‘Insightful’ anti-racism workshop held for staff to mark Black History Month

“Insightful”, “poignant”, “eye-opening”.

These are some of the words used by staff at Bradford District and Craven Mind to describe an anti-racism training session – entitled Reclaiming Narratives: Anti-Racism in Health and Mental Health – which they recently attended as part of Black History Month.

It was delivered by a passionate team from the African Caribbean Achievement Project (ACAP), including the charity’s Director Claudia, who all did a fantastic job in running an engaging and educational workshop. They also helped our staff feel at ease to talk openly about sensitive subjects.

ACAP is a small, grass-roots charity with a focus on education, arts, culture, health and wellbeing projects and services. Its work is designed to positively impact the lives of people from the African Caribbean community.

During the workshop, we explored systemic racism, the meaning of anti-racism and learned about micro-aggressions. The ACAP team delivered a thought-provoking presentation, containing lots of sobering statistics, and gave us opportunities to discuss these important topics further in breakout groups.

Statistics relating to ethnic inequalities

Statistics relating to ethnic inequalities in health and mental health are quite shocking, and prove how much more work needs to be done to tackle systemic racism.

According to Rethink Mental Illness, compared to white people, black people are four more times likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act.

MBRRACE-UK’s 2022 report found that black women were 3.7 times more likely to die, and Asian women were 1.8 times as likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth as white women.

Health inequalities have been shown to continue into later life. A 2021 study found that people from Pakistani backgrounds are twice as likely to report poor health than white people; for people from Bangladeshi backgrounds, the odds are 1.64 times higher, and for the black Caribbean group the chances of reporting poor health are 1.5 times higher than for white British people. 

Some comments from our staff who attended the workshop include:

I left the workshop with a much better understanding of these topics and feeling empowered to challenge and call-out any discriminations and micro-aggressions that I may witness.

The training delivered by ACAP was really insightful, things I thought I already knew were taken to another level. Claudia and her team shared some very personal experiences which were uncomfortable but important to hear. For me I took away how I can personally create positive change. It isn’t enough to be aware of micro-aggressions and unconscious bias, but to call it out. It’s ok to make mistakes but to ignore and stay silent isn’t solving the problem. Everyone has a part to play.

I learnt more about micro-aggressions. I had heard of this term before but I was able to understand this from a perspective I have never had the opportunity to before. I learnt that this happens a lot more in the workplace than I’d like to think and that we all have a responsibility to respond to this.

I learned a lot about how to challenge with confidence and the timing of challenging behaviours and language which are not ok, which I think has given me a renewed sense of confidence when resolving situations like we spoke about in the workshop.

A big thank you to ACAP from everyone at Bradford District and Craven Mind. Find out more about ACAP.

Bradford District and Craven Mind is on a mission to champion equity, diversity, inclusivity and anti-discrimination in every area of our organisation and beyond. Find out about our equity, diversity and inclusion work.

Posted on: 21st October 2024