Equality and Diversity

Leeds Tenants Federation is dedicated to involving tenants and residents from hard-to-reach communities and we are succeeding in this aim.

At least 12% of residents involved in Leeds Tenants Federation projects or taking part in our events are from Black and Minority Ethnic groups.

Ethnic minority involvement in residents associations runs at 3.75% Black or Black British (the city wide profile is 1.79%), 2% Asian or Asian British (the city wide profile is 4.51%) and 5% Mixed (the city wide profile is 1.83%), with 89% White.

Disabled people make up 28% of those attending resident group events. Young people are still under-represented both in Leeds Tenants Federation events and in our affiliated groups and only 8% of our membership are under the age of 30. To change this, we are actively campaigning on young people's housing issues, involving existing youth groups in our public events and dedicating our grant programme to fund activities involving young people.

We set up the Yorkshire Dreamscheme Partnership along working with social landlords in the region to encourage the involvement of young people in community projects. We have financially supported the development of the young people's group Ozzy Fun Zone, funding their residential training and their regular events. We have supported the youth drama group, Richmond Hill Drama Teens and both these young people's groups are regular attendees at Leeds Tenants Federation events. In 2005 we worked with the charity Common Purpose in running role play workshops in citizenship for schools.

In March 2005 we held the Come2gether celebration of diversity in Leeds. This colourful and enjoyable showcase of the wonderful talent in our diverse communities was attended by 300 people.

As part of our strategy to enable Black and Minority Ethnic communities to become more involved in decisions about their homes, we produced a Welcome Poster translated into the widest range of community languages. This poster is now displayed at most public service and voluntary sector buildings in the city.

We are running a programme of visits and talks to BME community groups to raise awareness of the opportunities for tenant involvement. Over 100 BME community groups are on our regular mailing list.

Service users from disabled people's organisations such as Change and Association of Blind Asians also attend our events. Our magazine Home @ Leeds is distributed in audio tape and braille to a fast growing mailing list of tenants and we arrange for it to be interpreted in community languages - we have responded to requests for Urdu and Punjabi interpretation to date.

In December 2003 Leeds Tenants Federation signed up to support the Leeds Unity Against Racism campaign. In Summer 2004 the Federation became a Hate Incident Reporting Centre - showing its commitment to fighting racial and other personal harassment. The Federation also attends meetings of the Asylum Seekers and Refugees Multi-Agency group.