We had a very good attendance at our joint BME Networks meeting on Friday 19th July 2019 – thank you all for coming along.
The BME VCSE & Faith Organisation sector in GM: our role, our recognition and our future?
The morning started with a consultation from Temidayo Eseonu, PhD Researcher in Politics at The University of Manchester discussing what the VCSE & Faith Organisation role is now in GM and what could be done in the future. As you would expect there were some lively debates and discussions around the room! Following on from which we were delighted to welcome our keynote speaker, Dr Omar Khan, CEO of the Runnymede Trust presenting on the state of our sector, the impact of austerity and how we look to the future. Runnymede Trust is the UK's leading independent race equality think tank – you can find out more of their work here.
The morning finished with a very lively and informative info exchange from Heart and Parcel with their cookbook launch, getting involved with The People’s History Museum 2020 – find out more here, What is PrEP? from BHA for Equality and Ethnic Health Forum on Commonwealth Scholarships.
We also heard from Michael Palmer about a small survey he’d like views on around alcoholism in our communities – please take the survey here – it will only take a few minutes to complete and will really help him with his research; Charles Kwaku-Odoi (CAHN) on the launch of Black History Month for 2019 find out more here and Chloe Cousins from the Proud Trust – please see more on their FaceBook page.
Hidden Gems Awards
Just before we stopped for lunch we managed to squeeze in The Manchester BME Network ‘Hidden Gems’ Awards funded by the Spirit of Manchester Mini Grants – a lovely piece of recognition for all those wonderful people in your organisations that don’t normally get a mention. We had a incredible response to this with some amazing contributions - thank you all who nominated. Photos will be shared with you all soon – congratulations again to all those who won!
Our lovely lunch was provided by one of our members – thank you SAWA BBQ.
AGM
Finally we held our AGM and announced that The Manchester BME Network has changed over structure to a CIC – more information about this will follow. Watch this space!
If you need any further information on any of these above, please do not hesitate to get in touch.
