Cornwall has a Black History Month (BHM) focus group. The group have met several times over nine months discussing ideas for next month (October 2009). Ideas so far have been:

• to build greater awareness for the Public, but more specifically in Schools and Colleges
• a carnival event which can be built on year-on-year
• local timeline of Black History
• giving libraries suggestions of book, DVDs, internet sites, magazines to put on display at entrances of public buildings
• food tasting event
• using Facebook to create greater interest

It is Unity Cornwall's belief that a 'race and cultural' element should be continually taught to our children and young people within Cornish schools. Simply to help prepare our children for the big world outside of Cornwall. There is such a lack of sowing the seeds of acceptance of ethnic minorities living and working in Corwall and hardly any cultural awareness studies within the schools' curriculum that it has unfortunately ripped a harvest of fear and lack of tolerance of difference which allows the cycle of a strong presence of prejudice in Cornwall to continue. Unity Cornwall conducted a survey and produced a DVD that showed 100% of the young people being interviewed have suffered from racist bullying from a very young age. Their experience usually started from the time they entered a Primary School environment. The bullying was carried out by other children of the same age and older within and out of the School premises and unfortunatly those children who are now young people and have become adults and still have their racist views - it will manifest itself within that person and they will not even be conscious of their behaviour.

If we do nothing these young people's prejudice will eventually transfer to their working environment and therefore race discrimination will occur at some point in time and therefore this will put the employers reputation up for scrutiny and even litigation procedures within the judicial system. It is rare that a person from an ethnic background would challenge an organisational cultural that is supportive of other individuals who continue to break the law of the land as it is easier to turn a blind eye to what goes on within the work place by employees on other employees from ethnic backgrounds. In more extreme cases of racist physical and verbal incidents police statistics show a rise in this area (click here for Devon & Cornwall racially aggrevated incidents statistics).

For the last couple of years Unity have been talking to Cornwall Council, the Children Schools and Families Directorate to introduce and sustain a service that would deliver race and cultural awareness within Cornish schools. The first step started in March 2009 where a practical workshop for headteachers was held over a two days period. This was arranged by the Cornwall Council's Equality & Diversity Service and managed by Ginny Harrison-White and her team. The event was called 'RACIST INCIDENTS AND BULLYING IN SCHOOLS - How to prevent them and how to respond when they happen'. To view more details, please click here. It is hoped that Unity will continue to work more closely with Cornwall Council to deliver a service which will make a positive contribution to people's lives and help improve our society through a 'zero tolerance' approach when it comes to racism - we'll keep you informed of any developments.  However, if you believe there is another way, please let us know.  Thanks

To see what other regions are doing in the rest of the UK, please click here.

To see the 100 Great Black Britons, please click here

To see more on Black and Asian history in Britain, please click the following suggested websites:

• The National Archives of black and asian history in Britain
• Channel 4 - the Race Debate
• Teaching Black and Asian history in Schools (MS Word format) and 'click here' some work complete in 2003 which gives some more examples 'click here'
• Black History 4 School 'click here'
• Black presence - Asian and Black history in Britain
  
• Multiverse Exploring diversity and achievement - Black History
• Cambridge University Press - A History of Black and Asian Writing in Britain
• Institute for Race Relations (IRR) Teaching Black History: The struggle continues
• The Black & Asian Studies Association (B.A.S.A): some good reading 'click here'. Another interesting article on 'Heritage and Recession' 'click here

There are many, many more websites out there and that's just the UK. United States of America have many more:

• Black History USA TODAY 2009

The next BHM group meeting is to be held soon - notification will be given a week before. If you have anything to contribute, please let us know and/or contact us to see if you can become a member of the BHM group for Cornwall.

It is hoped that most people would welcome Unity's decision to leave the above information on our website for the whole year in order for people to continue to learn more about Black history and culture. Therefore, if you know anyone who display a lack of knowledge of black history you can now direct them to Unity's website. We hope it will give everyone the opportunity to learn more about the historical events that relate those individuals, groups and communities from black and asian backgrounds living in Cornwall.

The Cornish Health Community have re-launched a new BME NHS Staff Support Network. The MEG is no more, and has been replaced by a BME NHS Staff Network that have not yet given themselves a name..

The PCT through a consultation process with BME staff members last year November 2008 agreed that a staff network would be very helpful. The PCT has recently commissioned Unity Cornwall to facilitate these staff sessions.

Through our partnership work with the NHS Cornwall & Isles of Scilly and other statutory/voluntary agencies Unity Cornwall believe we can together bring about positive change at work for black, asian and minority ethnic staff throughout the whole health community.