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Council and democracy 

The Embrace Partnership

The Embrace Partnership

What is Embrace?

The EMBRACE partnership formed in 2005 to help its public sector member’s work together to address racial harassment and promote community cohesion within southern Oxfordshire. The partnership’s activities focus on listening and responding to the needs of local people, paying particular attention to the issues facing people from black or minority ethnic communities.

Engaging with black and minority ethnic (BME) communities in southern Oxfordshire is a challenge for public bodies wanting to seek their feedback about local service provision. This is because there is a very small BME population in southern Oxfordshire (2.1% in South Oxfordshire district) and there are no formalised representative structures or networks in the local area which public bodies can consult with. In light of this challenge, the EMBRACE partnership have up until now focussed its work on engaging with local BME food and retail businesses.

What initiatives has Embrace been working on?

Door step research

  • In summer 2006, members of Embrace went to find out what black and minority ethnic staff running restaurants and take-aways in Abingdon and Didcot thought about their local services and local community
  • We are using the results of this research to inform the future work of Embrace and ensure that our services are meeting the needs of these businesses

Embrace newsletters

People working in ethnic minority restaurants and take-aways in Didcot  and Abingdon told Embrace that they want more information about how local services can help them. In response to this, Embrace is producing 3 newsletters a year for these business in Didcot and Abingdon

Our first issue introduced Embrace, set out the results of the research we carried out and gave details about how people can report racist incidents the easy way. We also included an article on the forthcoming smoking ban and how district councils can offer help and advice to local businesses.

This is a one year pilot project – if it’s successful we’ll consider how can we deliver our newsletters to more ethnic minority food businesses in Southern Oxfordshire

Identifying support networks for people from ethnic minority communities living in Southern Oxfordshire

During 2007/08, Lebo Molete (Oxfordshire Racial Equality Council) is mapping networks, groups and organisations supporting people from ethnic minority communities living in rural Oxfordshire. Embrace will use his findings to identify relevant support groups which they can work with to engage with wider ethnic minority communities in Southern Oxfordshire.

Embrace Partners

South Oxfordshire District Council - Contact us on: 01491 823000

Vale of White Horse District Council - Contact us on: 01235 520202 or visit www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk. 

Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT) - Contact us on: 01865 226900

Oxfordshire County Council - Contact us on: 01865 258517 or visit www.oxfordshire.gov.uk.

Oxfordshire Racial Equality Council - Contact us on: 01865 791891.

Thames Valley Police
To talk to us about any non emergency issues, please call 08458 505505.