Lord Mayor’s Committee Chair’s Report 2019
Delivered at Annual General Meeting 8 January 2020.
Japanese Day Celebration and Commemoration
Thanks to the enthusiasm of David Fish, a very successful Japanese Day was held in Coventry Cathedral on the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. The day included an exhibition of Japanese embroidery and lessons in Taiko drumming for children.
The Lord Mayor held a reception for guests including his Excellency Minister Okada. This was followed by a commemoration in the Cathedral which included a performance by six Coventry Young Ambassadors of Howes Primary School and the story of Sadako Sasaki told by students from Cardinal Newman Catholic School.
The reflection was delivered by Paul Parker, senior administrator of Quakers in Britain and the whole day was widely acclaimed as a great success.
Peace Festival Curation
Following a change of staff in Coventry City Council, the Event Manager invited the Committee to curate this festival at very short notice. Luckily Liam Phizacklea was able to take on this challenge and the festival ran, although with a reduced programme. We will be receiving any remaining budget to help run a peace programme for schools in 2020, which we expect to be about £2000.
We have been asked to curate the festival again next year. The details are still to be clarified.
Coventry & Warwickshire Childrens’ Peace Poem Competition 2020
Second year of running the competition it was also open to Warwickshire children. The theme was Peace and Human Rights. It received fewer entries than last year. The winners came from Holbrook Primary School and Cardinal Newman Catholic School. We have sent certificates to LMO to be printed and sent to participating schools. We sent electronic certificates to individuals.
Peace Poem Book
A paperback and electronic book of all poems has been created and is available on our website and on Amazon.
Peace Poem Award Ceremony
Lord Mayor to award prizes at ceremony in Cardinal Newman. Date still to be arranged.
Copies of book will be awarded to winning poets along with certificates and book tokens.
Coventry Childrens’ Peace Song 2020
Coventry Music Hub ran a competition for schools. Three schools submitted songs and the winning song was “Sending Out a Message” by Richard Lee School. This song will be Coventry Peace Song 2020, has been orchestrated by the Peace Hub and will be performed in Coventry Cathedral and on a number of other occasions, hopefully including the Peace Lecture 2020.
Young People’s Peace and Reconciliation Conference 2019
114 young people and peace activists attended this conference which was managed by PeaceMakers from Birmingham who ran four Peace Circles. We collected ideas about how schools could make peace even stronger and used them to develop the follow-up Peace Award scheme.
The conference was made possible by a National Lottery Community Fund Grant of £2952.
Lord Mayor’s Peace Lecture
Delivered by Baroness Shami Chakrabarti in Coventry Cathedral to great acclaim. Refreshments kindly provided by RISING Global Peace Forum. A record attendance due to people coming into Cathedral after “Where Light Falls” illumination in ruins of old cathedral.
Publication of Ruined and Rebuilt
Classic book written by Provost Richard Howard was republished on behalf of Coventry Cathedral on 14 November. It is available on our website store, in Coventry Cathedral and in Waterstones. Profits will be shared with Coventry Cathedral.
Coventry Peace Award
Following the analysis of the ideas raised during the Young People’s Peace Conference, it has been decided to pilot a Peace Award during 2020. Hopefully the Lord Mayor will be agree for the award to be named Coventry Lord Mayor’s Peace Award. Since that is a long name, I have registered the domain CoventryPeaceAward.uk and created a provisional website.
The aims will include offering a free scheme to: enable young people to have a voice in promoting peace and reconciliation; encourage schools to collaborate on peace initiatives and enable schools to apply for a certificate and perhaps a trophy and a small financial award. It will be necessary to raise funds from local businesses and others to support this scheme.
Public Liability Insurance
Covers period from 1-11-19 to 30-10-20 for cost of £99.31
Children and Vulnerable Adults Safeguarding Policy
Updated Sept 2019. See https://coventrycityofpeace.uk/children-and-vulnerable-adults-safeguarding-policy/
Balbir Sohal is the Designated Safeguard Lead.
All members need to read and implement parts 1 Introduction , 2 Recognising Abuse and 3 Procedures of this policy, and either complete the form on the above page (best procedure) or write to Designated Safeguarding Lead at dsl@coventrycityofpeace.uk
Maintenance of LMPC Website
I have maintained our website and issued monthly newsletters from https://coventrycityofpeace.uk/ where more details of all these activities can be found.
Philip Brown, Chair, Coventry Lord Mayor’s Committee for Peace and Reconciliation