FACES Luton

Nigel, Melissa and Peter discuss The Bloom Review- entitled "Does government ‘do God?’ " and also briefly look at the Coronation and the offer for public to declare allegiance to King Charles. 

Nigel briefly describes the work in the background towards our up coming conferences and our hopes for what they can achieve. He refers to our research and also a few of the courses we run to help schools, young people and organisations. We would like a good spread of people at our conferences parents, teachers, faith leaders and other professionals. If you would like to attend a conference or know someone who may be interested. Please do get in touch via email to [email protected]

Nigel and Peter both discuss Home Secretary Suella Baverman's  Comments in the press over the last couple of weeks. FACES has put out a statement on this and the statistics from the Home Office that appear to contradict the racial accusations she makes. Peter and Nigel discuss some of the implications of this. They also reference a podcast where Baroness Warsi powerfully responds to these accusations you can read about these statements here https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65261172

Nigel, Melissa and Courtney discuss the importance of safeguarding training for volunteers working with refugees. Their discussions  include a course that Faces(Luton) are building in order to help organisations and groups better help refugees. The course trials at the end of this month and should be available more widely soon.  The course benefits from a good knowledge of working with refugees as well as an understanding of the importance of safeguarding. For more information on the course and how it may help your organisation please contact us via our website wwwhttps://faces.org.uk/contact/

To hear our previous podcasts on refugees you can access them via our podcast channel Faces(Luton) on your usual Podcast app. don't forget to subscribe! 

Nigel meets up with Bedfordshire Police's Chief Constable Trevor Rodenhurst to discuss the Casey Report. The Casey Report pulls no punches as it looks at institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia in London's Police force and their failings in the community.

Nigel and Trevor look at the report's implications for policing. They look at how Bedfordshire Police are working to improving community links, overcome internal cultural problems and make communities safer as they tackle crime in the area.

Trevor lives in Bedfordshire and so is invested in the area being good for his family. He has 29 years of police experience and is keen on cultural change in policing. Trevor and his executive team use input from diverse communities in Bedfordshire (including the IAG) to help him tackle potential blind spots in their approach to change.

Nigel (Staff member of FACES) has volunteered as one member of the Independent Advisory Group (IAG) to Bedfordshire Police. He asks his questions based on the many situations he and those in his team have been invited to input into by Bedfordshire Police over the years. 

Nigel and Sujel Miah discuss community initiatives around the vibrant and very diverse town of Luton. They discuss current issues of local poverty, community generosity and the focus that faith brings. Sujel is a trustee of FACES, a keen distance runner and has wide involvement in community activities alongside many charities.  

Peter, Lucie and Nigel discuss the sentencing of Eleanor Williams, a 22 year old jailed for eight and a half years for nine counts of lying about being raped and trafficked by an 'Asian grooming gang' and making false rape claims against a series of other men. They discuss the many things we can learn from this including the way the narratives and assumptions around Rotherham may have been used to build public support for this false narrative. You can find out more from  the following articles:

• https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/14/eleanor-williams-jailed-lying-rapes-trafficking?

Full sentencing from Sky News can be found here. (Warning: contains some graphic material) 

People of different faith backgrounds, Katie Forbes and Humza Yousaf are amongst those running for the leadership of the Scottish National Party. Many articles in the press are asking the question, "Can a person of faith lead at a high level in today's society?". Nigel and Melissa discuss this question with Tony Thompson (Hope Church Luton/FACES) and Ruth Robb (Azelea/FACES).

Nigel and Melissa meet with Peter to discuss the origins and principles of his peace and reconciliation work in Luton. Peter takes us around the world and shares how he discovered his own purpose in bringing peace to others. One of the successes of this work is FACES itself- Peter was one of our founders. You can find out more at https://www.stmarysluton.org/peace-and-reconciliation  

Nigel and Melissa meet with Courtney who works with refugees locally. Courtney helps explain the process and also bring real life examples of of how local contact can help protect people from exploitation. We discuss the local impact of a hotel shutting its usual functions to house refugees and the responses from the community (https://www.lutontoday.co.uk/news/people/old-palace-lodge-dunstable-town-council-agrees-to-welcome-all-new-residents-4016864).