Reclaim & Resurrect Derby Racial Equality Council

Preamble

HELP US write the history of now. We have all borne witness to people rising up around the world to end racism and we are asking that you step up, sit up, lay up with us once again to be part of this historic moment. Indeed, your contribution now will help ensure that the change is real and that the movement goes beyond the moment, beyond raw anguish and pain towards building a sustainable infrastructure to address racial injustice. Join our volunteer-powered movement to ensure that Derby truly is a city where racial justice and disparities are addressed.

Background

The death of Mark Duggan in 2011 sparked nationwide protests which turned into the largest riots the UK had experienced in a generation, yet many won't even remember his name. The death of George Floyd and the anguish that has cascaded from it, has been a catalyst for the resurgence of The Black Lives Matter Movement, notably raising awareness about police and community interactions, criminal justice shortcomings and shedding light on a number of other racial disparities in areas such as health, education, employment and politics. We choose to act now so that we can ensure that neither of these or other deaths have been in vain.

To this end members of Black Community Matters (BCM) worked with other groups/individuals to co-author and make a significant contribution to the Black Lives Matter Derby Manifesto, which outlines key areas that require change in order to improve the lives of Black people in Derby. The Manifesto was launched on July 31st 2020 and has been endorsed by key statutory and other agencies and organisations.

While we continue to press home the urgency of the changes required and give agencies and organisations time to implement change, we now turn our attention to working with the community at the grassroots level in order to build a coalition, capacity and infrastructure across a spectrum of stakeholder groups and organisations.

Alongside existing inequalities of Islamophobia, Antisemitism, the Windrush, anti-Traveller and Roma discrimination and the hostile environment for migrants and refugees, George Floyd’s death reached far beyond the black community to shed light on injustice for many ethnic minority groups both internationally and in the UK. 

Indeed, we have all seen the news stories and read the reports, Black, Asian and, more recently, other ethnic minority groups notably from Eastern Europe and other migrant and refugee communities are exponentially more likely to be victims of police violence, ‘stop and search’,  account for an alarmingly disproportionate number of incarcerations and are over-represented among those with poor health (Covid19), education and economic outcomes.

Why We Need Your Help?

The key action for which we are seeking support is in reclaiming the now defunct Derby Racial Equality Council  (DREC). DREC operated for many years from 31 Normanton Road, Derby DE12GJ  and had the following as two of its objectives:

1.    To work towards the elimination of racial discrimination, and

2.    To promote equality of opportunity, good race relations, between persons of different racial groups especially in the City of Derby and the County of Derbyshire

Alongside information of previous board members,  according to  the Charities Commission website and other online sources, Derby Racial Equality Council was registered on June 4th 1990 and removed on August 14th 2012 and that is as much information as we could find. Meanwhile the former Chief Executive of DREC  now works for other charities in his Leicester. Sadly, the offices (we believe a community asset gifted to the Charity years ago) with the letters DREC above its door at 31 Normanton road, has remained locked up and disused, for many years.

This crowdfunder is part of a rallying cry to create a start up fund to Reclaim and Resurrect Derby Racial Equality Council and for members of the community who represent different ethnic minority groups to put themselves forward to assist in the rebuilding of this important institution.

We need your support to make it happen. We know that times are very difficult for everyone, so we ask that you please support us in anyway you can.  If you are able to contribute to the gift of racial equality by supporting our crowdfunding campaign to create Our  DREC start up fund we also appreciate it very much.

All funds raised will be used to reclaim and resurrect DREC. 

If adding your signature to our petition is all you are able to give right now we appreciate that very much and we need your signature. The petition can be found at https://www.change.org/ResurrectAndReclaimDREC. 

Every Signature Matters and Every Pound Matters