Rochdale Diversity Awards 2016

Rochdale Town Hall was the venue for Rochdale Diversity Awards 2016. Champions of Diversity from across the borough and Greater Manchester attended the event on 26th May 2016.

Rochdale Diversity Awards (RDA), now in its fifth year and organised by KYP, promotes the excellent work being done by individuals, organisations and employers in supporting and promoting equality, diversity and cohesion within the borough. The awards also aim to motivate service providers by ensuring equality and diversity issues are central to the remodelling and transformation of local services and organisations.

The Grand Hall was filled with a cross section of the community, senior public sector officials, finalists. sponsors and distinguished guests.

Guest speakers on the night were: Cllr Ray Dutton - Mayor of Rochdale, Tony Lloyd - Mayor and Police and Crime Commissioner for Greater Manchester, Ian Hopkins - Chief Constable GMP, Cllr Richard Farnell – Leader of Rochdale Council and Dr Zubair Hanslot - Provost at Bolton University, who all spoke about the importance of embracing diversity within their own organisations and across all walks of life.

The awards have improved year on year and this year saw the bar raised yet again. The calibre and quality of nominations received for the awards was outstanding and

the judging panel had a very difficult time in selecting one winner from each category.

Zulf Ahmed, CEO of KYP, welcomed the guests and finalists. Zulf said “Rochdale continues to strive to be an exemplar for Equality and Diversity. In this challenging global climate that is fuelled by fear, with xenophobia, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia rearing their ugly heads around every corner, Diversity and Equality is more important now than it has ever been. Those that preach fear and hatred would like us to cower and bury our heads in the sand. These awards have been designed to bring hope where there is fear, recognising those champions within our community, champions of diversity and equality from all walks of life, from organisations large and small that refuse to give up on our community”. Zulf congratulated all the finalists and winners on their achievement and good work.

Entertainment was provided by pupils from Falinge Park High School and Jacqui Farasowskyie who performed their charity single “Children of Syria”. The host for the evening was Abdullah Afzal who plays Amjad in BBC 1’s comedy “Citizen Khan”.