Minutes:
Pauline expressed interest, as a co-Chair of this Forum in attending a meeting of the police Women’s Forum. Sarah welcomed that and stated they were currently going through a review at the moment to see how they captured gender with issues such as uniform due to it being a male dominant service. Her passion was for specialist operations such as firearms and the underrepresentation of women. Action: Debbie to put Pauline & Sarah in touch. Sarah also said that they often had speakers at their meetings and she would be in touch with members in the future.
Neelam – 9 days festival coming up 14. Send the flyer. Diwali 30/10 please join us, 10am – 8pm with parade at 6pm with food stalls.
Morcea – October was Black History month – more details can be found here
Black History Month | West Northamptonshire Council (westnorthants.gov.uk)
Cllr Jolley – weekly coffee mornings at St Albans and food bank on Fridays. Abington library had monthly coffee mornings.
Alex – During October they would be hosting an event around black history month celebrating projects they have funded across the county. Including an event around hate crime and PCSE with a webinar on 14th October to help people learn and understand what to do around hate crime and how to report it. General funding opportunities continue – visit Northamptonshire Community Foundation (ncf.uk.com) or contact Alex for more information on funding or events - alex@ncf.uk.com
Dawn – NRC were looking to recruit 3 more officers and asked the group to please help raise awareness amongst their contacts.
Mavis – currently organising black history month and had invited some organisations to contribute with information around the help and support they provided during Covid. They also had funding from NCF for a cooking programme and an event where people could come and sample different food with music and dance included to make it a fun event – no date had been arranged yet and will circulate a flyer when ready.
Neelam – Princess Royal had attended an event on 14 September. She had been very inspiring and talked to almost everyone.
Pauline had attended the World Peace Day to celebrate Bangladesh Independence and stated it was the best organised event she had been do. The flag of India was flown outside the Guildhall for the first time.
Eleri – launch of police interfaith event – look forward to seeing people
Hate Crime awareness week – WNC Officers and partners would be on the Market Squares in Daventry on 12 October and Northampton on 14 October from 11am – 1pm.
NFRS - Katy informed the group that, following on from Lauren’s presentation on recruitment at the last meeting, they were organising a community engagement and ‘have-a-go’ day to try and knock down the barriers that it was a man’s job and give the opportunity to speak to the crews. Details to be circulated to the Forum once finalised. Kay stated she had been a firefighter for 1 ½ years having come from a customer services background but had wanted to completely change her career. NFRS had been recruiting at the time and she had taken that opportunity and thought she had the best job in the world!
NDAS - Rachel stated that services were returning to face to face where possible. They had been announced as the chosen charity for Mayor of Northampton – a charity gala was being arranged for 4 December and she would circulate further details when they were available.
International Men’s Day – nominations were now open for inspirational male role models, closing date Sunday 7 November. The event would be held on Friday 19 November at Northampton Museum.