The Black Voluntary Sector: Present Concerns and Future Directions

by Anstey Rice

Some of you are no doubt familiar with the historical evolution of our community struggles. The early immigrants in the 1950s, dipped their hand into their pockets in order to meet the educational needs of our children. From our places of worship, clubs, pardners, houses, we responded to meeting the social, cultural, educational, shelter and other needs of our community.

Some of you are no doubt familiar with the historical evolution of our community struggles. The early immigrants in the 1950s, dipped their hand into their pockets in order to meet the educational needs of our children. From our places of worship, clubs, pardners, houses, we responded to meeting the social, cultural, educational, shelter and other needs of our community.

Change and the 1981 uprisings
The changing political climate, social and economic factors, together with the 1981 uprisings brought about a fundamental shift in the funding of the Black voluntary sector. Prior to this, Section 11 funding under the Local Government Act 1966, started the process of resourcing the Black voluntary sector. Another contributing factor is what I term the drift away from self-help to state dependency which led to the high profile funding of Black organisations by the Greater London Council, following the 1981 uprisings. This example was quickly followed by other local authorities.

Struggle for independence
Some groups and organisations sought to maintain their independence. They argued that we would be left fighting for the fallen crumbs and become more dependent on state handouts. Our communities found that it was not that easy to obtain funds, even when we were encouraged to apply and promised funding. The daily doses of racism, racist practice, exclusionary funding criteria and individuals racist officers all conspired to deny us funding. More often than not committed politicians had to intervene in order to ensure that Black groups were funded.

The principles of equality demonstrated by the GLC were too much for Central Government which abolished the GLC in 1986. From then on, we began to witness the drying up of funding to the Black voluntary sector.

Economic Constraints and Reorganisation
Financial constraints imposed by Central Government, the constant reorganisation of Local Government, changes in funding criteria have all had negative effect on the Black voluntary sector. Politicians who were once committed to the principles of Equality are now more concerned about what the press would say, and upsetting the taxpayers than ensuring fair allocation of resources.

• "Black and Asian community groups are struggling to survive because they have ,borne the brunt of cuts in voluntary sector funding", was the finding of a recent conference;

• Since 1987, some 50 plus Black voluntary sector organisations have had their funding stopped. That number may very well reflect an under recording of the London figures and about a tenth of the national picture;

• Some 64% of one hundred charitable organisations, surveyed by Charities Aid

• Foundation earlier this year, said that since January 1991 they have experienced a real significant decrease in their income, in any event most of those charities provide little or no funding to us;

• A survey of a group of national mainstream voluntary organisations, SIA, indicated a "colour blind" approach;

• In Local Authorities, contrary to the popular mouthing of treating all alike and equally, there is a difference when it comes to funding Black organisations.

How to respond?
To respond fully and appropriately to our needs, I would suggest that we need to:

• Recapture our sense of self-reliance and self-help;

• Have better co-ordination and networking;

• Establish what it is we are doing and providing as groups, to help us identity what services we are duplicating;

• Make better use of our skills and limited resources;

• Be able to set standards and the agenda for the Black voluntary sector;

• Develop a strategy to resource this sector as an independent entity.

Way forward
The time to demand our fair share is now. In so doing we should redefine the agenda, setting standards for others to follow. We should be saying to big business, unless you can demonstrate that you are supporting our communities, we will take our business elsewhere. To do that, we need to have a co-ordinated strategy which focuses on recycling our finance within our communities, who in return would be encouraged to contribute a percentage of their profits to our sector.

Conclusion
The apparent decimation of the Black voluntary sector should not detract from the strong sense of self-help and self-reliance which is still very much alive in our places of worship. Here at least we have yet to capitulate to the lure of state dependency. Operating on a shoestring budget their social welfare and self-help programmes survive. Our community as a whole needs to recapture that spirit and commitment. As a community let us believe that we can do what our history tells us we can do. Together let us reach for greater heights.

Rice has been Employed as Equal Opportunities Officer at Kirklees Metropolitan Council, served as chair of the National Association of Race Equality Advisors and as a coopted member of the management Committee of SIA, the national development agency for the Black and Minority Ethnic Voluntary Sector. Source: Agenda 2000: The Black Perspective conference.