Some Recent Projects

Bradford Community Life Fund

On behalf of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Government Office for Yorkshire and The Humber (ODPM/GOYH), QED-UK administered this £1.8m Community Fund over four years, awarding grants to benefit over 500 grass root community groups working with their local communities in the Bradford district.

Employer Diversity Project

This was a one-off project, funded by Jobcentre Plus, that helped 250 employers to improve the ethnic composition of their workforce across eight Jobcentre Districts in England and Wales. Eighty bespoke diversity action plans were produced for companies which, between them, employed 35,000 personnel, and 27 certificates were presented at the House of Lords to companies which publicly committed to implementing these diversity action plans.

Faith in Communities

This was a two-year national campaign in England and Wales, sponsered by the Lloyds TSB Foundation, to educate grant-givers about the non-faith work of Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities. Over 50 grant givers participated and 150 faith groups benefited.

Faith in Health

This project, funded by The Health Foundation, involved working with local community groups and co-ordinating seminars in Yorkshire region for health professionals about the specific needs of minority faith communities.

Getting to Know your Communities - Public and Private Sectors

Under this programme, QED-UK trained over 700 senior managers on diversity from Barclays, British Waterways, Business Links, Environment Agency, Bradford & Bingley, Government Office and others.

IMPACTSS

This was a three-year project, funded by BBC Children in Need, which involved QED-UK working with three madrassas in Bradford to assist 180 Muslim children to improve their literacy skills. As a result of this project, the government is working nationally to improve the links between madrassas and mainstream schools. See Madrassa Literacy Project.

Muslim Employment Conference

This was a major national conference, supported by Neil Stewart Associates, held in October 2007. It had the two-fold aim of exploring the reasons for the 30% employment rate gap between British Pakistani and Bangladeshi people and the overall population, and sharing good practice as to how to tackle the causes and the barriers.

Muslim Graduate Employment

This was a major consultation, funded by DWP and DfES, that involved two seminars with over 100 participants in Yorkshire and London and resulted in a final report for Ministerial consideration on the difficulties faced by Muslim graduates in finding employment.

Narrowing the Gap

This was a three-year (2005-2008) development project that aimed to address the employment gap (30%) between the South Asian Community and the general population by getting 2,000 British Pakistani and Bangladeshi people engaged in learning activity and 500 economically-inactive Bangladeshi and British Pakistani adults into work. To that end, it engaged with around 1,000 employers and with Job Centres in Yorkshire and the Humber and worked to increase their understanding of faith and culture in Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities.

Pathways

This is annual event which QED-UK has run successfully for the past five years. It introduces 100 young people to ten employers in order that they might learn about the world of work over a period of two days.

Refugee Challenge Fund

Funded by the Home Office Integration Fund, this project targets 60 people who are recognised as having legitimate refugee status. It provides innovative measures to support the integration of such refugees into mainstream economic activity and active citizenship thus enabling them to make a full contribution to their community and achieve their full potential.

Regional Economic Strategy

Funded by Yorkshire Forward and the Regional Development Agency, QED-UK developed and ran two events involving 80 ethnic minority businesses and community groups in West and South Yorkshire to contribute towards the RDA's 10 year regional economic strategy.

Talking of Education

This was a region-wide campaign, funded by DfES to educate South Asian parents in the ways of the British education system and how they could support their children's involvement in it.