About Us
Croydon BME (Black & Minority Ethnic)
Croydon BME Forum is the umbrella organisation for Croydon’s Black and Minority Ethnic voluntary and community sector; engaging people, building capacity, and promoting equality and cohesion. We are a registered charity and company limited by guarantee.
The Forum was established to maximise the engagement of BME communities in all aspects of living and working in Croydon.
We make representations on behalf of Croydon’s black and minority ethnic communities to public sector agencies and other statutory and non-statutory organisations.
We work with our communities to:
- Ensure that they are involved in local policy and decision making; regeneration and neighbourhood renewal.
- Facilitate joint-working among BME communities to develop best practice and provide a unified BME voice within local strategic partnerships.
- Promote networking, collaboration and partnership between the BME voluntary sector and mainstream agencies building their organisational capacities.
- Engage with BME communities in all aspects of Croydon life.
- Encourage good race relations, community cohesion and equality of opportunity for all throughout Croydon.
How our members are involved in what we do
‘Our BME community members play a role in the decision making policy specifically with regards to policy, service development and its delivery in Croydon by taking part in our thematic groups.’
These are:
Community Safety: working with community safety agencies to address community safety issues and develop strategies to eliminate incidences of racial harassment and crime.
Education: works in partnership with schools, parents/guardians, local education statutory and community based education providers to improve education outcomes for BME children.
Enterprise & Employment: working with local statutory, voluntary and national organisations to address unemployment rates, pay and employment discrimination and improve work and enterprise opportunities for BME communities.
Health & Wellbeing: to provide an opportunity for BME communities to have an input into addressing health and wellbeing issues that will feed into future health and wellbeing strategies.