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Minister for Community Safety Congratulates SCoJeC on 400th issue of MEMO
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23 June 2014 |
The Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs, Roseanna Cunningham MSP, has congratulated SCoJeC on the 400th issue of MEMO, our weekly bulletin of information of interest to minority communities in Scotland. She writes:
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"From the first edition in August 2005, MEMO has been an invaluable source of information of particular interest to minority ethnic communities in Scotland, and has made a significant contribution to informing and empowering Scotland’s minority ethnic, religious and cultural communities.
I wish you continuing success in the production of MEMO, and welcome its on-going contribution to making Scotland what we want it to be – a safer, stronger and more inclusive society where all can live in peace and realise their potential both as individuals and as members of wider society."
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MEMO started in August 2005, in response to a request from BEMIS, the ethnic minority infrastructure organisation, who saw it as a way of supporting minority communities to engage more effectively with the Scottish Parliament and Government, local councils, the police, NHS, and other bodies. The majority of these communities do not have the resources to keep track of what is going on, so, for example, would often not respond to relevant consultations simply because they were unaware of them.
MEMO provides a wide range of information about matters such as immigration and asylum, community relations, equality, and discrimination, in an easily accessible format, and, from the outset, feedback has been uniformly positive. But its reach has far exceeded the hundreds of minority community organisations that receive it, and it is also regarded as essential reading in organisations such as the Scottish Refugee Council, whose Acting Chief Executive, Gary Christie, says:
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"MEMO is essential Sunday night or Monday morning reading. Immigration and asylum are fast-moving areas of policy and debate. For an organisation like Scottish Refugee Council seeking to track and influence these agendas, MEMO is indispensable. It provides an eagle-eyed and brilliantly helpful synopsis of how asylum and immigration issues have been covered in our parliaments and media over the last week as well as looking ahead to what is coming up."
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Rami Ousta, Chief Executive Officer of BEMIS, whose idea MEMO was, is delighted with what it has achieved.
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"MEMO is a unique partnership between BEMIS Scotland and SCoJeC, which has proven to be an excellent resource for promoting the latest developments and initiatives within race equality settings.
The collation of these vast amounts of information creates the perfect interface for communities, organisations, and individuals to keep up to date with the all the latest developments, and a key platform for organisations and communities to share information and work with key stakeholders who receive the publication on a weekly basis."
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SCoJeC Director Ephraim Borowski is delighted at MEMO's success over so many years.
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"400 issues is a significant milestone – MEMO has been disseminating information about political developments and other matters of interest to minority ethnic communities for almost 9 years – and this is a good opportunity to reflect.
We welcome the opportunity to collaborate with BEMIS and contribute to its vision of empowering minority communities to engage directly with Scottish civic society, rather than acting as gatekeepers for them. And of course we are very grateful for the Scottish Government funding that makes this possible.
There can be no better measure of the value of MEMO than the fact that if it's not already in in-boxes when they get to work on Monday morning, some fans e-mail to ask if everything's ok! If it's not, it's that the internet has let us down, as nothing else interferes with the commitment of Leah Granat, SCoJeC's Research and Publications Officer, whose dedication is the real foundation on which this stands. Our thanks, above all, to her."
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Click here to read back issues of MEMO, and e-mail memo@scojec.org if you would like to be added to the mailing list to receive each issue as soon as it comes out. |
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