As the needs of our equalities communities of interest are changing, so has our response to those needs. Since 2009, the former Corporate Equalities Forum has been evolving and refreshing itself to be better placed to represent the needs of all our equalities communities alongside a new commitment from our partners.. The South Gloucestershire Equalities Forum (SGEF) has re-established itself to challenge and work to eliminate discrimination, promote equality of opportunity, build up good relations between diverse individuals and equalities communities of interest, the Council and other Partners and be inclusive of all equalities communities. The SGEF opens for business in September 2011.
Partners Group
Coordinating the active work of the Forum will be the newly established Partners Group. This group is the strategic co-ordinating body for the Forum and is open to everyone who has committed themselves to engaging and acting. It will include individual and community representatives, public and voluntary community sector partners and Councillors and council officers. It will meet up to four times each year, and coordinate its diary with the Community Forum meetings.
Community Forum
This group will hold two open public meetings each year where individual members of equalities groups and community representatives will come together to establish a common understanding of the experience of discrimination, disadvantage and exclusion across all interests. It will provide a place for dialogue between members of equalities communities of interest and representatives from Partners organisations. It will share the experience of life in South Gloucestershire for equalities communities and raise issues of concern as well as identifying priorities for a work programme for the Partners Group and receiving progress reports and feedback from them.
If you would like to be involved in the work of the SGEF or kept up to date with its progress, please contact us at equalities@southglos.gov.uk. We can send you an invitation to join our web-based e-group that will keep you updated and informed of all our work, and allow you to participate in our meetings without having to attend.
Membership
Membership of the Forum is open to all individuals and organisations committed to promoting and helping to deliver its objectives. The Partners Group will draw its membership from public and voluntary sector organisations, including those represented on the South Gloucestershire Partnership and its strategic partnerships (but not limited to just its members), Council Group Leaders and Executive Members.
Sign up to our eGroup
This is an ‘email Group’ that keeps you up to date with what the Forum is doing. You choose how often you want to receive alerts – weekly, monthly or more frequently.
All Forum minutes, reports, research and events are kept together in one place so there’s no need for you to create your own folder, download files or take up valuable memory space on your computer.
Send a blank email with ‘SGEF’ in the header to equalities@southglos.gov.uk and we will return an invitation. Click and follow the links.