September Actions
SAR September Update
This is where we are, just four months (and many thousands of volunteer hours) in to the setting up of SAR. As always, in no particular order, as it’s all really amazing and important!
ANTI-RACISM EDUCATION
The most important area of SAR has also been the longest in its development. We are now working with 3 schools to get the following projects up and running in the following months.
Books in schools: I am currently applying for funding to get a class set of a novel (as yet not confirmed) that helps to redress the completely unbalanced sets of texts currently offered to students. This novel will be piloted in the selected schools, and when the piolot is successfully completed, and the resources collated, I hope to roll this out to more schools in the Gloucestershire area.
“Post Colonial Literatary Criticism – Searching for Hidden Meanings” will be a series of lectures delivered to large groups of GCSE and A-Level students to help them to see the hidden bias, and colonial attitudes in many of the texts they study. The students will be encouraged to really engage with the concepts and apply them to their analysis for exams and essays.
SUPPORT SESSIONS
Lianna Barrister has been appointed as our Support Session Facilitator, and will be undergoing specific training courtesy of Seeds For Change, to enable her to really shine in her role. She will run these sessions for people who have suffered racial abuse locally in a private and safe environment. We are so happy that this off the ground as it is desperately needed in Stroud, as it is currently the only support group of its kind available.
LEGAL HOTLINE
Our new legal team are in the initial stages of setting up access to pro-bono legal support for local people who are struggling with legal issues due to reasons of race. We have decided, for accessibility, and in the age of Covid, that this will be best delivered as a hotline. It is an incredible project, that will take some time to come to fruition, but we are fully invested in getting it off the ground.
SAR YOUTH
We have a new SAR Youth group starting up, they will be communicating though Instagram soon, and their first project will be running a competition for local youth to submit their artwork to be used in the promotion of the May Fair. Check them out!
STROUD STALL
The next SAR stall will be run on October 10th, in the Bank Gardens, in front of the shed that we have permission from the council to adorn with our wonderful artwork. We will be available for a chat, and selling some merchandise, come say hi!
BANNERS
The Ecotricity banner is up!! Go take a look!. Six local Black artists and artists of colour have been chosen for the Subrooms banners, and we are very excited for everyone to see them. We have been generously donated funds towards the majority of the project by local organisations, but we would like to invite anyone to contribute towards paying the artists and this public statement of solidarity. So please do look out for becoming a Patron on our website and donate.
LIBRARY
The SAR library is now available and ready for use. Please pop along to the Trinity Rooms to brows the selection currently available.We would welcome donations in either funds or in books to help grow the list of books available.
ADMINISTRATION
The main worker bees of SAR are all undergoing training, generously provided by Seeds for Change, over the next three weeks, and we are really looking forward to using our enhanced skills to better work for and develop SAR.
STAFFING
SAR has grown by six post holders this month: Beth Foster and Rob Davies-Boulton as legal team, Nic Hill in the shop, Rachel Pratt as treasurer, Lianna Barrister as Support Session Facilitator and Eden Kingston as Youth Engagement Manager. We are currently looking for an operations manager, a website operator, fundraising applications team member and events managers. Please let me know if any of these roles look interesting to you.
BOOK CLUB
We have a new book club, starting in October, that will be reading the fiction work “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe. The 8 groups currently reading and discussing 'Me and White Supremacy' by Layla Saad, are still going strong.
DECOLONISING THE LANDSCAPE
Stuart Butler’s incredible project is really gaining momentum, and he has been taking people on tours of the local area uncovering the hidden colonial history all around us.
WALKS
The SAR walks have had to be edited own to groups of 6, but are still running, and we look forward to opening this up to larger groups again as soon as we are allowed.
PRESS
We are not entirely happy with the relationship that has developed with the SNJ and we will be in negotiations to try and ensure that our weekly columns are not used to incite public vitriol in an unhelpful way, as well as working towards an agreement that protects our columnists. Until this has been agreed, you will not see us in the paper..
LIVE INTERVIEWS
We’ve had three interviews so far, Sabrina Pace Humphries told us all about her enterprise “Black Trail Runners”, Florence Nasaymo explained the wonderful organisation “Lives of Colour”, Manny Ruiz talked about his experience as the uncle of a child who perished in the Grenfell fire, this Friday the 24th of September we have the pleasure of Gurpreet Sidhu who will tell us all about BLM in the Stix. And then on October 9th we are interviewing Patricia Camp a local poet.
SHOP
We are delighted to introduce Nic Hill as the new shop mamanger. She has taken the reigns and submitted the designs donated by Jimmy Critz to be printed, so a whole new set of shirts will be available for sale online, as well as at the Stall on October 10th.
STROUD FAIR
We are beginning to put the Stroud Fair May Bank holiday festival together. It is planned as a weekend extravaganza of art, there will be live bands, DJs, poetry, clowning, dance, drama, live art and lots of wonderful food. We all just have to cross our fingers that the dreaded Covid doesn’t quash our plans once more!
WINDOWS
There are 2 more windows in the works this month, keep your eyes peeled and see if you can spot them when they are done!
PUBLIC MURALS
The next mural will be the outbuilding in the Bank Gardens, and this will be a collaborative effort .on October 10th. We have permission from the council and the artwork is approved, so please contact Liz Le Drew to get involved.
POLITICAL FIGHT
We are waiting for our next invitation to speak with the council after the holidays, and we would welcome any suggestions to put on the agenda.