Equality and Diversity

Islamophobia Awareness Month. Stand up together – it makes us strong!

ISLAMOPHOBIA A MYTH ? The sad reality of the matter is that is REAL, the need to spread awareness and stand united to dispel and dismantle biases is our collective responsibility. What is ISLAMOPHOBIA & HATE CRIME ? The UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance, defined Islamophobia as: "...a baseless hostility and fear vis-a-vis Islam, and, as a result, a fear of

2020-04-17T10:51:10+01:0014th November 2017|Blog, Equality and Diversity|
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Time To Change Leeds Champions Fund

The Champions Fund is here! Lets change the way Leeds thinks about mental health. What is the Champions Fund? The fund is available for people with lived experience of mental health problems to run their own anti-stigma activities. What types of activities could I run? You can run any sort of anti-stigma activity, as long it includes social contact (i.e. it should conversations that take place between people who have lived

2017-10-21T09:00:20+01:0021st October 2017|Equality and Diversity, News|
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Bayard Rustin activist #BlackHistoryMonth

Bayard Rustin was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, pacifism and non-violence, and gay rights. He was born and raised in Pennsylvania where his family was involved in civil rights work. In 1936, he moved to Harlem, New York City and earned a living as a nightclub and stage singer, and continued activism for civil rights. In the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), Rustin practiced nonviolence.

2020-04-17T10:46:25+01:0013th October 2017|Black History Month, Blog, Equality and Diversity, LGBT*|
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“PROUD” – A Story of Touchstone at Leeds Pride 2017

Once again this year Touchstone staff celebrated all that is “Pink” about Leeds during Pride 2017. Not only did staff march tall with our Pink Pals banner in the parade, we also had a stall in partnership with Leeds Mind and Community Links to raise awareness of mental health amongst the LGBT+ and non-LGBT communities in Leeds and beyond. The day began for us at 9am but, with our mental

2020-04-17T10:41:17+01:0010th August 2017|Blog, Equality and Diversity, LGBT*|
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Staff diversity at Touchstone

Touchstone supports people from a wide range of backgrounds and we aim to reflect the same diversity among our staff. To check how we're doing, each year we ask staff to complete a brief survey. The results of our 2017 survey are summarised below. 16% of staff have a disability, compared to 14% the previous year. Our current objective is 15%. 9% of our current service users have a disability. 47% of

2020-04-17T10:18:44+01:004th August 2017|Equality and Diversity, News|
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Annual Information Report: Who did Touchstone support in 2016/17?

On 31 March 2017 there were over 1500 active service users accessing Touchstone services. This suggests that on any given day we have around 1500 live service users across Touchstone. Half of Touchstone’s live service users come from BME backgrounds. All Touchstone services have a BME service user profile above the 2011 Census baseline. The percentage of active service users defining themselves as bisexual, gay or lesbian is about 5%

2020-04-17T10:28:53+01:0021st July 2017|Blog, Data and Statistics, Equality and Diversity|
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Setting the Standard for Coproduction #coproweek

At Touchstone we strive to model all that is great about coproduction.  In 2016, we delivered Leeds’ first ever coproduction conference which included contributions from all sectors and - of course - experts by experience as a given. We also wrote a blog about the conference for SCIE, which can be found here: http://coproductionweek.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/coproduction-conference.html On 6th July 2017, to coincide with Coproduction Week, Touchstone and our partners Leeds Involving People,

2020-04-17T10:28:36+01:0016th June 2017|Coproduction, Equality and Diversity, Events, News, Partnership|
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In:Charge Leeds Mental Health Coaching Initiaitive

IN:CHARGE is a new and exciting project by Touchstone and PATH Yorkshire, bringing together people from African, African Caribbean, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Mixed Heritage backgrounds on a FREE 24-week Training Course to learn and develop as a ‘Mental Health Coach’. The project will give participants the chance to improve their employment prospects and leadership skills through work experience placements and the opportunity to shadow people in high level leadership positions.

2017-04-24T10:00:15+01:0024th April 2017|Equality and Diversity, News, Partnership, Training|
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