Good morning, my name is Chuks. I’ve been in Scotland for almost 18-years now, and eh, part of this 18 years I live in Scotland, precisely Wester Hailes. I work as a project coordinator for a charity in Scotland and also engage in so many activity that improve lives and improve upskilling to get a job here in Scotland as well. So I'm playing a very prominent role in terms of community because that is where my passion lies. The model which the Scottish Government has been using for quite a while, through the MSP having a surgery once a week, once a month to discuss with community members what are the issues particular with them, I see is not working. I think it is an old model that need to change. What do I mean? At most times people don't even know where their MSP exists. People don’t know where they are. You have an issue, that’s when you want to run to (see) MSP to have those conversation. And also getting down to the Scottish Parliament has become so difficult and what I can classify as hard to reach government. They are the people who represent or are supposed to be closer to the people and the model of using the MSP as a channel to reach out…is not working. So what is the withal to change this scenario? One, I want to see a situation whereby the MSP we have, maybe a quarterly meeting or monthly meeting with different representative in the constituency where they represent so that we would have opportunity to discuss critical issues affecting those living in those area. And each of those representative, whatever information they got from the MSP, then those information can be disseminated directly to the people they represent. For example, I present Black community Wester Hailles so if something is happening and I’m part of that meeting I should be able to transfer, discuss, think about what we discussed and take it back to my community. Because I feel that.. the Scottish Parliament does not understand how to engage people. They don't understand how diverse this community, eh, Scotland has become and I want to see that diversity reflect in the way truth is included in engaging people. Because they don't know where to engage us, they don't know where to find us. And also to improve our engagement within the Scottish Parliament I want to see the Scottish Parliament having something like, eh, every bi-monthly meeting or quarterly meeting with different representatives of the different communities having meeting with the Scottish Parliament so they are able to hear from them, the issues in the community and able to look at those informations and see how to be able to make a change. And those people also are the representative who can take information back to their community. So that information is fitted directly to the people they represent. Because the current model is not working and will not recognise that how diverse we have become and they have to reflect in the way we do things. But I pray and I hope for an opportunity to be able to sit face to face with people that make decisions in this country and that who have a job to do and look at how we achieve that by working together. Thank you very much.
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