London Plus has recently launched a new project which will support the Arts, Cultural, and Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sectors to identify and communicate the impact of creative health activities.
In this blog, find out more about one of the organisations involved in this project – The Black Men’s Consortium.
What does The Black Men’s Consortium do?
The Black Men’s Consortium is a voluntary, peer-led intergenerational group of Black men with 25 – 30 members aged 18 – 71 who have lived experience of mental illness. We have sessions each week at Mosaic Clubhouse in Brixton.
We outreach and co-produce high profile inclusive and accessible community engagement events at local libraries, community centres and public spaces in order to a) collaborate with grassroot organisations b) raise the awareness and explore solutions to healthcare inequalities and c) recruit new members to the group.
What are the values of your organisation?
To build and develop solidarity amongst black and brown men in London in order to creatively address health inequalities within healthcare.
How do you make a difference to people’s wellbeing?
By attending weekly sessions that are user-led and self-organised by group members. We also enable members to use the space in ways that are meaningful and valuable to them, where they can explore solutions to the injustices and inequalities they are faced with in their lives. We do this through drama and theatre activities that help people provide the futures the men long for.
Which communities do you work with to tackle health inequalities?
We work with people of colour.
Is there a project or initiative that you are particularly proud of?
We are proud of our recent community event with the Greater London Authority, where we performed an interactive, immersive show that enabled participants to “Watch, Act, Propose and Vote”, based on the Black Men’s Consortium’s experiences of ineffective policies and practices. We then created solutions and tested new policies in playful and creative enactments.
Why did you decide to get involved in this project?
Black and Brown (men) communities are overrepresented negatively within many institutions that are meant to care for us. We want to bring about change!
We have also worked with one of your facilitators, Jane, in the past, and found the experience very valuable.
Plus, projects like these are really important in our work, especially when the outcomes are flexible and adaptable to ensure we can use them with our communities.
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A big thank you to Black Men’s Consortium for getting involved in the project. In the coming weeks, we will release more blogs on participating organisations – stay tuned!
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