The Liverpool City Region Race Equality Hub is an ambitious and innovative approach to tackle race inequality within the Liverpool City Region (LCR).
Building upon the city region’s reputation for social justice and equality, the Hub’s primary purpose is to tackle systemic injustice and inequality and drive forward positive change for our Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic employees and residents.
We will work in partnership with public, private and 3rd sector employers, to encourage and support them to do the same, across all six boroughs of the city region in order to tackle the discriminatory barriers to recruitment and selection for these groups and develop positive action pathways into the workplace in order to address under-representation.
Vision
The development and establishment of a Race Equality Hub marks a significant change from how race equality has been addressed within the Liverpool City Region and represents a tangible demonstration of commitment to address the significant inequalities experienced by Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities. This development marks an ambitious, exciting and innovative approach to how race equality will be achieved and that builds upon the city region’s reputation for social justice and equality.
The Hub will serve as a vehicle to bring about improved racial diversity across public, private and 3rd sector businesses and organisations, and provide support that will improve the business landscape and support the career prospects for minority ethnic communities across the Liverpool City Region.
Race Equality Hub members with Mayor Steve Rotheram
What will the Hub do?
A Development Board was established in Winter 2021 to help codesign the Hub, made up of nine community members who responded to an open call.
They have helped design the Hub’s main service delivery areas, which will be:
Positive Action Programmes
Positive Action Programmes – creating and delivering initiatives to target and enable Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic access to apprenticeship, graduate, leadership and other development opportunities within growth sector organisations.
Leadership & Development
Creating and delivering initiatives to target and enable Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic access to apprenticeship, graduate, leadership and other development opportunities within growth sector organisations.
Business Support
To provide bespoke support for people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities to develop and establish businesses and to enable existing businesses to develop and grow.
Business Consultancy
Advisory and consultancy support for mainstream businesses who wish to diversify their workforce and require expertise and support to do so. It will also provide race equality training tailored to the needs of individual businesses.
Mentoring and Coaching
To provide mentors, role models, advocates and advisors to support service users to achieve their goals. Along with a coaching service this will be deployed across a range of company services.
Policy, Impact Analysis
To understand the impact the programme is having in meeting its strategic vision. It will do this by collecting and analysing data, monitoring performance, assessing impact and undertaking evaluations of service delivery.
Ahead of the formal opening of the Hub, we will continue to run a series of pilot initiatives to help fine tune the range of services on offer. Through the delivery of training, advice, support, and other services we aim to meet the needs of minority ethnic communities and further racial equality and justice.
