Rochdale Diversity Awards

Zulf Ali, Mentor Award Winner with Andy Zuntz

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The winners of the inaugural Rochdale Diversity Awards were announced at an inspiring evening at the KYP’s Unity House Centre. The venue was packed with a cross section of the community, senior public sector officials and distinguished guests.

The Rochdale Diversity Awards ceremony promoted the excellent work being done by individuals and employers in supporting and promoting equality, diversity and cohesion within the borough. The awards also aimed to motivate service providers by ensuring equality and diversity issues were central to the remodeling and transformation of local services and organisations affected by austerity measures.

In one of his first acts as Mayor of Rochdale, Councillor James Gartside opened the awards ceremony and congratulated all the finalists and KYP in taking the initiative to launch these awards. He was followed by Council Leader Councillor Colin Lambert who said: “Rochdale has an excellent record and reputation for promoting equality and cohesion, these awards recognise this and everyone here tonight is a winner.

“Rochdale is a borough with a proud heritage and we Rochdalians are a family, one team, one borough, and one community, together we are a community.”

Zulf Ali Chairman of KYP outlined the importance of diversity in the workplace in the current economic climate and stressed that utilising the skills and experiences of those of different backgrounds helped make a difference.

“Diversity does not just mean different colour or gender, diversity can be used in the types of business models that can be adopted to deliver services to the local community through the use of local procurement, social enterprise, micro businesses and positive engagement with the voluntary sector,” he said. “Such approaches will enhance local capacity, skills development, and bring much needed money into the local economy.”

Councillor Sultan Ali, recently appointed to Rochdale’s Cabinet as portfolio holder for Strengthening Communities said: “Strengthening communities has never been more important than it is here and now as we have a multitude of global, national and local challenges that are heavily impacting on the social and economic prosperity of our communities.

“The current austerity measures mean that public service providers are under-going a major transformation and there is a major risk that adverse equality and cohesion impacts could push our communities into isolation and extreme perspectives.”

“The Rochdale Diversity Awards are an excellent way to highlight good practice and celebrate the excellent work that is taking place within our town and I hope that we can all learn from the unique nature of service delivery that the finalists have been providing.”

Mohammed Habeebullah who recently received an OBE and one of the KYP founding members, was keen to stress that: "We need senior level officers who are able to connect and provide leadership to the local BAME community or to be local role models. We need to challenge and influence mainstream strategies and policies from within as the lack of involvement of senior BAME officers at a strategic level may lead to the same problems experienced by neighbouring authorities in 2001.”

“Rochdale has many strong community organisations, a proven track record of cohesion, a clear political leadership within the council and a proactive Police Force, we have all the ingredients, we just simply need to ensure that we have the right services.”

Jim Taylor, recently appointed as Chief Executive at Rochdale Council, made a short but heart warming speech in which he said: “Rochdale is a wonderful place and I’m really pleased to be here tonight, the whole spirit of Rochdale is reflected in this room.

“We live in a very diverse community and I am delighted to be a part of this.”

The winners:

• Cohesion Award (there were 4 winners of this award): Dr Abdul Shakoor, New Shamwari Project and The Friends of Shamwari, Rochdale MBC Youth Service, Syke Community Base
• Workforce Diversity Award: Great Places Housing Group
• Housing Award: Khubsurat House, St. Vincent’s Housing Association
• Health Award: Rochdale and District MIND
• Apprenticeship Award Winner: Rochdale Training Association
• Outstanding Achiever Award: Joyce Osadolor (Hopwood Hall College student)
• Young Community Achiever Award Winner: Hassan Javed Akhtar
• Mentor Award Winner: Zulfiqar Ali, (Chairman - KYP)
• Volunteering Award: Mohammed Sheraz (RMBC Youth Worker)
• Female Minority Ethnic Achiever Award Winners: Salma Chaudri (Scheme Manager), Khubsurat House and Rabeah Wahid (Physical Activity Instructors)

Gill Nagy, Rochdale Training, Apprenticeship Award winner, said: “We are so honoured to receive this award. This is due to the hard work of all the staff at Rochdale Training, but especially to Mudasir Saeed and Jeremy Roberts. Equality, diversity and community cohesion is so important to our organisation and we are delighted that our work in this area has been recognised. Thank-you”

Ed Kelly, Rochdale MBC Youth Service, Cohesion Award winner, said: “It is an honour to win this award. The Youth Service is successful because of the support we receive from our partners and our young people. We will continue to work at ensuring we play a role in the ongoing maintenance and development of community cohesion initiatives.”

Sheila Acton, Chairwoman of Syke Community Base, Cohesion Award winner, said: "We are really thrilled and proud to win the award, and look forward to continuing to build on what we have already achieved in bringing everyone together regardless of age, ethnicity or gender in ways which recognise the true meaning of cohesion."

Stephen Porter, Chief Executive, Great Places Housing Group, Workforce Diversity Award winner, said: “We are absolutely delighted with this award. The staff and teams Great Places employs throughout our neighbourhoods are representative of the communities and areas in which they operate. Having a workforce that mirrors a diverse cross-section of customers means that we can meet their differing needs and provide them with the best possible service.”

The awards were sponsored by Rochdale MBC, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, Hopwood Hall College, Great Places House Group, A&B Carpets and Arif Cash & Carry.