SOUTH WEST RACE EQUITY RESEARCH NETWORK

The South West Race Equity Research Network (SWRERN) is made up of 15 partners across the South West of England, 13 of which are community organisations focused on tackling racial inequalities across the region and the remaining 2 are leading universities based in Bath and Bristol. The Network has committed to 5 key areas of impact:

1. Building capacity and confidence for research and data utilisation in the Racial Justice community sector and its communities across the South West.

2. Providing resources for its community partners to explore alternative anti-racist methodologies that are the most appropriate for their geographic areas and communities.

3. Supporting the up skilling of its partners on technical research skills and sharing the learning on the new explorative approaches tested by its partners.

4. Exploring digital technology and tools to enable equitable cross-sectoral knowledge-co-production and models for collective ownership of data.

5. Lastly, the Network will come together to leverage its collective power and break down barriers hindering communities’ access to research, data and innovation.

The SWRERN’s ultimate objective to counteract power imbalances in traditional research ecosystems and to re-imagine the role of knowledge-production through an anti-racist lens, which will locate Black and Minoritised people at its heart and bring tangible positive change to their lives.

 OUR STRATEGIC MEMBERSHIP

Black South West Network (BSWN)
NETWORK COMMUNITY LEAD AND MEMBER OF THE SRATEGY GROUP

BSWN has a history of building connectivity across the Racial Justice sector in the South West of England and embedding an evidence-led approach to community advocacy through a racial justice lens. Over the years, the organisation built a safe space where Black and Racially Minoritised individuals, community organisations and R&I sector’s representatives can convene to co-produce equitable anti-racist research.

Sado Jirde, Director, said: “The creation of the South West Race Equity Research Network is a groundbreaking opportunity for the Racial Justice sector and racialised communities across the South West of England. Being funded £1 million directly from the UKRI, the Network will invest in building the sector’s capacity, ownership and leadership of knowledge-production. It will unlock a whole new level of exploration around the meaning of research and the role that community knowledge can play in dismantling racial inequalities.”

Bristol Black Carers (BBC)
NETWORK COMMUNITY PARTNER FOR BRISTOL AND MEMBER OF THE STRATEGY GROUP

BBC is an award-winning charity providing culturally appropriate support and services for Caribbean, African and Asian carers and their families in Bristol and beyond.

Anndeloris Chacon, CEO, said: “Research should be about enhancing people’s quality of lives, not to sit on a shelve. That’s why our Network is here, to ensure that research produces real-world outcomes for our people.”

Bristol Somali Resource Centre (BSRC)
NETWORK COMMUNITY PARTNER FOR BRISTOL AND MEMBER OF THE STRATEGY GROUP

BSRC provides free advice and guidance on welfare, housing, schools and employment to Somali communities and other refugee communities in Bristol and the South West of England. 

Abdullahi Farah, Managing Director, said: “Research is very important for us because without knowing what the needs are, you won’t be able to deliver appropriate solutions.”

Chinese Community Wellbeing Society (CCWS)
NETWORK COMMUNITY PARTNER FOR BRISTOL AND MEMBER OF THE STRATEGY GROUP

CCWS is working to provide advice and support across a wide range of areas such as healthcare, education and housing.

Joe Hui, CCWS Director, said: “We would like to focus on increasing the trust of Chinese communities in the power of research, to help them realise the importance of speaking up and being visible, taking their rightful part in the production of R&I.”

BeOnBoard
NETWORK COMMUNITY PARTNER FOR BRISTOL AND MEMBER OF THE STRATEGY GROUP

BeOnBoard is a leading organisation in the South West providing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion leadership development and strategies to match talented diverse individuals with leadership positions.

Kalpna Woolf, CEO, said: “The level of inequalities that exist is simply shocking and the research done in the traditional way is barely helping if not harming us. This new way of doing research could really change the outcomes of our communities.”

Black Families Education Support Group (BFESG)
NETWORK COMMUNITY PARTNER FOR BATH AND NORTH EAST SOMERSET AND MEMBER OF THE STRATEGY GROUP

BFESG’s main focus is on education and Black and Racially Minoritised young people, providing support to parents and families, and advocating for schools to act against discrimination in education settings.

Jason Pegg, Development Manager, said: “Research & data underlines everything you do, but the important part is how do you then communicate and disseminate the knowledge? We ‘translate’ research into practical ideas and understandable solutions, because we have that local knowledge.”

Race Equality North Somerset (RENS)
NETWORK COMMUNITY PARTNER FOR NORTH SOMERSET AND MEMBER OF THE STRATEGY GROUP

The work of RENS is embedded in racial, cultural and social justice and systems change. It works with a range of government, civil and community stakeholders and its innovative and locally rooted nature make it agile and responsive. Its complexity-informed approach supports a highly experimental approach and the development of non-traditional methodologies.

Ian Noah, Chair of Trustees, said: “Research & data provides us with qualitative and quantitative means to help develop appropriate proposals and policies in response to the community's requirements, as well as supporting buy-in from stakeholders. These are necessary building blocks in the foundations of long-term positive change."

 
Voluntary Action North Somerset (VANS)
NETWORK COMMUNITY PARTNER FOR NORTH SOMERSET AND MEMBER OF THE STRATEGY GROUP

VANS is an infrastructure organisation, working with the non-profit sector in North Somerset. They provide essential support to improve the community sector’s leadership, encourage collaborations and develop dynamic partnerships.

David Crossman, Capacity Builder Programme Lead, said: “We want to have data so that we can shape our service delivery knowing, with confidence, that we are doing the right things, which the community expects and needs.”

 
Changing Suits
NETWORK COMMUNITY PARTNER FOR SWINDON AND WILTSHIRE AND MEMBER OF THE STRATEGY GROUP

Changing Suits provides consultancy to local authorities, NHS and mainstream providers to increase culturally appropriateness of services, whilst working with South Asian providers to support them scale up.

Bal Kaur, Strategic Director, said: “At Changing Suits, we've dedicated ourselves to reducing racial inequalities by collaborating closely with minority communities and service providers across various sectors. Despite our progress, a critical challenge remains: the absence of comprehensive data prevents a clear understanding of both our baseline conditions and the impact of our efforts. Through the network, we look to overcome this obstacle by identifying and prioritising the areas most in need of strategic attention.”

Dorset Race Equality Council (DREC)
NETWORK COMMUNITY PARTNER FOR DORSET AND MEMBER OF THE STRATEGY GROUP

DREC has active research projects on the ground and is particularly interested in community co-production and grassroots knowledge-production.

Ian Gwinn, Trustee, said: “This Network has a clear focus on utilising the data & research for an action-oriented purpose, that is bettering the lives of communities affected by racial injustice. This type of research is the one that I am genuinely interested in.”

Ubuntu Counselling Services (UCS)
NETWORK COMMUNITY PARTNER FOR EXETER AND DEVON AND MEMBER OF THE STRATEGY GROUP

UCS provides counselling services to those affected by discrimination. Its staff is trained to utilise more culturally appropriate models of counselling that are better translatable across their diverse communities’ cultures.

Dr Faith Stafford, Director, said: “This Network can have far more impact than any organisation saying these things on their own. It can hold stakeholders accountable. It can help disseminate and publish validated community research.” 

Plymouth and Devon Racial Equality Council (PDREC)
COMMUNITY PARTNER FOR PLYMOUTH AND DEVON AND MEMBER OF THE STRATEGY GROUP

Working with an extremely wide variety of communities, this organisation has a reach of over 3000 beneficiaries a year, tackling challenges such as racism in education, healthcare and housing for people speaking hundreds of different languages. They also represent Diverse Devon Together CIC, which is a partnership of 12 grass roots ethnic minority organisations in Devon working to celebrate the richness of difference in the family of humanity and working to forge bonds between all communities in Devon. This is done by working in partnership, raising the profile of communities to contribute to policy, working with statutory bodies and other stakeholders to grow communities' spiritual, cultural, economic, social and in physical and mental well-being; and above all promote a climate that respects diversity

Julie Paget, Strategy Manager, said: “The aspiration is that the good research we co-produce actually gets something done and doesn’t disappear. We want action-oriented research that brings real change.”

Black Voices Cornwall (BVC)
COMMUNITY PARTNER FOR CORNWALL AND MEMBER OF THE STRATEGY GROUP

BVC identified misinformation and lack of data as one of the key sources of racial discrimination in the area, and therefore has an ambition to improve the quality of local datasets when it comes to racialised communities. 

Joyte Brown, Head of Partnerships, said: “To me, this Network means an opportunity for equality of lived experience and an opportunity for the betterment of all communities on a wider scale. I want to be research-led and specifically led by our own communities in this research process.”

Bath Spa University
ACADEMIC PARTNER IN BATH AND MEMBER OF THE STRATEGY GROUP

John Strachan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise has declared his commitment and support to this Network since its inception, having built a long trustworthy partnership with BSWN over years of joint projects delivery. Joseph Fort, Research Projects and Governance Manager, and Sarah Priston, Head of Research Support, have consistently provided their expertise to the Network around research integrity, ethics, university systems, and procedure for co-production and collective ownership models. 

Professor John Strachan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise at Bath Spa University, said: "The South West Race Equity Research Network represents a powerful and transformative approach to research, centring Black and Minoritised communities in the creation and ownership of knowledge. At Bath Spa University, we are deeply committed to our partnership with BSWN, over years of joint projects delivery, and to breaking down traditional barriers in research, ensuring that our work drives important and impactful change for communities across the South West".

University of Bristol
ACADEMIC PARTNER IN BRISTOL AND MEMBER OF THE STRATEGY GROUP

BSWN has built a long partnership with the University of Bristol, which recently led to the publication of the Co-Production Charter; a compendium of 10+ years of learning around good and bad practices for engaging Black and Racially Minoritised communities and organisations in co-produced research.

Evelyn Welch, Vice-Chancellor and President, has declared her support to the Network and Professor Therese O’Toole, Head of School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies has provided her expertise to the Strategy meetings essentially contributing to the Network’s establishment.