Unity Cornwall is a member of the Criminal Justice Board Devon and Cornwall Scrutiny Panel.  The panel's task is to review all racially and religious motivated hate crime.  Panel members include: Devon & Cornwall Constabulary, Crown Prosecution Service, Magistrates Court, Youth Offending Team, Probation Service, Rural Racism Project, Unity Cornwall, Amber Initiatives and other individuals from the BME community.  This is a nationwide initiative, but the southwest scrutiny panel are the only panel, at this time, to be able to submit race and religious hate crime cases that are current and that have been chosen by the panel members themselves.

Unity is also a voting member of the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Youth Justice Board and adviser on community aspects for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Young People. Other member organisations includes the Cornwall Council, Youth Offending Service, Police, Primary Care Trust, Probation and Crown Prosecution Service.

For the past couple of years Unity have been working with the Cornwall's Diversity Police Team to help develop their BME PACT initiative, which address issues of prejudice, racism and other strands of bullying.

For more information on the BME PACT, please contact:

Simon Hill, Steve Canon or Allan Reed on:

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The most recent initiative Unity took part in was an event called 'Racist Incidents and Bullying in Schools' event, which was organised by the Children & Family Services, Cornwall Council and to follow this up Unity have promised to support the delivery of these workshop events across Cornwall. It is hoped that by encouraging school's participation to raise awareness of the affects on individuals and groups from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities it will help to improve pupil's tolerance levels and therefore becoming more receptive to cultural differences. Ultimately we believe cultural awareness workshops will help to enhance the school curriculum and create a sustainable process of learning for teachers as well as pupils .

For further information, please contact:

Unity are members of the Cornwall Race Equality Council, which is a present creating a new system to advise victims of racist incidents. This forum is made up of many different organisations from the public and third sector.

For further information, please contact:

Victor Downer
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01872 264232

Unity are also members of the Children's Trust, Children & Young People Strategic Board and Children & Young People Partnership and are the only black asian and minority ethnic representation with voting rights. Through Unity's adult and youth forums we are able to take the concerns, ideas and aspirations to this forum, which has been specifically created to look at fundamental reorientation of services in Cornwall and to work across professional boundaries to improve the support to children, young people and their families.

For further information, please contact: