Huntingdonshire district council

(skip to content)

Local Equality Partnership


Huntingdonshire Diversity Forum

Due to overlapping membership and the shared aims of the Mapping Diversity Group and the Open Out Scheme, the two groups merged in November 2004 to form the Diversity Forum.  This a multi-agency group comprising representatives from Huntingdonshire District Council, Huntingdonshire Housing Partnership, Cambridgeshire Constabulary, Cambridgeshire County Council, Huntingdonshire Primary Care Trust, Cambridgeshire Traveller’s Initiative and Jobcentre Plus.  The Mapping Diversity and Open Out groups continue to operate, with bi-monthly meetings split into two main sections, one for each project.

  • The Mapping Diversity Group was established to encourage partnership in identifying diversity of ethnicity and religion in Huntingdonshire, specifically to establish a consultation forum or process engaging minority ethnic communities.
  • Open Out is a local partnership scheme designed to encourage the reporting of racial and homophobic incidents, otherwise known as ‘Hate Crimes’.

The aim of the Diversity Forum is to share knowledge and resources on Huntingdonshire’s Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) population.  The key outcomes for the Forum are:

  • to raise awareness of and value diversity in the district,
  • to encourage people from different backgrounds to engage in influencing their communities, and
  • to work together with different sectors and organisations to pool experience, resources and knowledge in Huntingdonshire.

In summer 2004 the Forum was successful in a bid to the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) to fund a 2 year post to research issues relating to BME groups in Huntingdonshire.  The results of this research can be found in the Breaking Through report listed in the linked documents on the right.

Members of the group are keen to make contact with individuals, community and religious groups within Huntingdonshire so that they can find out what issues affect them and how local services may be improved to meet their specific needs.  The group would like to make contact with more groups in the area and is also looking for new members to represent the ethnic communities within the district or other relevant organisations from the public and private sectors.

The group is keen to emphasise the benefits to local communities of contributing to its work, and therefore would like to encourage anyone with an interest in local service provision for ethnic minority groups to get involved.

If you would like to become involved in any way, whether through joining the group or expressing your views on current services, please telephone either Anne-Marie Waterston on 01480 428726 or Louise Sboui on 01480 388032 for further information.

Unity in the Community

A free fun day for all the community was hosted by the Diversity Forum on Saturday 14th July 2007 at Huntingdon's Medway Centre, Oak Tree Centre and Maple Centre.  There were foods from around the world and a variety of fun events from face-painting to African drumming and salsa dancing.