Successful integration doesn’t just happen, it is the result of thoughtful and strategic planning. While citiesaround the world increasingly recognize this new reality, the City of Stuttgart, Germany, took the lead early with its top down and comprehensive approach to integration.

In 2001, the Stuttgart City Council adopted the groundbreaking Pact For Integration and instituted a sweeping program of policies and activities aimed at securing Stuttgart’s future as a great international city. Calling successful integration the “glue for social cohesion,” the city anchored its new policy framework in a strong multi-sector coalition that brought together public, private sector, and civil society interests in a shared agenda to realize the goals of:

• participation and equal opportunity for everyone,
• peaceful cohabitation and social cohesion, and
• the capitalization of cultural diversity as a community and economic asset.

Stuttgart, the capital of the federal state Baden Wuerttemberg, is located in southern Germany. Approximately one third or 40 per cent of the population was born abroad. Residents of Stuttgart are from over 170 nations and speak over 120 languages. This gives Stuttgart one of the largest proportions of migrants among German cities.

In part, Stuttgart’s leadership with its Pact For Integration stemmed from its early recognition that successful integration was necessary to attract and retain migrants as well as the investment of international corporations –and ultimately essential to Stuttgart’s economic prosperity.

Immigrants are particularly important to the demographics of Stuttgart since it faces the challenges of an aging population without an adequate birth replacement rate. Currently, there are no children or adolescents under the age of 18 in 82 percent of households in Stuttgart. Without immigrants, only 10 percent of households in Stuttgart would include children.

As a result, Stuttgart recognises that the effective integration of their immigrant population is essential to augmenting the skilled labour force required to attract industry leaders such as Dailmer Chrysler, Porche, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

“The new element is that we are no longer merely pursuing a classic integration policy for migrants which classifies foreigners as people with language and other problems, but that we are saying: Stuttgart is an international city, with a 35 to 40 percent migration background, and we need a well mapped-out integration strategy covering the needs of equal opportunities”, explains Gari Pavkovic, Head of the Department for Integration Policy.

Stuttgart city leaders also recognized that to be effective, the strategy had to address long-term goals, requiring the application of system-wide programs and policies across all sectors. A patchwork of uncoordinated integration activities would not work. Hence the Stuttgart Pact for Integration was formulated as an “alliance” for integration within a broad framework comprising many sectors and all age groups –from kindergarten to adult education. By accommodating all these various interest groups, the Stuttgart strategy recognized the value of the city’s potential human capital in all its diversity.

The Stuttgart approach to integration combines leadership with community involvement to create equal opportunities and inclusive, productive communities.

The Pact For Integration…
The Pact for Integration was endorsed by the personal commitment of the Mayor who created the city’s first “Office of Integration Policy” to involve as many different city stakeholders and sectors as possible. The Stuttgart Pact is not merely a declaration of good will but a framework for coordinated strategic action that is being implemented on a daily basis by the city administration, community services, public and private actors and citizens

The Stuttgart Pact also takes a human resource based approach that is equally directed at newly arrived migrants, established immigrants as well as the native German population in order to emphasize that integration is a two way process involving both migrants and the receiving community.

The Pact is built around eight essential building blocks, or “milestones,” that form the basis of Stuttgart’s integration policy. They include:

1. Education: Stuttgart specifically encourages bilingual and multilingual education and the promotion of German as a second language from a very early age in a child’s life as a way to prevent exclusion later in life. Parents are also offered help in supporting children in their learning process.
2. Sustainable Economic Growth for Community Well Being: Includes a focus on making cultural diversity a valuable factor in economic and cultural development.
3. Equal Rights and Opportunities: Includes cultural accommodations when necessary to achieve the end goals. For instance, Stuttgart supported the creation of separate after school groups for Muslim girls to provide additional tutoring to close gaps in educational outcomes and remove structural barriers to later professional success.
4. Political and Social Participation: Stuttgart is lobbying for the right of all non-Germans to participate in local elections. In the interim, Stuttgart residents without German passports can vote for representatives to an “International Committee,” a local consultative lobby made up of elected migrants, appointed experts and city councilors. This group regularly meets to discuss issues related to the foreign population in Stuttgart.
5. Pluralism and Cultural Diversity: Stuttgart’s city administration provides support to intercultural initiatives, from the arts to sports events, as well as to migrant-led orgnisations.
6. Mutual Respect and Solidarity: Supports efforts to make young people and others more sensitive to the cultural diversity within their community; , including a team of trained mediators on call to intervene in private and public conflicts with “cultural” roots.
7. Participatory Communication: Promotes access to information for all citizens, whether to Stuttgart’s many community newspapers, multilingual broadcast media or access to virtual Internet services. Stuttgart public libraries receive over 1.5 million visitors annually, a third of which are migrants. A virtual library for children is another important tool for lifelong learning and the fight against exclusion.
8. International Cooperation: Stuttgart works closely with co-operating EU institutions and the Council of Europe on numerous projects, as well as providing leadership to initiatives such as the European Network of “Cities for Local Integration Policy” (CLIP).

Success

In 2003, the Stuttgart Pact For Integration gained national and international recognition when the city was awarded the ‘Cities for Peace Prize’ by UNESCO. The following year, the European Council recognised Stuttgart’s approach as the standard for best practice when it adopted the key points of the pact as its official policy on integration. Similarly, Stuttgart has since become a model for the development of integration strategies in other communities across Europe.

In 2005, both the Bertelsmann Foundation and the German Federal Ministry of the Interior recognised Stuttgart for their approach to integration. In 2006, this initiative was also recognised by the EuroCities network.

Stuttgart is also measuring success in more tangible terms as a result of its multi level and multi sector approach to integration. For instance, Stuttgart has the lowest crime rates of any city in Germany and the lowest unemployment rates for people with migrant background.

For a selection of library resources related to this Good Idea, see sidebar at right.

Hier geht es zur Fallstudie auf der Seite Demographie Konkret (Bertelsmann Stiftung): Stuttgart - Stabsstelle für Integration.

Many Canadians view the sport of ice hockey as more than just a national pastime. They see it as an essential aspect of the country’s identity and part of the fabric of Canadian culture. Across Canada, there are leagues for boys, girls, men and women. After school kids play pick up games at skating rinks in their neighborhoods and in the summer, they switch to road or street hockey.

And on Saturday nights, for the past 56 seasons (or since 1952) families and friends gather to watch the game with “Hockey Night In Canada”. The tradition of “Hockey Night In Canada” actually goes back even further, to 1931 when Saturday night radio broadcasts of the game first began.

“Hockey Night In Canada” consistently remains one of the highest rated programs on Canadian television (and is also the worlds oldest sports related television program).

Hockey Reaches Out…
On Saturday May 24^th 2008 viewers of the National Hockey League (NHL), Stanley Cup finals had the option of watching the nights hockey game in both of Canada’s official languages of English and French - and for the first time ever, in Punjabi!

Joel Darling, director of production, Canada Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Sports, “This is a great opportunity to introduce new audiences to the excitement of the Stanly Cup.” The response was so great, that from this pilot project is has now become a regular feature of the hockey broadcast.

Commentary on the games is done in Punjabi by Paraminder Singh the host of a Punjabi television program and Harnarayan Singh a CBC Reporter. “The community response has been fantastic!” said Parminder Singh. Previously, grandparents and parents were often hesitant about joining their children for the Saturday night game. “A lot of the community was watching the game (ice hockey) but on mute since they didn’t understand what the commentators were saying.”

The Punjabi broadcast is making the game accessible to new audiences and increasing the reach of the CBC’s most valuable franchise. It is also building the fan base and potential ticket revues of the home team, The Toronto Maple Leafs. In addition to the business benefits, Punjabi Night In Canada is providing a way for new immigrants to culturally connect with the mainstream. Raj Singh who came from Delhi three years ago and now works at a small IT manufacturing plant in Mississauga, (a suburb of Toronto) adds, “Watching and understanding the Saturday night hockey game gives me something in common to talk to my colleagues about on Monday mornings - it makes me feel more at home and a part of the group.”

The last official census found that Punjabi is the fourth most spoken language in Canada after English, French and Chinese.

The success of the Punjabi broadcast has led to CBC deciding to expand out its audience reach even further and so “Hockey Nigh In Canada” is now also being televised in Mandarin.

Jason Wang, who provides the hockey commentary in Mandarin, remembers how, newly arrived from Taipai at the age of 9, he used to watch “Hockey Night In Canada” to improve his English. Now he will be the one helping new Chinese-Canadians improve their knowledge of hockey and become better acquainted with a national pastime. “Its all come full circle,” says the 24 year Vancouver journalist.

Update…
[November 1, 2009]

After the success of Punjabi Hockey Night in Canada announcers Parminder Singh and Harnarayan Singh will now be calling National Basketball Assocation (NBA) games for the Toronto Raptors - in Punjabi.  As they did with hockey, the two plan to weave in Punjabi phrases and terms to make it colourful and entertaining for all age groups.  This strategy has resulted in Punjabi Hockey Night In Canada now entering its second season with a regular audience of about 10,000.

Zhara, a part-time hair dresser in her mid twenties recently completed a one day training course in voting education. “I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned with my community!” she enthuses, filled with plans to get her friends to help her arrange for day and evening sessions at their local community centre and mosque. “Once people understand how important it is to vote, I think I’ll have lots of people of all ages interested in attending.”

Zhara’s training is part of a campaign launched on behalf of Dublin’s City Council’s Office for Integration. The goal is to raise awareness among the immigrant populations in Dublin of the importance of voting. The campaign also provides information of their legal right to vote and the practical steps on how to actually cast a ballot on Election Day.

Currently, 15% of Dublin’s population is made up of immigrants that come from over 100 different countries. In some neighborhoods, immigrants account for more then 50% of the local population. Despite having the legal right to vote, voter participation among immigrant communities has historically been very low. In the last election, only 8,400 of a potential 75,000 migrants registered to vote. The identified barriers include the very young profile age of these potential voters and a lack of targeted information on how to register and why they should vote. By training young community leaders like Zhara, the City of Dublin hopes to directly reach these communities through trusted community ambassadors. Following the completion of a one-day training course, these trained members will be equipped to a program of voter education sessions in local meeting points from across the city.

Making City Planning A Force For Change…
This voting participation programs is the result of a city level shift towards an increased commitment to the adoption of a planning and city framework that encourages greater integration.
“Towards Integration: A City Framework” is first formal outline of Dublin’s migration and settlement partners. Signed in May 29, 2008 it is a multilateral formal commitment, the framework communicates a vision, principles and a strong message of commitment to city level integration state, local government, business and social partners.

Based on the 2006 census, the study behind the framework draws out the pattern of ethnic diversity in Dublin. In the north east inner city with 4 of 10 Electoral Division (ED’s) having an ethnic population of over 50% and a further 3 ED’S having 25% ethnic population. In the south east inner city, there are 2 ED’s that show a majority ethnic population. However there is also a distribution of ethnic population throughout the wider city with 40 ED’s showing an ethnic population of more than 25%.

Map of Dublin City Council’s Local Electoral Areas
Local Electoral Areas are subdivisions of county and city-level local authorities in Ireland used for electoral purposes. In Dublin City there are 13 Local Electoral Areas, each made up of a number of lower-level units known as Electoral Divisions. In Dublin City, each local electoral area elects a number of councillors (the number can be anywhere between 3 and 7) to Dublin City Council. The map shows the 13 Local Electoral Areas in Dublin City Council’s administrative area.

The framework is a starting point to encourage all partners to take ownership of their part in encouraging increased city level integration by reviewing and adapting their policies and priorities to better support the city’s diverse residents. The framework is based on evolving national policy, as well as European principles on integration and the experience of cities with a migration history.

Unique to the process was that new migrant and immigrant communities were consulted on what challenges and were responses required at the city level. It identifies key issues on information and services, barriers to progress, and sets out policy framework and template for actions.

In partnership with other agencies, Dublin City Council will be the key driver for integration and it has set out a 10 point Charter of Commitment which will establish the city administration as a focal point of integration in common with other European cities.

The Lord Mayor of Dublin, Councilor Eibhlin Byrne has strongly endorsed this campaign, saying, “It is important that all their voices are heard so that together we can create a vibrant city for the 21st century”.

The Migrant Voter Project will be promoted with a focused advertising campaign in migrant communities in tandem with a general awareness campaign, stressing the importance of registering to vote by Nov 1st 2008 deadline. The Migrant Voters Project is stressing the message that all migrants are entitled to vote - regardless of status. In addition to the advertising and migrant voter registration campaign, the steering committee is also committed to establishing forums in 2009 for political engagement agenda by immigrant communities.

Due to increase the reach and success of the campaign, these efforts were also heavily promoted with posters throughout the city and in over 25 languages, including Polish, Lithuanian, Arabic, Chinese and Spanish.

While it is still too early to know the results of this campaign, it is a significant step towards the City of Dublin acting on their formal commitment to integration. Kazik Anhalt, from Poland, who represents the Federation of Polish Organisations, said it is important that from a social inclusion perspective, migrants are informed of their right to vote. “This collaborative approach between the city council and the migrant community is the best way to do it,” said Kazik.

A City Commitment to Integration…
The Migrant Voter Project was launched on behalf of Dublin City Council’s Office for Integration as part of the “Declaration on Integration “a formally signed document involving key leaders of state and city organizations”. This Declaration is unique in the Irish context, establishing a pact on integration at city level and a strong message of commitment to the immigrant population of the city of Dublin.

The Declaration commits to promoting, and supporting the integration of the immigrant population within the political, social and economic life of the city. Also signing on to the multilateral Declaration were a variety of government ministries, as well as the Dublin and the Chamber of Commerce and the City Enterprise Board, among others. Each of these pledged to develop a strong integration focus in strategic and business planning and to collaborate in joint measures and actions which contribute to a more open, integrated city and with greater urban prosperity.

As part of their commitment, the City of Dublin will also be establishing a “Migrant Forum” as a channel of communication on migrant issues. The city is also providing support for the development of City Intercultural Centre to provide programs around culture, learning and exchange.

The Declaration took place at the launch of “Towards Integration A City Framework” a new policy statement on integration for Dublin City published by the Dublin City Development Board which is led by Dublin City Council. As Councilor Sean Kenny, Chairperson Dublin City Development Board acknowledged in reference to the strategic partnership structure for the city, “While management of immigration is a matter for government integration is a responsibility which falls on the city and its network of agencies.”

For Dublin residents like Zhara, these initiatives are already successful. “It’s not just words for a press conference or a treaty that everyone signs and forgets about - I’ve seen the posters in my neighborhood and took part in the voter training, its working on the streets.”

Meelek dreams of returning to Turkey and speaks frequently of her former life there – the foods she ate, the easy socializing in her small town on the Black Sea coast and her extended family that all lived a short walk away. Meelek is in her late seventies and has lived away from Turkey for over 55 years. Financially struggling, it is highly unlikely that she’ll ever make the move back to Turkey that she speaks of so often.

Like many migrant workers of her generation, Meelek and her husband came to Germany in the late 1950’s as “guest workers” to help fill the labor shortages. Their plan was to work for a few years and then return. The German government also viewed the influx of new migrants as temporary and as a result, never created, encouraged or coordinated large scale efforts to help the migrant community settle, adopt and integrate into German society. Even after Meelek and her husband had had three children enrolled in the local schools and although they were taxpayers in Germany, the expectation that their stay was temporary continued. Ths belief was supported by German citizenship law that is largely based on parentage rather than birth or residence - making it difficult for migrant workers as well as their descendents to obtain citizenship.

Meelek’s experience is representative of a broader German story. Current estimates suggest that there are 700,000 migrants living in Germany who are 60 years or older. By 2010 this number is expected to reach 1.3 million and by 2020 to grow to over 2 million. This makes seniors with an immigrant background the fastest growing population in Germany.

Strong In Numbers – But Overlooked…

Despite their numbers, older migrants in Germany and other countries are too often overlooked by programs, organizations and governments. Neither public debate on immigrant integration nor the existing services for workers address the needs of this aging population focusing instead on young people with an immigrant background and on newcomers requiring language and professional orientation.

Statistically, older migrants experience higher rates of poverty, health problems and housing deficits than the German population at large. As a result, both programs and resources available for older migrants are limited and often fall short of migrant needs. Participation rates are also very low due to poor information, lack of awareness of government and government services and a legacy of mistrust. These challenges are compounded by older migrants who often report a lack of deep attachment to their German homes or community - despite the years spent there.

Stadtteilwerkstatt Dicker Busch has developed a strategy to help address the displacement issues of the ageing foreign born population by encouraging elderly migrants to become more active in their local communities and by also learning more about their needs in order to create programs that are more appealing and reflective of their circumstances.

Participant organizations offering recreational opportunities for this kind of involvement will receive assistance through the program. Activities will be held in schools or daycare centres, providing local places where elderly migrants have an opportunity to meet, share their stories and participate in a range of programs.

This well coordinated outreach activity is also an opportunity for Russelsheim institutions to make themselves more sensitive to intercultural matters in order to improve their ability to best reach elderly immigrant needs. The program includes a data collection and monitoring component to gather and analyze information that can be used to take a more strategic approach to community and social services planning – particularly around elderly migrants.

The program also represents an opportunity for elderly migrants to make their experience more accessible to the public. Modeled on a series produced by the “Forum for a Culturally Sensitive Alternlife”, a voluntary organsiation working in the field of elderly migration and labor, the “Older Migrants Living in the District” will provide the city of Russelheim with services for the elderly that address their needs and their preferences and a greater confidence about their place in the community.

It is the information gathering process that is one of the hallmarks of this programs success. Relationships with elderly migrants are built through personal contact, and by leveraging the trust of the mediators and institutions in their midst. Based on the relationships that have been built and the direct information that has been gathered the project is now in the midst of shaping the way ahead.

Next, elderly migrants are systematically consulted using qualitative interviews and informed of the existing offering regarding public assistance intended for the elderly in Russelsheim.

This process encourages elderly migrants to become active and assist in the implementation of these program offers. Collaborative efforts with Russelsheim institutions throughout the entire project will help ensure that information is effectively distributed and that intercultural sensitivity is supported.

The project has been fully developed and is scheduled to run from 2007 – 2010. To date, contacts with elderly migrants have been established and their needs fully evaluated. The interconnectedness of the stakeholders has been one of the early successes of the project – as actors, individuals and institutions that previously had little to no contact are working together towards to the implementation of these programs. Program implementation is expected to begin in 2010 and will be then be evaluated and adapted mid-year.

For a selection of library resources related to this Good Idea, see sidebar at right.

Hier geht es zur Fallstudie auf der Seite Demographie Konkret (Bertelsmann Stiftung): Rüsselsheim - Ältere Migranten im Stadtteilleben.

In a low brown mid size warehouse in Boston’s South End, Amado and his family have a janitorial wholesale supplies company. For the past 15 years, they have provided the commercial equipment and cleaning products needed to maintain the clusters of high-rise office and condos in downtown Boston.

With ten employees, six of whom are part of his extended family, Amado’s business is a small, unglamorous and a behind the scenes operation. But it is also well-managed, highly profitable and through the “Boston Back Streets Program” now being recognized and supported as an essential component of Boston’s social and economic traffic.

The City of Boston is actually recognised as having coined the term “back streets” when they launched the “Boston Back Streets” program to provide a range of land use and business assistance strategies to Boston’s industrial sector. “Backstreet” Businesses are generally defined as small to medium size light industrial or commercial businesses that create products or provide services in manufacturing, wholesale, commercial, logistics, construction and food processing. In contrast, “Mainstreet” offices and retail businesses are those that typically sell previously prepared materials or provide services directly to the consumer. While “Backstreet” businesses complement those on “Mainstreet” they tend to be unknown and overlooked.

Workers in Backstreet jobs are more likely to be racial and ethnic minorities since these businesses create good middle income jobs that are accessible to all levels of education; see Boston Back Streets data tables . On average, Back Street businesses pay salaries that are double what is offered on “Main Street” - making them critical in achieving greater inclusion and equality for newcomers and minority groups in the city.

The City of Boston identified more than 4,000 small and mid-size light industrial and commercial businesses that operate within the city’s boundaries but away from the main areas. Collectively, these “Backstreet” companies generate more than 100,000 jobs (one in five jobs in Boston) and pay over $30 million annually in taxes and represent a key lever to the city’s economic development and success.

The Back Streets Program…
Boston’s “Back Streets Program” was launched in November 2001 by Mayor Thomas Merino when the city’s economic development office identified that profitable and well-established backstreet businesses were leaving the city because they lacked the resources they needed to grow. There were problems of inadequate space, competing land uses, insufficient parking and difficulty navigating through the bureaucracy of City Hall.

Prior to this time, Backstreet Businesses were not formally organized, and had no way to address these obstacles in a unified way and make a case for their needs. In addition, most felt overlooked by “Main Street” business organizations and were reluctant to raise their concerns with them.

Boston Mayor Thomas Merino had the foresight to recognize the potential of these immigrant businesses to support the local interests, “The goal of the Back Streets program is to support Boston’s many small and medium-sized industrial and commercial companies by creating the conditions in which they can grow and prosper, and attract new manufacturing and commercial businesses to the city.”

Beyond creating a healthy business environment for these businesses to operate, the Back Streets program leads the way with its recognition that small to mid size business that are primarily immigrant owned are also the nexus at which social and economic interest meet. While social programs form a safety net, they generally tend to offer few opportunities for personal development or genuine career opportunities with livable wages.

Back Streets companies encourage employees to develop career skills, help immigrant adapt by improving language skills, local work experience and servings as a conduit for the delivery of services such as financial planning and home ownership opportunities. Back Street companies are generally very willing to take these socially beneficial tasks on since it is ultimately in their own economic self interest to build a staff of skilled and loyal employees.

Specific Sector Support…
The Back Streets Program provides support in four main areas including: real estate, work force, business assistance and resources and partnerships.

Real Estate
Land use and better planning to support Back Street businesses became a primary driver of the program. The City of Boston adopted the goal of no net loss of the industrial space that these businesses require. To protect industrial land from residential or institutional conversion, the City of Boston strengthened the zoning review guidelines. The Back Streets Program also launched a commercial and industrial “site finder” to help growing and new companies find the space that they need to operate successfully. This portal uses internal city resources, as well as information from Boston’s leading commercial and industrial real estate brokers to track and suggest suitable locations for expanding Backstreet businesses; click here to access the Industrial Site Finder.

Work Force
The Back Streets Program helps companies find, train and develop workers through a job readiness services such as career centres, English language and job training programs.

Business Assistance
The Back Street Program provides a team of ombudsmen to the Back Street Business community to provide solutions, resources and contacts as they relate to specific business needs. This includes solutions to issues on zoning, permitting and how to navigate City Hall.

Financing and Partnerships
The Back Street Program helps direct resources towards these businesses including low interest rate loans to qualified businesses and tax exempt financing for projects and equipment with costs over $3 million.

The housing debate in global city centers has traditionally been about affordability and availability. However, changing demographics are starting to shift the parameters of this discussion. Increasingly, local government authorities must ask themselves whether housing services meet the needs of all immigrant and ethnic minority communities in the city.

Located in the West Yorkshire region of England, Leeds is a diverse city where 11% of the population is made up of a wide range of ethnic communities, including Black Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Irish and Jewish. With European integration and the increasing settlement of asylum seekers, the diversity of the city’s population is expected to increase further.

These coming changes, in addition to the present need, led to the creation of The Leeds Housing Partnership, a public and private partnership of landlords, voluntary housing organization and members of the local authorities.

This group came together around the recognition that housing and housing providers could directly contribute to community cohesion and economic regeneration by actively engaging and considering the needs of ethnic and minority groups during the consultative and strategic planning processes.

As a result and as part of the overall Leeds Housing Strategy of 2005 - 2010, The Leeds Housing Partnership released the, “Black and Minority Ethnic Housing Strategy and Action Plan” which was embedded in the Vision for Leeds II 2004 - 2010 (which is the master plan that will guide urban development in Leeds in the coming years).

The impact of this plan is that it focuses exclusively on the needs and concerns of local residents specifically from the most disadvantaged (BME) communities.

Background…
Currently, the BME community in Leeds is concentrated in the poorest parts of the city. BME households are more likely to live in poor housing conditions than British White households. Much of the rented accommodations that house the BME population in Leeds is pre-1919 housing stock that is in very poor condition. As a result, this community is more likely to live in overcrowded homes or properties with no central heating, that suffer from damp or that are in need of general repair. For instance, the 2001 Census shows that 38% of BME’s live in dwellings with no central heating and 13% have only partial heating. As a result of extended families, 61% live in houses that are too small to meet the needs of their families.

The Approach…
With the development of a Black and Minority Ethnic Housing Strategy and Action Plan, the BME Housing Strategy will help to narrow the gap between the most disadvantaged people and communities and the rest of the city.

A key aspect to achieving the goals outlined in the BME Housing Strategy is to ensure that language and cultural barriers do not restrict the understanding of housing options, access to social housing or the involvement in consultation processes.

As it develops, the BME Housing Strategy and Action proposes to address these key issues by ensuring that housing providers deliver services that are sensitive to both culture and religion. To do this, they are developing profiles of the cultural and faith needs of each community and incorporating these in to the service planning and the design of new homes. The ME Housing Strategy will also look to increase BME staff representation in housing providers at all levels and use outreach activities to recruit more board members from the BME community.

The BME Housing Strategy and Action plan will also improve access to housing services by providing information in a range of formats and community languages. This will help those from new communities to be able to make informed choices on where they want to live. An orientation service to help members of the BME community to integrate into the local community will also be developed.

Newsletters and increased publicity around community events will also be used to increase BME participation in tenant and resident involvement.

Equitable housing that acknowledges problems or needs of specific communities can help create a common vision and sense of belonging for all communities and reinforce the sense that regardless of background, similar opportunities are available for all.

For related library resources on this Good Idea, see sidebar at right.

Guns and knives. Unemployment and racial tension. Too often these are the only stories being told about the youth in Aston, a borough of Birmingham, located in the Midlands of the UK.

What we don’t hear about, are the incidents happening daily, the small stories about the kids living in these neighborhoods who have decided to try and change their own communities and lives.

In October 2005, as a result of long simmering racial tensions, Lozells the neighboring community to Aston erupted in two days of racial riots between the Afro-Caribbean and Asian community. Petrol bombs and bullets left ten injured and two dead, in addition to thousands in damages to stores and property.

During these disturbances, Asian and Afro-Caribbean youth volunteers from the Voices of Aston group walked the streets together to demonstrate solidarity and to do their part to prevent the ethnic tensions from next door from seeping into Aston.

It worked. The streets of Aston remained peaceful and free of the damage that occurred in surrounding neighbourhoods.

Youth leading youth…

Voices of Aston was set up in 2003 to provide a platform to help “local youths speak for themselves” through programs focused on peer development and mediation. By helping them learn to identify and address solutions within their community and peer groups, the long term goal of the project is to prepare these “disenfranchised” youth to instead play a role as engaged and productive citizens.

Targeted at youth between the ages of 18-24, this peer mediation program was developed around the idea that the people closest to conflict are the ones best placed to find solutions.

Through the Voices of Aston program, young people learn the skills of conflict management, basic mediation training as well as a framework for passing these skills on to their peers. The program also enables participants to learn new personal skills such time management and communication skills; how to work with a diverse group of peers both in age and background.

For related library resources on this Good Idea, see sidebar at right.

When leadership fails to reflect the population of a city, it excludes entire groups from the chance to contribute to an inclusive vision of the future. Similarly, when organizations, agencies and boards fail to reflect the diversity of the communities they serve, they miss out on important opportunities to benefit from the creativity, energy and connectedness that distinguish successful institutions.

Diversity is recognized as an essential component of organizational success from a variety of perspectives, increasing organizational performance, stimulating innovation and creativity, and enhancing stakeholder satisfaction. Yet, less than half of the publicly listed companies in Canada are led by members of a visible minority and only one in five members of the City of Toronto boards and commissions are from this group.

In the Greater Toronto Area, where the visible minority population is currently at 49%, diversity in governance is no longer an option, it’s a necessity.

If visible minorities and immigrants make up almost half of the population, why are they still largely absent from the city’s boardrooms? Partly because board recruitment relies on personal and professional networks that may not reach into immigrant communities. Often organizations lack the recruitment and hiring expertise required to see past old prejudices and the tokenism of seeking a “minority” perspective to the valuable contribution of professional, specialist or political skills and experience the skilled immigrant possesses.

DiverseCity onBoard is an award-winning initiative that seeks to change the face of city leadership by working to ensure that the governance bodies of public agencies, boards and commissions as well as voluntary organizations accurately reflect the diversity of the people who live and work in the Greater Toronto Area.

Launched in 2005, DiverseCity OnBoard (formerly known as abcGTA), was created by the Maytree Foundation to bridge the growing gap between the diversity of Toronto’s population and its leaders, and to help connect public institutions to the talent they need for competitive growth and urban prosperity.

Using practical and direct initiatives, DiverseCity OnBoard works to ensure that the governance bodies of public agencies, boards and commissions as well as voluntary organizations reflect the diversity of the people who live and work in the GTA. It does this by identifying qualified pre-screened candidates from visible minorities and immigrant communities for professional appointments on boards and committees.

By professionalizing the appointment process, the program seeks to prevent board tokenism by helping organizations committed to diversity find the best candidates with the right skills - rather then simply people with the right skin color.

DiverseCity also works to promote board recruitment and appointment processes that are responsive to the needs of the GTA’s diverse population and provide governance training and workshops for members. The website allows boards to scan for potential members and candidates to shop for the best fit for their skills and interests. It has also created a series of publications and tool kits to help organizations modify their recruiting and retention practices to increase leadership diversity.

In just three years, DiverseCity Onboard has matched over 250 candidates to a variety of public, non profit and other organisational boards. It has over 500 pre-screened candidates from visible minority and immigrant groups in its searchable database.

For instance, in 1975, when Felix Mora fled the dictatorial regime of Chile’s Augusto Pinochet, the onetime janitor and construction worker never imagined that he’d find himself sitting at a Canadian boardroom table.

Similarly, Raja Khouri, a human resource consultant from Lebanon became so discouraged by the lobbying and convoluted process involved in the government appointments process that he didn’t even bother to put his name on the list of possible candidates.

Today both Mora and Khouri are both part of the wave of new faces and voices involved with public and non-profit agencies, boards and commissions across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Mora was appointed to Toronto’s Health Professional Appeal and Review Board and Khouri has become one of the 14 human rights commissioners for the Province of Ontario.

Seeing new immigrants and visible minorities on boards sends a broader message to the community– that they are welcome and valued– while creating a space where all residents can bring new ideas to old problems forward.

The Look of Leadership

Diversity also brings huge opportunities. The problems that we face today - environment, poverty and health - are complex. The leadership we need to address these problems requires creativity, and the skill to reach across boundaries - geographic, religious, ethnic and philosophical - to bring together broad and increasingly diverse constituencies. In recognition of these challenges, the annual Maytree Foundation Diversity in Governance Award celebrates public institutions and voluntary organizations that demonstrated commitment and innovation in creating inclusive boards.

Award recipients are selected based on best practices for recruiting, appointing and engaging board members from diverse communities. Successful strategies include well-established diversity policies, outreach to diverse communities, measurements and reporting on diversity goals and professional development of board members.

“These awards honor those who understand the value of diversity as a win-win for organizations and communities” — Ratna Omidvar, President, Maytree Foundation.

DiverseCity celebrates and actively promotes the development of emerging civic and political leaders from within the city’s diverse communities. In its vision of a truly inclusive society, the face of city leadership reflects that of all its members.

For related library resources on this Good Idea, see sidebar at right.

Six year old Amar and his family recently moved to Frankfurt from Turkey. Amar will be starting school next month and is looking forward to meeting his new friends, teachers and learning German. But Amar won’t be the only one in the family attending the local elementary school next week, “Mom and I are going to school together and we’ll be in the same class” he enthuses. As part of the Mama Lernt Deutsch –Papa auch (”Mama learns German - even Papa”) program, his mother, Fatima will be joining him. Not only will Fatima be learning useful language skills to help her adjust to her new life, she will also be taking a big step towards helping Amar succeed academically both in the coming year and in the years ahead.

A child’s academic success has been shown to be strongly influenced by the involvement and collaboration of the parents with the school. Often, parents that are new to a country or uncomfortable in the language are excluded from this participation and as a result, are unable to fully support their children’s education - despite the best of intentions.

To help ensure successful integration into the German school system and to encourage the involvement of new immigrant parents, the city of Frankfurt developed, “Mama learns German - even Papa” program. The program first began in 1997 as a pilot in a Frankfurt suburb with the involvement of eight elementary schools. There are currently about 100 courses in Frankfurt am Main as a result of cooperation between the Frankfurt Office of Multicultural Affairs and the city schools and nurseries.

Through the “Mama Learns German - even Papa” program, immigrant mothers (and fathers) of children in primary schools and kindergartens join their children in the classroom for two mornings a week. The mothers learn German along with their children and receive real insight into the lives that their children will be leading in their new country. The contents of the languages classes are very much focused on the practical - the everyday words and expressions that the mothers need to navigate their new life in Germany and to understand the activities of their children. It also forms the basis for a cooperative relationship between schools and parents. With lessons incorporated into the school day, parents are also relieved of the added burden of costly child care

Success: More than just language
The classroom provides a forum for the mothers to connect and discuss challenges, solutions and find support and friends in an environment that is free from judgment and prejudice.

‘”The classes taught me enough German so I can confidently find way my around town and in stores, but it also introduced me to other women who understood the challenges that my husband and I were facing with our relocation. After classes, we often sit and share our stories and find solutions together” adds Meera who has been attending the classes for the past year with Mira her five year old daughter.

All the schools that participated in the “Mama learns German - even Papa” program, found that their students had demonstrated a significant improvement in their language and vocabulary skills as a result of the increased use of German in their homes and with their mothers. Improved communication skills also enabled the children to participate more in school and on the playground - making both their education and social integration easier, more successful and more enjoyable.

A Travelling Idea
After the success of the “Mama learns German - even Papa” program, Frankfurt began looking to extend the program into secondary schools, as well as exploring variations on the program to increase its accessibility. The program has also been expanded nationally.

One variation that has been developed is based on an Israeli home visit language program called Hippy - “Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters”. This program provides language training for both preschoolers and parents in the family home -reducing the isolation some new immigrants experience and increasing the ability of parents with more than one child that requires supervision to participate. Mothers are visited once a week by a trainer who also speaks their native language (which helps to mediate cultural barriers) and plays games with them to reinforce vocabulary and local customs as well as to discuss parenting issues such as health and nutrition. The mothers then try to spend at least 15 minutes a day interacting with their children and the material.

Frankfurt has always boasted a highly international population. An estimated 38-40 % of its population is foreign born, collectively representing over 170 countries of origin. This means one in three residents having a non-German passport. Since 1973, when Frankfurt founded Germany’s first “language and training course for foreigners”, the city has focused on the goal of ensuring that immigrants have sufficient German skills to participate equally in civil and social life. Innovative programs such as “Mamas Learn German - even Papa” help ensure that this goal is achieved and promise a generation of children increased success for their academic future.

Like most of her neighbors, for years Shivani and her husband Alok endured temporary jobs followed by longs periods of complete unemployment. Although they live only 40 miles from Stansted Airport, (which is the third largest airport in the UK as well as the fastest growing), until recently this divide seemed much larger.

Tower Hamlets, the London borough where Shivani and Alok live is located in East London, an area that is highly diverse and that historically, has one of the UK’s highest unemployment rates.

Runways To Work…
Shivani and Aloks economic and employment situation dramatically improved when the British Airport Authority for Stansted realized that the rural location of the airport would present significant recruitment challenges as Stansted Airport is located on the borders of Essex and Hertfordshire in the London Cambridge Corridor.

The natural recruitment zone for employees (the area immediately around the Airport), seemed an unlikely source of labour. Poor turnout at British Airport Authority recruiting fairs in the Stansted region confirmed that the demographics of the surrounding communities would not be able to meet the labour needs of the rapidly expanding airport.

To address this labour shortage, the British Airport Authority appointed an Employment Strategy Manager to identify, contact and recruit previously untapped labour markets that would fill this need.

The highly diverse, densely populated and underemployed neighborhoods in North and East London offered enormous potential to create new labour markets.

Once this potential labour pool was identified, the British Airport Authority helped establish the North London and Stansted Airport Partnership. In January 2001 this partnership launched, “The Runways to Work Programme”.

A Good Deal for Everyone…
The Runways to Work program was to designed to invest economically deprived and ethnically diverse communities of North and East London with the permanent skills and tools needed to enable them to fill the labour shortage that Stansted Airport was facing and obtain permanent long term employment.

With these definitive goals in mind, the program was structured to be highly practical and results driven. Job skill training was based on actual profiles provided by airport companies and divisions (such as retailing, security and catering) all of which were facing specific needs and projected vacancies. Runway to Work intended to provide their candidates with the skills and experience to apply and secure these jobs by the end of their training sessions.

Potential candidates were recruited through job fairs, recruitment drives and direct outreach through local community centers and neighborhood meeting points such as Jobseekers’ Allowance Centers.

While transportation to the airport from the Haringey/Tottenham area had always been available via the Stansted Express, the cost of the journey had been prohibitive for many community residents - a 1 way adult ticket from Tottenham Hale to Stansted is 14.00 pounds sterling or approximately 21.00USD. To overcome this, the Runways to Work Programme provided employees with a travel card for the first year. This particular initiative proved to be particularly important in contributing to the success of the participants by helping them bridge a traditional hurdle associated with returning to sustained employment.

The Runway to Work Programme strategy went beyond entry level placement and included targets and support to help participants use their new skills to achieve long-term career advancement.

Results…
To date, the Runway to Work Programme has helped over 200 North London residents overcome labour market barriers and numerous businesses located within the area find the trained employees they need.

In June 2002 the project was audited by an independent consultant appointed by the local governing municipal council. The report was extremely positive and established the partnerships as a best practice model for cross sector partnerships.

In 1995 when Lloyds Bank and TSB merged, the new organization Lloyds TSB faced the usual challenges that come with the merger of two large organizations. The actual merger resulted in a financial services organisation with a strong presence in areas with high ethnic minority populations, and the potential for a very diverse customer base.

For instance, Lloyds TSB discovered they now had several branches in East London serving the large Bangladeshi customer base located there. However, managers of local branch offices soon realized that their branches were being underutilized by local residents. Branches in this area also reported an increase in customer misunderstandings and communication difficulties.

Further investigation confirmed that none of these branches actually employed any Bangladeshi residents.

Realising the impact that this situation could have on both their brand and customer satisfaction, Lloyds TSB undertook a program to address the situation. Job advertisements were translated in Bengali and placed with local community groups to attract more Bangladeshi applications. A 13 week work experience program was launched to provide members of the Bangladeshi community with the opportunity to discover whether they wanted to work at Lloyds and to help them develop the skills they would need to apply for a position through the regular hiring procedure. As a result of the program, a number of those who had participated successfully applied and secured jobs with Lloyds TSB.

The Lloyds initiative led to East London branches having over 40% of their employees from ethnic minority communities. The business result? An overwhelming 30% sales increase in this same area during that time. Correspondingly, there has also been a significant decrease in the number of customer complaints. Local line management believes that this is directly the result of having a more diverse workforce and therefore being able to understand the needs of their customers more effectively.

The Business Case:
Traditionally, racial equality was seen as an HR issue but as Lloyds TSB and others are increasingly finding, good racial equality practices can help businesses achieve their key performance targets of: business growth, greater market share and a competitive edge.

UK Government statistics from December 2005 list ethnic minorities as being 8% of the population, with this figures set to double in less than twenty five years.

With the continuing growth of the ethnic minority population as a proportion of the whole population, these customers will become increasingly valuable to businesses. Current purchasing power for ethnic minorities in the UK is exceeds 156 billion pounds sterling after taxes –-a number that is also set to increase dramatically.

Ethnic minorities also tend to be highly entrepreneurial (ethnic minority businesses representing 10% of all businesses in the UK) and research has shown that for nearly one third of all firms, it is business to business sales that account for more than 50% of total sales.

An ethnically diverse workforce is better able to recognise the needs and aspirations of different customers and enable businesses to develop products and services suited to a diverse customer base. Businesses that understand the different cultural, religious and often linguistic requirements of their existing and potential customers will be able to secure competitive advantage over those that do not.

After their success with the Bangladeshi community, the Lloyds program was widened to include all sections of the community with well over 100 people having taken part in it –70% of whom have obtained permanent employment with the Bank.

A Good Idea Travels Internally…
Since then according to the UK organization Race for Opportunity (RfO), Lloyds TSB has come a top performer with regards to increased commitment to ethnic minorities in all aspects of business – and the reasons is, that they have seen the clear business case for having race issues on the boardroom agenda.

“Quite simply, they realize that communities equal profitable customers and potential employees. If you rely on traditional perceptions of who these groups are, you limit your pool of talent and your target market,” says Allan Leighton, RfO Chairman.

Lloyds TSB has also expanded this approach to focus on issues of race within its graduate cohort after realizing that in the late nineties, only three percent of graduate intake came from ethnic minorities while 12 percent of people graduating at that time were from these groups,” says Andrew Wakelin, a senior manager equality and diversity for Lloyds TSB.

“Among the most effective changes the bank has made since the late Nineties has been working specifically with minority ethnic graduates and their families to show them that banking is a worthwhile career. We have also made the imagery of our literature far more inclusive and make links with newer universities, where there are higher proportions of ethnic minorities, rather than just concentrating on the traditional ones, ” Wakelin adds.

Along with awareness training across the bank, the initiative means that while in 1997, just three per cent of Lloyds TSB’s graduate intake was from ethnic minorities, that figure grew to 25 per cent this year. “To be honest, we are not doing an awful lot anymore, because once we make those changes, it started becoming business as usual that one in four applications comes from an ethnic minority,” says Wakelin.

The success of these initiatives have led Lloyds TSB to seek to duplicate this approach in their international locations by finding ways to recruit from within the local community and broaden their local employee base. For instance, in Dubai, they launched a Management Development Program for Young Emiratis to help give valuable work experience to young UAE nationals.