Meet the Team

Meet the team (L-R):

Sam Partridge, Colette Bennett and Brenda Weston

At the end of 2007 the Equality South West team were delighted to discover that they had been successful in an application to the BIG Lottery’s Round One BASIS fund, one of only twelve successful bids in the South West Region.

The project being funded, "Mainstreaming Equality in the South West’s Third Sector", aims to help build the equality and diversity capacity of the Third Sector in the region. The project is made up of a number of key areas of work including:

Mapping - finding out what organisations already exist, that work in the field of equality and diversity in the South West. Where they are and what specialist support they can offer to third sector organisations, and just as importantly where and what the gaps are where extra support may be needed.

Research - looking at the exclusion of all the equality communities (strands) in the region, getting an overview of what information is available and where it is so that third sector organisations can use this as an evidence base to inform both their work and their funding applications.

Awareness raising - both strand specific e.g. on age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation and transgender equality issues and on key thematic issues in the region.

Policy Development - the project will help to develop equality and diversity policy in the region and to put in place or build on existing mechanisms, to ensure that the voice of smaller local organisations that support under represented groups, are heard at a regional and national level.

Commissioning and procurement - with the public sector will be examined, with work undertaken to improve the capacity of third sector organisations in relation to equality and diversity. This will support them when tendering for public sector work and when delivering services. A toolkit building on existing work developed in Cornwall will be further developed to assist third sector organisations to examine and improve their equality and diversity practice and awareness.

Staff development - work looking at the knowledge and understanding of third sector staff and board members and the accredited training available to them will bolster and complement other aspects of the project.

And finally, the funding will support the existing work that Equality South West undertakes to support and develop the seven Regional Equality Networks (RENs), one each on age, disability, gender, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation and transgender.

The project is an exciting opportunity, to take forward the equality and diversity agenda in the South West, making the South West a place that is renowned for promoting and championing fair treatment and equal opportunities for all, we look forward to working with partners to achieve this.

The project will run until November 2012, and will be delivered by the project tea: Colette Bennett (Senior Equality Officer); Brenda Weston Equality Development Officer (Policy) and Samantha Partridge (Administration Assistant).