MEDIA RELEASE
NEW CHAIRMAN FOR ISCRE PRAISES PREDECESSOR, OUTLINES VISION FOR THE FUTURE
Chris Cumberbatch has just been selected as the Chairman of Trustees for the Ipswich & Suffolk Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) and has promised to “support this great campaigning and educational organisation in its essential work of making our society fairer for all”.
Chris, 37, is a Solicitor and works as a Trust and Estate Practitioner in a Woodbridge-based law firm. He was previously ISCRE’s company secretary and vice-chairman and has overseen many of the strategic changes to ISCRE over the last five years. He has given seminars on charity law to trustees and parish councils and has trained in charity management. He is also a trained mentor at his local school and a tenor in the Ipswich Community Gospel Choir.
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Thursday 6 September 2012
ISCRE’S SUPPORTERS GATHER TO REFLECT ON A ‘TESTING’
YEAR, BUT REMAIN OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE FUTURE
Staff, volunteers,
trustees and supporters of Suffolk’s leading civil rights charity are meeting
later this month to review what many regard as the most challenging time in its
35 year existence – but also to celebrate its continuing achievements.
The Ipswich & Suffolk
Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) is coming together for its annual general
meeting on September 20 at 7pm at University Campus Suffolk. This is the first
time all parts of the charity have come together since the organisation
suffered severe cuts (£60,000 plus) to the grant it received from the Equality
& Human Rights Commission and was forced to both cut back on its work and
restructure and refocus its remaining resources.
MEDIA RELEASE
Tuesday 27 March 2012
SUFFOLK PARALYMPIAN HEADLINES AT LOCAL ANTI-HATE CRIME CONFERENCE
Brian Alldis, the Bury-based paralympian who competed in Beijing 2008 and is aiming for gold in the hand cycling event in this year’s London games is one of the keynote speakers at a conference this Friday (March 30) highlighting the local successes and challenges of disability-related harassment.
Organised by the Suffolk Hate Crime Consortium which represents a range of local charities and groups and St. Edmundsbury Borough Council, the ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ conference is due to hear both personal accounts and reports from key organisations as to the impacts and solutions in tackling crimes against citizens with disabilities.
Monday 26 March 2012
“ONE COUNTY, MANY VOICES” LITERARY PRIZE: WINNERS TO BE CONFIRMED AT UCS CEREMONY NEXT WEEK
A woman describes her year long stay in the Himalayas only to come back to Suffolk thinking as a Nepali. An Ethiopian boy’s memories of his birth country and perilous journey to Felixstowe are recounted. A young person considers how the county should better understand the many cultures represented here. Another youngster has a poem about migration and escape. A teenager explains the challenges and joys she and her family faced as they moved from Israel to Suffolk.
These are just five examples from submissions to the “One County, Many Voices” literary prize, the first such venture by the Ipswich & Suffolk Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) into the arts world to encourage participants to recount experiences and thoughts on multiculturalism, diversity and culture.
ISCRE LOBBIED, SUFFOLK POLICE LISTENED, OUTCOME: “COMMUNITY RELATIONS CAN NOW MOVE ON”
The leading local civil rights organisation in Suffolk has applauded the decision of the Chief Constable and Suffolk Police Authority last Friday (December 2) not to cease recording and reporting details of Suffolk Police’s use of stop and account and stop and search powers.
The Ipswich & Suffolk Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) has previously expressed concerns that such powers have disproportionally targeted ethnic minority communities, resulting in both a poor use of police resources and tensions between some citizens and the force as a result.
Monday 25 July 2011
SUFFOLK 'BUDDIES' AIM TO BE THERE FOR ALL VICTIMS OF HATE CRIMES
The launch meeting of a newly expanded Suffolk scheme to help victims of hate crimes get their lives back on track, will next week (July 26) hear heart-wrenching personal stories explaining just why such help is vitally needed.
In partnership with the Ipswich African Cultural Forum, and with support from the Suffolk County Council Hate Crime Service, the Ipswich and Suffolk Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) had developed a pilot ‘buddy’ training scheme.
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Monday 16 May 2011
THESE LAWYERS ARE MADE FOR WALKING: LOCAL PROFESSIONALS RAISE MONEY FOR FREE LEGAL SERVICE
A number of Ipswich-based lawyers will be leaving their desks and putting their walking boots to good use next Monday (May 16) to raise money for a much-needed free regional legal service.
The lawyers will be completing a 10km sponsored walk in Cambridge to raise funds for the Eastern Legal Support Trust which funds pro bono (free) legal advice agencies in East Anglia, including the Law Advice Centre in Ipswich.
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Monday 4 April 2011
STOP & SEARCH REFERENCE GROUP SAVED – FOR NOW
After a high-profiled campaign involving hundreds of expressions of support from across Suffolk, an online petition, media interviews and even a peaceful demonstration outside Police headquarters, ISCRE is delighted to be able to report that the Stop & Search Reference Group, funded by Suffolk Police, will not be axed for the foreseeable future.
Friday 25 March 2011
PASSING THE BATON ACROSS THE WEST SUFFOLK GENERATION DIVIDE
A unique opportunity for young people in west Suffolk to talk with and listen to their older neighbours to form a better understanding between the generations is taking place next week (March 29th) in Newmarket.
Organised by Generation Rootz, which is backed by ISCRE, Suffolk County Council and the West Suffolk Local Strategic Partnership, ‘Passing the Baton’ is a two-hour event allowing young people, especially those from Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds, to explain to older citizens some of the challenges they face – and seeking ideas as to how these could be addressed.
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Monday 17 January 2011
Over 60 people braved the Ipswich wind and rain last Friday (January 7) night to meet with internationally-acclaimed author, Roma Tearne, as she formally took up her position as the first-ever patron of the Ipswich & Suffolk Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) in an event hosted by the Suffolk Book League at the offices of Gotelee Solicitors.
The Ipswich and Suffolk Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) , the charity charged with promoting 
equality and fighting discrimination, has announced the appointment of leading author Roma Tearne as its first ever patron. Ms Tearne is due to attend a reception and reading session hosted by Gotelee Solicitors at their Ipswich offices on behalf of both ISCRE and the Suffolk Book League on January 7 2011 to celebrate the news.
Ms Tearne, who lived in Suffolk for a time in the 1980s, is the Sri-Lankan born author of
four highly-acclaimed novels; Mosquito (short listed for the 2007 Costa first Novel Award), Bone China, Brixton Beach (scheduled to be made into a Channel 4 programme) and The Swimmer (the Daily Mail’s reading group choice for November 2010), the last of which is set in Suffolk.
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The Suffolk charity charged with promoting equality and fighting discrimination has offered an olive branch to the Suffolk Constabulary to work together better for the good of all communities.
The call comes in the week that published figures show the Force is barely half way to employing a proportionate number of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) staff compared to that making up the county’s population as a whole.
Leon Hall, Project Manager of the Ipswich & Suffolk Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE), made the offer after Suffolk Police temporarily reversed their earlier decision to stop funding the innovative Stop & Search Reference Group. This initiative brings together the Police and members of Suffolk’s Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) communities to analyse use of stop and search powers.
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The Suffolk charity charged with promoting equality and fighting discrimination has teamed up with a leading firm of Ipswich solicitors to launch the local response to National Pro Bono Week, which runs next week (November 8 – 12 inclusive) by holding a free breakfast for participants.
National Pro Bono Week celebrates and highlights the many legal services provided for free to charities and other social and voluntary bodies by lawyers up and down the land.
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A new Discrimination Advice Clinic for Norfolk will be up and running from the first week in November – the results of a voluntary sector collaboration between the Suffolk Discrimination Law Service (a project of Ipswich and Suffolk Council for Racial Equality) Norwich and Norfolk Racial Equality Council.
From November 1 2010 every month (on the first Monday between 1pm and 4pm in the month and on request the first Thursday between 6pm and 7pm) there will be a free Discrimination Advice Clinic at Norwich and Norfolk Racial Equality Council at Shirehall House, Market Avenue, Norwich, NR1 3JQ.
Norfolk volunteers with a legal qualification from Suffolk Discrimination Law Service will give free and confidential advice on any type of unlawful discrimination.
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Wednesday 15 September 2010
ISCRE AGM: GREAT TURNOUT, GREAT SPEAKERS BUT GREAT CONCERN AT SUFFOLK POLICE BACKTRACKING
Over 200 people from across Suffolk, including a coach load from Bury St Edmunds, braved heavy rains to attend the Ipswich & Suffolk Council for Racial Equality’s (ISCRE) AGM last night at the Town Hall, Ipswich.
The audience, which included many residents from across the county helped by ISCRE, community leaders, representatives of public bodies as well as staff and volunteers from the charity, which is charged with promoting equality and fighting discrimination, heard of the enormous challenges ahead in the battle to maintain good community relations.
Guest speaker Simon Woolley, National Co-ordinator, Operation Black Vote and Commissioner of the Equality & Human Rights Commission, gave a rousing speech praising the work of ISCRE but warning that it will have its work cut out to deal with the growing cases of discrimination in the county at the time when public sector organisations were slashing their support for the charity.
Monday 6 September 2010
The Suffolk charity charged with promoting equality and fighting 
discrimination holds its Annual General Meeting on September 14 amidst concerns that the county is going soft in the fight against racism and unequal treatment.
The Ipswich & Suffolk Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) AGM, which will be addressed by Simon Woolley National Co-ordinator, Operation Black Vote and Commissioner of the Equality & Human Rights Commission, is expected to be attended by dozens of supporters – including newly elected Ipswich MP, Ben Gummer.
According to ISCRE’s Chair Hamil Clarke, “it’s been a tough year for equalities in Suffolk and the squeeze on the public sector is likely to make that even tougher in the year ahead. The AGM will hear that the number of discrimination cases handled by our charity has continued to spiral upwards and that we are providing our services across Suffolk”.
Monday 23 August 2010
Letter to the EADT regarding misreporting of nationality and race
Sir
I have been following the reporting of the rail crash at Sudbury, and clearly it must have been traumatic for all involved. I am however deeply concerned at the use of the lorry driver’s nationality to describe him. Before any investigation had taken place he has been negatively demonized. The reality is that the impact of this type of reporting feeds into a negative stereotype that pervades about ‘foreign drivers’, further exacerbated by political debates about migration and ‘British jobs for British workers’. The national news chose to describe him as from Cambridge- yet locally and indeed regionally his nationality is his most defining feature. Why is the ethnicity and nationality only reported on when it is other than White British and what relevance is it to the incident? This is racial discrimination at its worst.
MEDIA RELEASE
Wednesday 21 July 2010
The Suffolk charity charged with promoting equality and fighting discrimination in the county has published its first ever race equality league tables showing which public bodies in the county are fulfilling their legal and moral duties – and which are failing to do so.
The Ipswich & Suffolk Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) has evaluated 21 public sector organisations in the local government, health, education and policing/prison sectors and has scored them against four criteria with marks out of three for each. (Click here to download copies of the league table)
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Friday 2 July 2010
Wednesday 14 July 2010
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The Suffolk charity charged with promoting equality and fighting discrimination in the county is launching a scheme aimed at improving the educational prospect of local African Caribbean pupils – and is urging parents to sign up their sons now!
The Ipswich & Suffolk Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) has launched its first Leadership Academy which will run for six days in August at both Suffolk New College and the Murrayside Community Centre in Ipswich. Up to 20 places for African Caribbean children aged eight and over in school years 4 and 5 are available, although nine have already been taken after an initial meeting last week about the Academy held at Whitton Primary School.
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Friday 2 July 2010
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The Suffolk charity charged with promoting equality and fighting discrimination in the county has challenged the police to start getting serious about beating the misuse of stop and search powers within its own ranks.
The Ipswich & Suffolk Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) made the call at the latest of its innovative Stop and Search Reference Group meetings – held on Monday this week (June 28) – which brings together community groups, individuals and the police to discuss the disproportionately large numbers of black and minority ethnic (BME) residents stopped and searched (but not then charged) by the force. |
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TRAINEE LAWYERS GET CHANCE TO WORK ON REAL CASES
Thursday 17 June 2010
Seven local law students – out of nearly 60 who applied – have been given the chance by the Ipswich & Suffolk Council for Racial Equality (ISCRE) to gain firsthand experience in a number of the real-life discrimination cases being handled by the charity.
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FIGHTING RURAL RACISM
Wednesday 23 June 2010 Eleanor Thomas (Morning Star)
At first glance, there is little to suggest that Suffolk might be a key front in the long campaign for equal rights in the UK.
Yet underneath the carefully scripted tourist-friendly narrative of the Aldeburgh Festival, horse-racing at Newmarket and genteel villages is a tale of a small and cash-strapped organisation battling against corporate indifference and changing the rulebook as to how such corporate denial is addressed. 
