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The Community Partnership Forum
Bringing community organisations together - By Paul Grant
On Tuesday 23rd October the Community Partnership Forum (CPF) held its first open community meeting at
the Marcus Garvey Centre on Lenton Boulevard. There was an excellent attendance with standing room only as
the founding members of the CPF outlined their hopes and aspirations for the future.
The CPF is a group born out of the initiative of the Sheriff of
Nottingham, Cllr Merlita Bryan, who was in attendance at the meeting.
The aim of the group is to be a credible voice to articulate
the needs of the Black community (African/African-Caribbean/
Dual Heritage) in relation to community planning, service
delivery by mainstream institutions and to work for the
equitable allocation of resources, particularly in relation to
education, employment and economic development.
There were presentations outlining the current economic
situation in Nottingham and which highlighted that
Nottingham has the highest level of BME unemployment of
any city in England and Wales.
It was noted that the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reports
that. The Black Minority Ethnic (BME) unemployment rate
in Nottingham at 9.4% in 2012 (nationally - 6.0%), the
highest in the country. The data also shows the largest
variations of unemployment in the Black or Black British
group at 16.0% (nationally - 9.7%) and in the Mixed Ethnic
group at 12.9% (nationally - 6.0%).
This is in contrast, the unemployment rates for the Asian or
Asian British and Chinese or Other Ethnic groups are 4.1% and
4.6% respectively.
Those in attendance were brought up to speed regarding
the Nottingham Growth Strategy which aims to stimulate
economic growth and development across the city; and the
Nottingham City Deal, a £60M initiative, financed by central
and local government, aiming to create several thousand jobs
in creative industries in Nottingham.
From a broader perspective there was a general consensus
that there was a need to:
• Build bridges between the African and African-
Caribbean communities.
• Improve partnership working between organisations in
the voluntary and community sector
• Create structures that enable engagement and
participation of the community in issues that affect it
and produces accountable leadership
• Hold public bodies accountable for the services they
deliver (or fail to deliver) to our communities
• Promote entrepreneurship and business development
in the African and African-Caribbean communities
• Engage with young people so that their voices can be
heard
A second open meeting will be held on 27 th of November
starting from 6pm to 8pm. This will help start to create
a structure within the CPF which allows for maximum
community participation and to identify some priorities for
immediate action.
If you would like to get involved in the Community Partnership
Forum, please contact Paul Grant at [email protected] or
0770 3004813.
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