CVSL Secures a Knowledge Exchange Grant

The Centre for Voluntary Sector (CVSL) secured a grant through The Open University in Wales Knowledge, Impact, and Innovation Faculty Fund, funded by the Higher Education Funding Council of Wales (HEFCW) as part of the Research Wales Innovation Fund Strategy.

The successful project proposal is titled: Overcoming Reliance on Gatekeepers: Addressing Racial Equity Through Meaningful Partnerships and Collaboration with Black and Minority Ethnic Communities at a Local Level.

The grant will cover four roundtables and a final conference in Cardiff. The Milton Keynes roundtable took place on July 20th (report on the forthcoming roundtable); the Newport roundtable is scheduled for September 28th; the Swansea roundtable is on September 27th; and finally, the final roundtable is taking place in Cardiff on September 29th. The final project Conference is scheduled for October 27th, 2022.

The roundtables are hosted in partnership with local partners, and the latter lead the recruitment of participants. The roundtables bring together representatives of service providers, the voluntary sector and leaders of Black and Minority Ethnic groups based in the respective towns and cities. During the roundtable, participants discuss what they have learnt in the last 24 months in their engagement and collaboration with each other concerning addressing racial inequalities. Service providers and BME leaders based in the locations where the upcoming roundtables are taking place can contact CVSL to get details by emailing us. 

The final project conference will be open to those who participate in the roundtables and others service providers and BME leaders based in the respective locations. The conference will include:

1. briefings from the four roundtables
2. expert input addressing the challenging themes identified in the roundtables
3. focused discussions on what the participants commit to doing differently after the conference

CVSL will disseminate invitations via local partner organisations. Queries about the conference and the seminar can be forwarded by emailing CVSL.