About Voice East Midlands

What does Voice East Midlands Do?

We support Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations to be more effective.

Which VCS Organisations?

We support Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) organisations in the East Midlands. We work primarily with locally based infrastructure organisations that support front-line Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations (VCOs).

How do we support organisations to be effective?

We support organisations by providing information, advocacy and resources. We facilitate BME VCOs so that they are able to take part in decisions that affect their development and growth. We work to ensure that BME VCOs benefit from regional initiatives.

Voice EM would like to see...

...a BME third sector that is actively engaged in the region's economic, social and cultural development leading to improvements in the quality of life for BME communities in the East Midlands.

Our future goals are to:

Improve the quality of infrastructure support to the BME VCS

In order for the BME VCS to continue their specialist work and to compete effectively for contracts and funding they need to have access to good quality support, including information, advice, networking and development support.

Promote the interests of the BME VCS in the development of policies and strategies developed at a regional and national level.

Policy is formulated and resources allocated at the regional level and the BME third sector has a right to fair representation within this policy making arena. Voice EM aims to be a champion for the sector.

Increase the engagement of the sector in regional decision-making

BME third sector organisations should feel able to engage with public sector institutions and feel that their contributions are being valued. We know that this is not the case and that feelings of being excluded perpetuate further exclusion.

Highlight what infrastructure support is needed in the BME VCS

We will highlight examples of what works in providing support and advocacy to the BME third sector. This will promote learning from each other and from other regions. And similarly, we can provide advice and guidance to generalist infrastructure so that its services are more accessible and impact more favourably on BME third sector organisations.

If you would like to get involved please become a member. Download the Voice East Midlands Membership Form. Click HERE to download. Please complete and send with your constitution to Voice East Midlands.

Organisational Structure

To find out more about Voice's staff and management committee please follow this link.

Past Projects

To learn about some of the past work Voice has done, please follow the links below:

BME Elders Project

Capacity Building Project

Cluster Development