Are black women’s voices being heard in Somerset?
The first networking research of its kind is about to begin looking at the experiences of black women in Somerset.
Last updated 22nd Oct 2020
Jusna Hussain is the community engagement officer at the community council for Somerset, Somerset Diverse Communities- which is behind the research project that's due to get underway next month.
They support around 40 communities across the county and also offer language lessons to help people learn conversational English and plan community cohesion events - which are currently being done virtually.
She said: "It's to look at the black experience of women in Somerset, about any challenges that come up and how we, as an organisation, and as a community can actually support black women in Somerset to overcome them."
The project aims to help communities and groups to 'thrive' and also help with Governance and applying for charitable status.
She added: "We help them to become more resillient, we also want to them to achieve their own goals as well as provide opportunities for funding and training."
Ms Hussain said: "Post Covid we've had to change our work slightly because we weren't able to get into those groups so we've set up a few projects, one of them is called Language Connect.
"What that aims to do is bring together people from minority ethnic groups who would like to improve their conversational English with learning partners in Somerset to help them do this.
"The benefits of that have been really, really good.
"People have developed friendships, they've developed their sef-esteem and their self-confidence as well - and also they are learning about different cultures so for community cohesion that's been a really, really positive thing."
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