Delivering Effective Support to Minority Groups
Lord Bracadale to launch consultation on review of hate crime legislation at CSREC hosted LGBTI intersectionality training workshop for service providers delivered by the Equality Network.
The equality and human rights charities Central Scotland Regional Equality Council (CSREC) and the Equality Network have announced that they are jointly organising two innovative half-day training sessions on intersectionality for service providers within the public, voluntary and private sectors in the Forth Valley area.
This CSREC and Equality Network training initiative will be free of charge and held at the Albert Halls (Lesser Hall) on Dumbarton Road in Stirling on Thursday 31st August 2017. The morning session, which will take place from 9:30pm to 1:00pm, includes a talk by Lord Bracadale, Alastair Peter Campbell QC. Lord Bracadale is conductingan Independent Review of Hate Crime Legislation in Scotland and has chosen to launch his consultation at the start of the morning training session. Lord Bracadale is looking at whether hate crime legislation is fit for the twenty-first century and is considering if changes need to be made; whether existing offences should be extended to cover other categories (such as age, gender and refugees); and whether all hate crimes should be brought into one area of legislation.
The intersectionality training in the afternoon is scheduled to run between 1:30pm and 4:30pm, featuring the same educational content as the morning session.
According to Tim Hopkins, Director of the Equality Network “Intersectionality is an approach to equality work that focuses on the needs of people who belong to more than one minority or disadvantaged group, such as people who are both gay and disabled or transgender and a migrant. It is important to look at such needs, as they can be complex and affect what assistance is needed from services. For example, the experiences and needs of a bisexual asylum seeker will be very different from those of a deaf transgender person. Without looking at how different aspects of our identities intersect, our services can find it more difficult to cope with the full complexity of humanity and can become less efficient for all as a result.”
The Equality Network’s training sessions will outline a range of practical ways in which an organisation can be inclusive without additionally burdening their budgets.
Serving the Forth Valley area, Central Scotland Regional Equality Council recognises that no one person has only one dimension to their identity and that, as individual human beings, we are the sum of all our distinctive parts. CSREC’s view is that it is of vital importance that all those living, working and studying in Central Scotland can have access to services which are tailored to their individual and specific needs. The upcoming training session at Stirling’s Albert Halls will offer service providers from throughout the Forth Valley area the opportunity to gain a better understanding as to how this holistic objective can be achieved.
Highlighting the service providers the training is aimed at attracting, and the anticipated outcome of this unique educational opportunity in the Forth Valley, CSREC’s Manager, Arun Gopinath, stated:
“The LGBTI intersectionality training to be delivered by Equality Network has had a great response from a variety of service providers, from the public and third sectors and also service users. The training will cover topics of addressing service provision for those with intersectional identities and will also cover the experiences of those with intersectional identities who experience hate and prejudiced behaviours. It provides a good setting for launching of the consultation by Lord Bracadale on the Independent Review of Hate Crime Legislation so various stakeholders can feed into the review before Lord Bracadale completes his review. We are keen that the views of those who have been victims of hate and prejudiced behaviours are taken into consideration so that the barriers to reporting and difficulties through the criminal justice process is addressed. We also encourage persons to comment on the inclusion of misogyny, ageism and prejudice against refugees as aggravators and consider intersectionality of aggravators of hate crime”
In his own statement on this joint CSREC-Equality Network training initiative, its guest speaker Lord Bracadale, added:
“I am delighted to launch my consultation paper at such a worthwhile training session. My consultation is the product of what I have learnt from communities affected by hate crime and those who apply the law. I want to encourage a wide range of people to participate in the consultation: this will help me make sure that the recommendations I make to Scottish Ministers in Spring 2018 are meaningful to victims and workable for the legal system. "
