Fair Justice System for Scotland: Cultural Connections Events - £5000

FJSS Group advocates for diverse and inclusive employment and appointments in the justice sector to reflect the diversity of modern-day Scottish society. Our work is geared towards influencing the direction of justice delivery policy in Scotland through informing the processes of policy formulation and development. Our Vision is to be a leading voice for a national program of justice sector reforms that will bring the necessary changes to allow the development of a people focused community and social justice agenda in Scotland. The vision of the organisation is for a fair, just, tolerant, and inclusive Scotland where opportunities are defined by need and the diversity of talent. 

The proposed project will focus on activities including events that will be geared towards community building to foster closer cooperation, collaboration and partnership of organisations that work towards similar but unique objectives. This will mainly be a follow on from the findings from the public survey of our ground-breaking project that was focused on analysing the effects of Covid-19 on the Black community in West Lothian. Most of the respondents stated that they found it difficult to foster networks beyond their immediate ethnic and cultural connections. Cross ethnic and cross-cultural interaction are still very low and this needs to be addressed to avoid community tension. Events will take place across Livingston, Bathgate, West Calder, Broxburn, Whitburn and Linlithgow.

Football: Adults and children will have an opportunity to play together in matches. These will bring together families from across ethnicities playing together.

Bike Riding Challenge: The bike riding challenge will involve adults and boys' and girls' teams riding from one end of the football track to the other, with prizes.

Bake, Bring and Share: Families from across ethnicities will bring whatever they can bake at home and share among each other. This engenders great community spirit and people try each other's bakes and interact and understand each other's cultures better.

Story Telling and Book Reading: Both adults and children will have an opportunity to hear stories from other communities and cultures as well as have time to read favourite stories such as children's adventure and history books. The story telling is important as it builds confidence in young people and adults.

Special Session on Understanding Black Excellence: Pupils from West Lothian High Schools an opportunity to interact with and understand Black history and Black excellence. Sessions will be organised at the FJSS Group offices to allow groups of senior pupils to view the special exhibition of the King commissioned Windrush Photographic exhibition featuring 10 of the most eminent Windrush personalities including the FJSS Group chairman Professor Sir Geoff Palmer OBE.