This is the third seminar of the Common Cause Glasgow Network which is a partnership between The Runnymede Trust and Glasgow Caledonian Univeristy which is being set up for BME leaders, new and experienced, in Glasgow and its regions.This Seminar will will focus on how to centre research methods as a way of deepening your expertise, increasing your confidence and grounding yourself in the vision you have for changing the world.

BME leaders and BME-led arts, heritage, civic and social groups are always under intense pressure to deliver results with their work. They are often trapped in a gruelling cycle of fundraising and project delivery and, in addition, are often under-funded and under-resourced.

Although embracing the use of research methods will not solve funding issues, it is an opportunity to stand back from this pressure and engage with your work at a much deeper level: What do I know? What is it that I want to change? Who will I really help? How much better can I do? This seminar argues that embracing research methods is the difference between short-term outputs and long term vision. Join us for a challenging, but lively session which will encourge you to look at the bigger picture of your work and what it is you are trying to change in the world.

The Seminar will offer two parts:

Javier Sanchez - participatory methods and the philosophy of knowledge, action and reflection.

Laurie Mompelat - using demographic information, finding and using online sources of quantitative data.

Before attending the Seminar, please also complete this online form:

http://app.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?AD89E5FDABE8FBFBA9

Registration to both this event and to the Network is limited to people who identify as Black, Asian, from a minority-ethnic background or as a person of colour, and is intended to come within positive action as defined by s.158 Equality Act (2010).

For all those travelling to Glasgow from outside the city, a small travel budget is available to participants - so please email carol@runnymedetrust.org to enquire.

If you are new to our Seminars, please talk to us about any support or access needs you may have. We cannot guarantee we can always help or resolve these, but we will endeavour to do all that we can to enable you to attend.

For anything further, or for just an informal chat, please email or call Carol Sidney, Project Manager.

E: carol @runnymedetrust.org.

T: 0207 377 9222.

BIOGRAPHIES

Javier Sanchez-Rodriguez was born in the South Central Colombian Andes into a peasant family. He is a political activist and participatory action researcher. After the experience of having to migrate to the UK in his mid-teens, he studied theatre, dance, music and anthropology in London where he lived for 12 years. Co-founder of CAISMALOKA – Social Action and Research Centre Maloka in rural south west Colombia. Javier is also co-founder and active member of the International School for Bottom-up Organizing (ISBO), with active projects in rural Jamaica and Colombia. He is also co-founder and director of Braich Goch-Red-Arm CIC, a critical learning and resource centre located in mid-Wales.

Laurie Mompelat is a Researcher at the Runnymede Trust. They are from the French Caribbean and a recent graduate from the LSE. Their interests are mainly focused on the way inequalities are racialised and gendered and how they are shaped globally by unequal power relations and white supremacy. They are particularly interested in the creation and uses of quantitative data as a way to hold society accountable for ongoing inequalities in terms of class, race and gender. They have spent time studying in Paris and South Africa, observing and participating in some of the political activism there.