful.

 

IC: The neighbourhood watch might not be working as well as it could. Language is often a barrier to some people, in some communities you will have to speak in their language and not in English for the point to be explained properly.

 

IC: People are worried to the point where the male will not go to the mosque as they feel like they need to stay home.

 

VR: What could we do about hate crime? A matter that all forum members found a priority.

 

The forum talked about the recent “Punish a Muslim” letter that has been circulating.

 

ST: What do we do about the recent hate crime letter against Muslims? You want to safeguard and protect people but also not raise awareness of the letter and not promote the letter.

 

VR: Pearls of peace at the market square from 10am-2pm on 3rd April.

 

CB: The community do know about the letter and there has been advice passed around the communities. If the letter has been received in Northampton, the Police would need to know.

 

IC: What should we do if people do find out about this? Is there any national guidance about what to do?

 

VR looked online for any guidance – information says to contact local police force.

 

CB: Reassurance messages have been sent out from us with local points of contact.

 

KH: NIFF – trying to get respect and understanding at the head of the agenda. Problem with links to the community and getting out and talking to more and more people. Looking to promote the belief that we are one human race. Looking to get into schools and get more youth involved.

 

VR: We are looking at contacting more schools yearly. We recently delivered a child sexual exploitation workshop aimed at young children. It was a success with over 500 children there. We could add to this as in the following years with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Items for Discussion at the Next Meeting

7.

Date Of Next Meeting

Minutes:

24th May – The Diverse Communities Forum will be staying at the 11am-1pm time slot.