Call me Mrs Cynical, but I think this whole thing has more to do with acquiring funding than with 'holding out a hand' to under-represented groups. I don't know for sure, but I strongly suspect that the Lake District will have been receiving lots and lots of funding from pots of money to help the area recover, after foot and mouth.

As these things tend to work in three year cycles, I further suspect that the pot they had previously been receiving said funding from, might well have run out, or they have become ineligible for some beaurocratic reason.   

And so they have found a new pot - like Arts Centres who look to 'expand their audience base' by 'programming' for age or gender or cultural specific sectors of the 'community'. It is a way of acquiring money.

('community' has, in my opinion, become the most over-used word today - I hate driving past signs which say 'Community School' or 'Community Hospital' - what on earth does it mean?? - pet rant - sorry)