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Minutes:
a) The Queen’s Birthday Honours List
(1) The Chairman referred to the recent announcement regarding the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. He congratulated all recipients especially those from Kent. In particular he congratulated Paul Carter, former Leader of the Council, on his well-deserved knighthood and Geraldine Allinson, a Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, on being awarded an OBE.
(2) He reminded members that the Covid-19 Honours nominations were still open and that further details could be found on the gov.uk website.
b) Kent County Council’s Renewable Energy Team
(3) The Chairman stated that KCC’s Renewable Energy Team had been part of a solar energy project at Northfleet School for Girls, which had won the national Green Business Renewable Energy Project of the Year Award. He asked members to encourage schools in their divisions to become part of the Kent Schools Energy Programme.
c) Charity Walk
(4) Following his announcement at the last meeting, the Chairman said he had completed his 56 mile walk across Kent in aid of Porchlight and had raised over £4,000. He thanked everyone who had supported him and donated to the charity.
d) World Mental Health Day and World Homeless Day
(5) The Chairman referred to World Mental Health Day and World Homeless Day on Saturday 10 October. The social care and health pages on Kent.gov contained details of much needed Kent-based initiatives to support the most vulnerable in the community.
e) Black History Month
(6) The Chairman drew attention to Black History Month and the virtual celebrations organised in Kent. The Black and Minority Ethnic Forum had several virtual events taking place, including video messages from members of the forum sharing what the month meant to them.
f) Poppy Launch 2020
(7) The Chairman referred to the national launch of the Poppy Appeal. As it was not possible to hold the usual Kent Civic launch of the appeal he encouraged as many people as possible to purchase a poppy either online or at a local supermarket.
g) Interfaith Week - 8 – 15 November 2020
(2) The Chairman referred to the way in which interfaith work supported the authority’s equality and diversity agenda and the Prevent agenda by increasing knowledge and promoting dialogue. He said that the Public Health England review on ‘Covid-19, which had demonstrated disparities in risks and outcomes,’ and the death of George Floyd, which had given voice to the Black Lives Matter movement, made it more important than ever to ensure strong dialogue across protected characteristics.
(3) The Chairman highlighted some of the interfaith celebratory events that KCC had supported over the previous three years including ‘Diverse Open Doors’ which saw many places of worship, including Canterbury Cathedral, Maidstone Methodist Church, Thanet Synagogue, Gravesend Gurdwara, the Pegan Community and the Unitarian Church opening their doors to the wider community. In addition, in response to requests from faith communities, an online resource and a ‘local’ map of faith groups interested in interfaith working had been developed and was available on KCC’s website.
(4) The Chairman encouraged all members to attend the staff and member briefing on Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism which would be led by Dr Sham Qayyum from SOAS, University of London and Rabbi Alex Goldberg from the University of Surrey, with staff from KCC’s Prevent and Channel team and Equalities and Diversity team. In conclusion he said Kent’s Libraries would be offering a reading list and local history posts linked to interfaith work which would be shared via social media with partners and that work was underway to deliver virtual tours of Kent places of worship online.