In July ROTA’s partners in the Active Lives, Healthy Minds project held graduation ceremonies for their wellbeing projects to conclude the first year of the partnership. Actives Lives, Healthy Minds is a three year mental health and wellbeing project implemented in West London in partnership with Somali, Nepali, Tamil and Eritrean refugee community organisations. ROTA supports community organisations in developing activities to support mental health and wellbeing in a holistic, culturally sensitive and non-stigmatising way and community members and organisations to increase participation in the development and implementation of relevant mental health and health services locally and nationally.

The Tamil Community Centre (TCC), a service user led community organisation that aims to meet the needs of a wide spectrum of the Tamil community, is one of ROTA’s partners. The TCC runs English classes, drop-in service for dealing with practical problems, domestic violence and mental health counselling and support, and a Bharathanatyam Folk dance class. Rani Nagulandram, TCC’s founder and healthy wellbeing mentor, has been running these folk dance classes for many years in Harrow for a group of 20 to 25 women from various abilities and ages, with the eldest participant having passed 90 years old. The class is held in a local community centre. Many participants had been advised by their GP for various health and mental health related reasons to do more physical activities but did not feel comfortable attending their local gym. Attending folk dance classes did not only improve their health and mental health, but also provides a non-stigmatising, relaxing environment where women have the opportunity to interact and socialise. A recent review of the project revealed that all participants feel less stressed, sleep better and feel healthier. They have created friendships among their fellow participants that stretch beyond the folk dance class, reducing loneliness and isolation.

ROTA’s partners run practical English classes for people from their communities, with former service users either teaching the class or volunteering during the class. The classes are aimed at reducing isolation, increasing confidence and learning skills to increase independence. Many of the women who attend the class are illiterate and did not speak a word of English when first starting the class, limiting their ability to interact in society. Over the year community members have made remarkable progress, generally improving their mental health and wellbeing, but also feeling more capable to independently engage with mainstream services and in day to day activities, such as using public transportation and going to shops.

Wellbeing activities do not only improve mental health and wellbeing, increase confidence and independence and generally allow people to have a greater say in life, they also allow participants to open up about issues affecting their daily lives and that of their families, such a mental health and domestic violence in a non-labelling environment. Where they would not have approached ROTA’s partner organisations directly because of stigma, shame and fear, by creating a relationship of trust people feel safe to open up and seek help from the volunteers who are then able to provide them with one-to-one counselling.  

For more information on this project, please visit our website at rota.org.uk or contact Laurie Lijnders at laurie@rota.org.uk or Selam Kidane at selam@rota.org.uk

In spite of equality legislation requiring public authorities to consider the equalities implications and consult those whom their decisions may impact, we have seen a wanton disregard of these duties, and decisions being taken that have had dire consequences on the most vulnerable and marginalised communities.  The burning of Grenfell Tower was the most visible and worst manifestation of this due to the sheer scale of destruction, but it is certainly not the only such tragedy visited upon vulnerable and marginalised communities in recent years caused by public authorities’ failure to comply with their equality duty.  The responsibility of holding public authorities to account on the worst excesses of power is upon the shoulders of voluntary and community sector organisations that are already overstretched and under resourced.  Yet as the only mechanism on the ground able to give a voice to the most marginalised people in society, it is essential that VCS organisations understand the law and are able to hold public authorities to account.

ROTA’s Equality Law Project is currently in its fifth year, and has provided free training to staff and volunteers from over 500 voluntary and community sector organisations.  The training consists of two full days, with the first day focusing on the basic provisions within Equality Act and understanding whether one’s own organisation is compliant with the Act; and the second day focusing on the Public Sector Equality Duty, supporting VCS organisations to hold public authorities to account in the way they commission and deliver services to the communities served by the VCS organisations.  This year an independent evaluation of the project was carried out by Runnymede Trust and Greenwich University which found that participants in the project demonstrated confidence in their ability to use the PSED to hold public authorities to account.

Over the past five years the project has evolved and responded to the needs of organisations supporting BMER people who face multiple inequalities i.e. disability, sexual orientation, age etc.  With government cuts to public services, cuts to legal aid,introduction of tribunal fees (now abolished), and other  austerity measures, the demand for support on VCS organisations has increased.  VCS organisations are facing increased demand foradvice and support from BMER service users facing discrimination and exploitation in the work place.  To build the capacity of VCS organisations to meet these demands, the Equality Law Project has brokered pro-bono support from employment rights experts and lawyers to better understand employment rights.  The project is also developing an online search tool to support VCS organisations and their service users to identify appropriate legal advice, support and representation in their local area.

Through our work on the Equality Law Project we identified an increase in the unlawful practice of ‘informal exclusions’ of pupils from schools.  These practices disproportionately impact BMER pupils, and as they are unlawful and therefore off the record they are harder to challenge.  We are currently working with VCS organisations that support BMER young people to identify the way informal exclusions are carried out and to find ways of challenging this practice.  If you work with young people who have experienced informal exclusions, or have personal experience of informal exclusions we would very much like to hear from you.

If you would like further information on the Equality Law Project please do get in touch with

Poornima Karunacadacharan (Senior Policy Officer and Project Manager) at poornima@rota.org.uk or Ayah Omar (Project Officer) at ayah@rota.org.uk

The Network of Eritrean Women UK (NEW UK), ROTA’s new partner in the Active Lives, Healthy Minds Project has received a grant from the National Lottery Awards for All for £10,000. NEW UK will take a proactive and tailored approach to supporting participants' mental health in a culturally appropriate way.

Many of NEW UK’s community members arrived in the UK by migrating into neighbouring Sudan or Ethiopia from Eritrea and making their way to Europe via Libya and the Mediterranean Sea. In addition to experiencing traumatic events in their home country, they also underwent horrendous experiences along the migration route and in the UK face many challenges. All these combined have affected the lives of individuals, families and our communities. NEW UK’s research has found that domestic violence, family disintegration, substance abuse (mainly among men) are among several manifestations of these disruptions. In particular, research found that Eritrean communities can find themselves very isolated, due to the stigma that remains heavily entrenched in these communities with regard to mental ill-health. This can make it particularly difficult for women to ask for help and access the services that can support them.

The project will incorporate a wide range of activities and culturally appropriate therapeutic interventions to improve the overall wellbeing and mental health of women and their families from multiple religious and ethnic backgrounds such as: 

• Mental health outreach workers training
• Mental health and wellbeing workshops (including maternal mental health, parenting, education, DV, FGM, promoting healthy relationships, substance abuse)
• Monthly coffee mornings
• Physical activities (dance)
• Healthy eating & nutrition workshops

Specific training will be provided aimed at building confidence and improving communication skills to enable participants to understand mental health structures, their rights and responsibilities and to support their engagement with mental health services.

For more information, please contact Laurie Lijnders at laurie@rota.org.uk or Selam Kidane at selam@rota.org.uk