On Wednesday 17th August 2016 our founder Charmaine Lawrence was invited to a professionals business lunch with Bristol’s Mayor Marvin Reece.
Future city leaders from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities have been challenged by Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees to work with him to inspire young people to pursue education, training or employment.
The challenge was laid down by the mayor during a meeting at City Hall with 17 young professionals from BME communities who work across Bristol’s business, charity, culture and education sectors, nearly half being business owners.
The mayor was quizzed on his vision for developing skills and talent amongst BME communities and heard the thoughts of his guests on how opportunities to attain skills and knowledge could be improved.
The group unanimously agreed they should meet again to draw up suggestions to take back to Coun Rees. The main area that they saw for development was in networking opportunities for young people to meet others and share knowledge and opportunities.
They drew parallels between the challenges they face and issues many young disadvantaged white communities face when trying to access education, training or employment.