Black Minds Matter UK is a registered charity connecting Black individuals and families with free 121 talking therapy delivered by qualified and accredited Black therapists.

Our purpose is to create and champion safe and accessible mental health support with, and for the Black community.Our three pillars of impact are therapy, awareness raising through education and advocating for systems change in statutory services.

We are working towards a seeing a community of Black people readily accessing mental health support, recovering fully from mental illness and thriving.

Introduction and Background

Black Minds Matter UK is a charitable organisation providing free 1:1 culturally relevant therapy to Black individuals and families in the UK.

Our purpose is to create and champion safe and accessible mental health support with and for the Black community.

Our vision is a community of Black people readily accessing mental health support, recovering fully from mental illness, and thriving.

We recognise the need for accessible, culturally appropriate mental health support for Black people and the systemic barriers that exist within healthcare systems which prevent Black people from being able to seek and access the mental health support that they need.

Challenges and Strategies

A main challenge that we encountered when we first received charitable status in 2021 was the sheer vast amount of people who needed the service and who signed up to access therapy with Black Minds Matter UK.

Black Minds Matter UK launched in the midst of the global pandemic and off the back of the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter protests. This meant that a huge number of Black people wanted and needed to access mental health support by a Black therapist.

This put a huge amount of pressure on us as an organisation and meant that we had to react extremely quickly to service as many people as we could. This meant quickly building a network of Black therapists but also having to operate a waiting list system for far longer than we had liked.

Our solution to this was to introduce cohorts of therapy as a way to mitigate and manage the number of people we can service at any given time, which was effective for a short amount of time.

However, what is still true is the need and demand for our service, which means we still face this same challenge today but also further highlights how necessary the work that we are doing is.

Key Initiatives and Outcomes

Organisationally, we offer mental health days to our employees which they can take when they feel they need to. We also offer menstruation days to our employees, free therapy for our staff, and opportunities for learning and development.

Organisational Growth and Learning

Black Minds Matter UK is an organisation that takes inclusion very seriously. As we grow, we are aware of the need for intersectional approaches to our work. Access is a core value of ours, so making sure that services are fit for purpose and include all members of the Black community in their development is key.

Our recruitment is all-inclusive, and our Board is diverse. We actively encourage applications from every walk of life, including allies in our operational capacity.

We understand that progress cannot be delivered in a silo. Although we are a Black-led charity that centres the lived experiences of Black people, we appreciate the voices of everybody to help develop a service fit for every Black individual. We are looking into how to support our Deaf and Blind members of the community, those from the LGBTQIA+ community, and our elder generations to encourage healing across the spectrum.

Future Plans and Goals

Black Minds Matter UK is currently developing plans to drive growth and awareness of the mission and need for the work and service. This includes various recruitment drives for essential personnel within the organisation so that we can deliver the work and expand our impact.

Our current key organisational priorities are the following:

• The continued provision of therapy that is accessible and culturally appropriate to the Black community, ensuring we can continue to service those more in need and provide education on why therapy is important.
• Through awareness drives and activities that amplify the need for our work but also the experiences of mental illness within the Black community.
• Through advocacy by making people aware of the systems change on a big scale, highlighting the systemic barriers that exist, and interacting with and engaging public services and conversations around systems change.

Advice for Other Organisations

• Ensure DEI practices are built into and felt across governance and leadership.
• Have a clear and good understanding of anti-racist practices and know how your work relates to this and what you can do to uphold these practices.
• Work to ensure workplace culture and organisational values take into consideration differences in lived experience.

Learn More: https://www.ethnicityawards.com/top-10-outstanding-contribution-to-communities-2024/