For over a year now, I have wanted to explore what Motherwell Cheshire needed to do to help support the local BAME women, especially in Crewe as I was aware their was an women that needed the support but what could this support look like?
Every year I have felt that our Women’s day celebrations needs to capture more of the “International Theme” but never really understood how to capture this.
Then Black Lives Matter took place and it got me thinking, that this year I really need to explore what services Motherwell Cheshire can offer to help support BAME Women.
At my Women’s & Girls conference I really wanted to have a voice from the BAME community but unfortunately speaker slots were already taken and the day had ran out of time.
So instead I decided to interview women to explain what Black Lives Matter is to them and what they thought needed change, locally and nationally.
It is my intention to include the BAME community in my manifesto but again what did I put. I definitely knew it was not just about putting a group on and hoping women would come. However had I decided this as a route, I am sure I would have got funding for it. Since Black Lives Matters there has been so much funding offered to charities that were supporting the BAME community.
BAME women were found to be high risk for Covid 19 and this was something that I definitely wanted to help support- but again how, how could a mental health charity make a difference?
As well as interviewing women, I have read so many different books to try and understand the issues that are facing black individuals and although I am not claiming to understand their own personal struggles and battle. I understand the white privilege that is happening every day in our local community. I also know that discrimination/ racism is a systemic issue. However what I am starting to realise is that it can be grass roots charities that make the difference to the local community and a lone voice can then change to a many loud voices who can influence change.
I want to get the support correct that we offered, supporting the needs that were being presented. Surely a group that we say is “safe” wasn’t just what was needed. As I was pondering all this I had a women contact me who was from the black community – Ezeda. Who wanted to support other BAME women in the area. It was explained to me that for any BAME group to work they need to feel represented by the charity supporting them, I completely understood this and was very aware that we are a “white” charity and need to look and be more diverse in order to appeal to a more diverse group of women in order to be able to offer them support. Mental health in many cultures is not spoken about and this I want to address over the next 12 months in the charity. To create a safe space for women and girls of all cultures to know its safe to discuss mental health issues without fear of judgement and stigma.
My plan is to visit other charities offering a similar support. This for me is not about reinventing the wheel its about supporting a community in need of support locally. I hate to think of any women suffering alone not knowing who to turn to.
from my conversation Ezeda it was decided that we would set up a BAME women drop in led by the Ezeda, a face that represented the black community. Then from the drop in we would look to see what services needed to be offered.
From my podcasts and from the research I have been doing I have also found that the phrase BAME is not what many women like to be “labelled” as. Even though at the moment it seems to be the only term that is being used, I am mindful that it might not be the term that we use going forward.
I want to get this support right for the women that will need us – to me community means everything and I want all local women no matter of colour, sexuality, age, religion etc to know they are more than welcome to access our support, but also understand that this support needs to be fit for purpose. I still don’t know the answers of how best to support the BAME community and support black new mums but haven’t finished exploring yet and want this support to be a joined up approach with other local organisations wanting to offer support just like us.