A BRADFORD-based charity is set to celebrate its 25th anniversary in style next year with a series of events in the city.

Quest for Economic Development (QED), based in Vicar Lane, looks to improve the educational, social and economic position of disadvantaged ethnic minorities in the UK.

The charity, which employs 15 staff in Bradford, will be holding a series of events in Bradford, London and other locations next year to mark the milestone.

These include a black tie dinner event in Bradford on a date and venue to be confirmed. A reception celebrating the success of QED is also set to be held at the House of Lords next year.

QED also plan to release an 'impact DVD' in October next year which will feature accounts of 25 people who have had their lives improved by the work of QED.

Over its 25-year history, they have supported 30,000 people from ethnic minorities through education and training which has helped them go on to get jobs.

A total of 70 per cent of the charity's work is done in Bradford, with the remainder taking place at locations across the UK.

They play a key role in developing and managing social enterprises which deliver services in education, training, employment and health that reach the most disadvantaged communities.

Each year, QED directly help more than 1,000 people and support 50 organisations.

They also train and develop the English Language and Life in Britain skills of 1,000 women in Pakistan who will be joining their husbands in the UK.

When the foundations was set up in 1990, there were 950,000 Muslims in the UK. Today, the figure stands at 2,869,000 or almost five per cent of the population.

Mohammed Ali, QED founder and chief executive, said: "Initially, we thought ten years would be long enough to get our message across to everybody, but we have now managed, and needed, to be around for more than 25 years now.

"We feel we have played a small but very significant role in the development of getting more ethnic minority workers into the economy, but still not represented at senior level.

"We now have more people in higher ranked jobs from ethnic minorities.

"Things have progressed considerably for ethnic minorities, but we are not getting complacent.

"We will see how we can put forward to encourage people to apply for more of these kinds of jobs who come from ethnic minorities.

"Ethnic diversity has become more prominent in Bradford and the UK.

"There is work still to be done. We have remained a fairly small organisation.

"In the last 25 years we have progressed quite a lot. We set out initially to try to get ethnic minorities to become more of a part of mainstream Britain. There are more people from ethnic minorities who are MPs and in the House of Lords.

"Our impact DVD will feature from all walks of life that have benefitted from QED's works."

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