MNfC, Merseyside Refugee Support Network and Merseyside Council of Faiths, (MCF) have established the Coalition as a Forum of Support for those communities across the Greater Liverpool sub-region who are affected by discrimination and disadvantage.

The Coalition, essentially a network of networks, will assist groups and individuals to:

• challenge the twin evils of discrimination and disadvantage
• articulate their views and concerns to those in power
• benefit from, and contribute to the full life and activities of the community.

The Coalition arose in order to meet at the sub region level the new National Equality and Human Rights Commission’s remit to serve all groups facing discrimination. Locally the Coalition have consulted with many frontline groups and individuals who report that they feel a degree of frustration at gaps between the legal, policy commitments and intentions of civic agencies committed to equality and human rights and their day to day experience.

The consequence of this partial failure to implement a more robust response to ensure equality is a continuing reluctance for people to come forward when confronted with any form of discrimination and for them to play a full role in the social, cultural and economic life of the community.

The Coalition’s engagement will be a hands-on approach in its work with disadvantaged groups and communities and it is recognised that particular and novel opportunities will arise in bringing the different equality strands together in a meaningful way in order to achieve the necessary reduction or banishment of barriers.

The essence of the Coalition will be putting people in touch with each other, through practical initiatives, and with agencies to help create a very proactive framework, what we describe above as a network of networks. Secondly the Coalition will not merely support but lead on and create initiatives which assist in building peoples capacity to engage with society as a player on an even playing field.

In particular the Coalition is about to embark on a major initiative to assist in overcoming the economic disadvantage that underlines many equality issues. A programme for May 2008 to March 2009 is under development and we will advertise this soon on this site.

Staff and steering group

Project Director:
John Smith info@merseysidecounciloffaiths.org tel: 0151 702 6976

Chairs of the steering group:
Rev Peter Morgan, St. Bernard’s Church Kingsley road L8 2TY, Donna Tago c/o MNfC