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Equal Opportunities

HIPP is committed to integrating equal opportunities into all elements of our Programme.  There are many good examples of projects funded through the current Programme that have developed services that are more accessible, inclusive and flexible, working to break down barriers encountered by groups and individuals facing discrimination and disadvantage.  We want to share these examples more widely to encourage exchange of experience in mainstreaming equal opportunities.

The national Equal Opportunities Adviser, Muriel Mackenzie, has produced an Equal Opportunities Good Practice  Guide “Equality in Practice – Making it Work” which will help partners look at how they can make their projects more accessible and more inclusive.

The Guide is a practical manual showing how equal opportunities issues can be built into different types of projects, throughout the whole life-cycle of a project from its design to its delivery and evaluation.

The Guide provides equal opportunities advice and support covering a range of project types:

• Business start-up and growth
• Community economic development
• Urban Development
• Research and Development
• Rural Development
• Sites, Premises and Infrastructure
• Tourism
• Training

Case studies, taken from the five Scottish EU Structural Fund Programmes and the four Community Initiatives of EQUAL, URBAN, LEADER+ and INTERREG are provided for each project type.  This gives us an opportunity to look in detail at how projects have embedded equal opportunities throughout their project activity.  Contact details are provided for project staff to encourage discussion and exchange of information between projects.  Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar’s Business Advantage project and SNH’s Beinn Eighe Visitor Centre are some of the case studies in the Guide.

The Guide can be downloaded in pdf format here or copies can be obtained from the PME.

If you’d like to get in touch with Muriel Mackenzie, National Adviser for Equal Opportunities, she can be contacted by telephone on 01383 622537 or by email at mackenziem@esep.co.uk.