Residents are invited to join Cornwall’s new Race Equality Forum so that communities can come together and help create a more inclusive, and anti-racist Cornwall.

Cornwall Council is facilitating the event at the request of a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) steering group established last July in the wake of the global reaction to the death of George Floyd.

The steering group have put forward a series of actions which have been endorsed by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Leadership Board to condemn all racist and discriminatory behaviour, commit to an anti-racist Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, and to work together to tackle racism in all its forms.

One of the key actions was to set up a One and All Race Equality Forum for Cornwall and a new core group for this forum, taking over the work of the BAME Steering Group. The first forum will take place on Thursday 4 February from 6pm until 7.30pm.

Cornwall Council Leader, Julian German said: “This is an opportunity for people across Cornwall to come together and make a real difference to people’s lives. This first session will ask people to agree a model of tackling racism that will work for Cornwall and to decide how they want to be involved as this forum and core group moves forward.

“We want to shine a light on injustices that take place across Cornwall. There should be nowhere that hate and racism can hide. There should be no instances where people are discriminated against, abused, threatened and made to live in fear. I’d urge as many people as possible to come together and stand up against racism in Cornwall.”

The first session will include updates on the steps already taken and a discussion about how the new forum and core group could work and what the priorities should be. It will also include guest speaker, Cllr Asher Craig, Deputy Mayor of Bristol who will talk about Bristol’s experiences in tackling race inequality head on, the lessons they learned, what worked well and their hopes for the future.

People will also be asked to make a commitment about how they would like to continue to be involved.

To sign up for the session then please visit the Let’s Talk Cornwall website https://letstalk.cornwall.gov.uk/race-equality-forum and answer a few short questions. A link to the online meeting will then be sent to participants.

To read about the agreed aims for tackling racism, and read about more of the work that has taken place then please visit Cornwall Council’s website https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/community-and-living/equality-and-diversity/tackling-racism-in-cornwall/