The BME population in Wigan Borough is small (1.4%) and widely dispersed. People from minority ethnic communities are potentially isolated and in the past there has been very little in terms of services or activity for minority ethnic communities and little opportunity to have a voice locally.

In April 2002 The BME Development Project was established with the aim of addressing some of these issues.

Initially a mapping exercise of all services, groups and strategic forums in the borough for BME communities or dealing with BME issues. This information is now available as a database. Following this mapping, a BME Network was established in November 2002. This is a forum for minority ethnic communities that has now met three times. There are a number of draft objectives for the network:

1. Link people from a diverse range of BME communities across Wigan together.

2. Members of the network to carry out consultation with the wider BME population outside the network around their community needs. These findings will then be combined with the perspectives of network members and fed through to strategic partnerships and The Leaders Forum.

3. Members of the network to identify their community needs and gaps in the services they can access, and address these by seeking funding to establish new projects. The project co-ordinator can facilitate the development of new projects by offering advice on funding and aspects of project development.

4. Members of the network to also address gaps in service provision by making recommendations to service providers either directly at meetings or through strategic partnerships.

Progress so far

• The network met for the first time in November 2002 and this meeting focused around the key things that the members felt were good and bad about living in the Wigan area From this exercise, a list was produced of the issues collated in order of priority with issues around childcare and racism coming top. This information is used to inform future priorities for the network.
• Training has been provided for network members on carrying out consultation with the community and on local structures, such as the seven strategic partnerships and the Leaders Forum.
• Network members have responded to opportunities to have a voice on bodies such as The Citizens Panel and Wigan and Leigh Housing Equality and Diversity Steering Group.
• Funding is being sought for an asylum seekers mentoring project in response to needs identified by network members
• Members of the network are involved in organising and participating in The Wigan One World Festival in August.
• Members of the network have been involved in work around Community Cohesion in the borough. Funding is currently being sought to carry out work in schools around community cohesion, and as part of this, network members will be asked to go into schools to talk about their cultures.

If you would like any more information about this project please contact

Shakirah on 01942 686243
sullah@cvswl.org