Something that has travelled with me into retirement from my previous ministry is an interest in the work of the Cardiff and Vale Coalition for Disabled People. I got to know Charles Willie, its director in the context of working groups preparing of the re-launch of the city centre once redevelopment work was complete. The Council's partnership with C&VCDP includes an Access Focus Group which is consulted at the early stages of building projects, with the aim of influencing and inspiring architects and designers to think inclusively. Expertise in any aspect of social inclusion policy and the new Single Equalities Act is a natural development for this voluntary organisation so it is often approached by other organisations, voluntary and statutory which are obliged to formulate their own working policy plans and commitments.
This morning, for the first time, I was free to respond to an invitation to share in an equalities policy working group, with Arts Council of Wales staff at the C&VCDP HQ on Cowbridge Road. There were nine of us, and that included two sign language interpreters, assisting one of the Arts Council team. The Spiritual Capital research project developed my interest in Cardiff's 200+ faith groups, and out of that developed an interest in the difficult and contentious area of Faith Equalities.
The aspiration to treat everyone equally in respect of disability, race, gender, age or sexuality is starting to be well established in social policy deliberations. Equality in matters of faith or non-belief is far less straightforward in practice, perhaps because of the subjective as well as cultural components involved in recognising someone's faith. I feel I have a great deal to learn about how a satisfactory method might be designed to tackle areas of conflict, where differing passionate convictions of faith groups may lead them to mutual rejection and exclusion. I come to policy discussion as a learner, aware of more problems than solutions. As that learning process started out for me with the Spiritual Capital project if asked I describe myself now as a 'Spiritual Capital researcher', hoping that covers what I don't know as well as what I know.
The two hour session was stimulating, with the Arts Council people willing to rise to the challenge of thinking about how their Equalities policy could find fresh creative and artistic expression in their work programme. It was pleasing to learn that they knew about the Faith Equalities training workshop which I was first took part in two years ago, and they wish to take part next time it is run. It'll be interesting to see how this piece of work develops, and what difference it makes in practice.
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