Empowerment BME Women Trainers
In Spring 2010, Bristol’s BME led Council for Voluntary Service trained eight Somali, Refugee and Asylum Seeker women as trainers who then took their new knowledge of local decision-making structures to a further 80 women in their communities.
Trainer, Nura Aabe, talks about Empowerment – BME Women Training the Trainers
The programme started with a significant amount of outreach work to recruit the trainers, with those interested in participating involved in the decision to train trainers to bring information back to their local groups. These eight women then took part in four workshops to learn training techniques, and about the decision-making structures in theircommunities. Workshops included talks from representatives of Bristol City Council and the Bristol Local Strategic Partnership. An important part of the process was to translate the information into a form with which their communities would engage.
The results were immediate. Questionnaires designed by the training confirmed that understanding of local structures was greatly enhanced for all participants. One trainer recruited 60 voters for the May elections, another has set up a lunch club for carers and young children, and the effect on the personal lives of some individuals has been transformational.
