Welcome to Derby Open Centre

Our aim is to promote understanding through contact between different communities. We do not try to eliminate differences between people but rather to encourage understanding and appreciation of one another. The Open Centre is rooted in the communities that make up our city - which, if you think about it for a moment, means that it is rooted in the communities that make up the world. Go back one or two generations and almost all of us are incomers to Derby. Tens of thousands of school pupils and adults have used the resources of the Open Centre since it was opened a generation ago in 1981. The stereotypes that existed then have no place now when the diversity within individual communities (in terms of beliefs, occupations and lifestyles) is almost as great as within society as a whole. Just as we cannot assume that those whose grand parents were born in Britain are active Christians (in fact over 90% of them do not engage in any form of religious activity - click for details) so we cannot assume that those whose grand parents came from the Indian sub-continent are active Hindus or Muslims. Each of us is an individual, not a stereotype. You can find out more about us on our About page.

www.DerbyOpenCentre.org

Small charity - big achiever award

We are proud to have won the "Small charity - big achiever award" at the East Midlands Children and Young People Voluntary Community Sector presentations at Pride Park in December, 2009.

We may be small, we may run on a shoe-string - but over 10,000 children and adults use our services every year!

New! New! New!

Why not join us for one of our Lunch and Learn sessions?

IMPORTANT: we have moved!

Our previous location on Corden Street has been sold so we have moved - but not too far away.

Full details may be found on the contacts page.

Important notes for schools visiting by coach

• Please tell coach drivers that access to the St James Centre is on Malcolm Road - just off Douglas Street. Please see the map link on our contacts page. Coaches may be parked on any of the streets local to the St James Centre.
• Please arrange with your coach company to go first to the Open Centre (at the St James Centre) so that pupils may drop off bags etc. The coach should then take pupils, and one of our staff, to the first place of visit. Pupils will walk back to the Open Centre.

Please book as early as you can

The Open Centre has been very busy over the last year and we have bookings well into summer term 2010.

We would be very grateful if you would plan as far ahead as possible and contact us to make bookings - that way we hope to be able to provide the dates/times that you want.

Comments from visitors to the Open Centre

"The visit and trails covered a range of things that the children were interested in and which met their project needs." Miss Fletcher, Landau Forte College.

Please click here for other comments from visitors.

Latest events and news

1. Click here for job opportunities at the Open Centre.
2. Click here if you would like to join our Speaker panel to represent your community or beliefs to school pupils and adults in Derby, Derbyshire and surrounding counties.

Working with schools

"There are no opportunities to link to the wider community through fieldwork and contact with local religious groups." This critical comment was made in a recent Ofsted report on a Derbyshire school. We encourage schools to use our resources as part of a whole-school approach to diversity across the curriculum. Local Authority advisors should be the first port of call for schools who have yet to develop such a policy. (Even Ofsted inspectors can get it wrong - "religious groups" should have read "groups representing different beliefs" - not all beliefs are religious as is made clear in section 44 of the Equality Act of 2006.) We work with the whole range of schools, from infant to sixth form, and we can provide everything from hands-on workshops for early learners to talks and debates on controversial topics for year 10 upwards. Our help with speakers for General Studies in the sixth-form is greatly appreciated by many schools. We believe that day-to-day contact between those of different ethnic, religious and non-religious backgrounds is the key to a harmonious society - far better than one in which people remain segregated by colour, ethnic background or belief with little or no understanding of one another's lives. All our staff have many years' experience working with pupils of all ages and all of them are fully CRB checked. We are proud of the fact that in the last 25+ years, tens of thousand of pupils from Derby, Derbyshire and surrounding counties have had the opportunity to visit us and the communities with which we work.

Click for a .PDF of our leaflet or ring us for a copy

Special note for parents

The overwhelming majority of parents welcome the opportunities the Open Centre offers for their children to find out more about the different groups that make up our city. A tiny minority of parents sometimes express concern when told that their children will be visiting the Open Centre and we want to set their minds at rest.

The Open Centre exists to promote good relations between all citizens of Derbyshire no matter what their backgrounds or beliefs. This applies to everyone from the smallest rural Derbyshire village, to the leafy suburbs and the inner city streets - we are all citizens and we all share a common society.

The Open Centre is not a faith-based organisation - its trustee directors include the religious and the non-religious (atheists). The Centre does not promote or teach any form of belief (religious or otherwise) - it exists to promote informed understanding.

Go back one, two or three generations and you will find that most of us have come to Derby for our job or to make a better life for our families - most of us are incomers in one way or another and we all benefit from the rich diversity of our backgrounds.

Prejudice is a result of ignorance and fear - often promoted by sensationalist articles in the media. None of us wants to base our beliefs and actions on ignorance - but fear, resulting from ignorance, is easy to understand. We owe it to our children to ensure that they do not form prejudices out of ignorance.

The Open Centre exists to overcome ignorance and to replace fear with understanding and welcome. We invite any parents with any concerns to contact us for a chat or to come in to see the Open Centre for themselves.

Working with adults

Our services can be a valuable part of Equality and Diversity training for many adult groups - particularly those in public-sector organisations and large companies.

We are unique in offering an "understanding through experience" approach to such training, rather than the more normal "chalk and talk" (or white board and marker or presenter and PowerPoint) approach. We consider the opportunity for interaction between different communities to be far more valuable than sitting alone in front of a PC working through a suitable "module."

Social Cohesion depends not on theoretical knowledge but on personal experience - and that is what we offer.

Our visits, workshops and courses are led by qualified members of Derby communities - they know what they are talking about because they live it every day.

You can find out more about us on our About page.

Funding

For more details of our funding please see the about page.