By Lola Bailey
Tinu Rodney has been a volunteer at the African Caribbean Centre (ACC) in Leicester for nearly a year. The centre opened in the 1980s after the riots of 1981 and is overseen by the African Heritage Alliance.
Tinu said: “At this point in time, it’s solely community-led. And this is probably, honestly, the best it’s been. I’ve been coming to the centre for 30 odd years.
“You know, we’re doing it for ourselves. So I feel proud to be a part of that, definitely.”
The ACC has four priority areas, supporting older people, wellness and well-being for the community, the young generation and mental wellbeing. The leadership team tries to put on activities that focus more on those areas.
They hold events such as a salsa night, a Valentine’s Day and a Mother’s Day brunch, Christmas events, one for Leicester carnival and for other important events including World Mental Health Day, National International Women’s Day and Black History Month.
Tinu said: “There are lots of different days and events that, yeah, the centre is keen to support. Recognising the impact of mental health on the Caribbean community, the ACC is a mental health-friendly place.
“So what that means is we’ve signed up with the NHS, got a section of the volunteer team trained on different mental health and suicide prevention, so that when people come into the centre, volunteers are open, understanding, empathetic, and welcoming of people with mental health problems.”
The centre also holds separate projects.
“We have a separate project completely called Empower Biz,” explained Tinu, “which is a short term bit of funding that the organisations got from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, to support African heritage people who own their own businesses.
“There’s a big chasm between members of the indigenous popular population who start a business and somebody in the Caribbean community, for a variety of reasons. Some may be about lack of knowledge, lack of knowing, obvious barriers that black people face every day. There’s institutional racism.
“Sometimes people make assumptions or sometimes there are barriers that are in your way because of your race or because of where you’re from, because of your social economic status.
“And so this program is about trying to level up African heritage businesses, making them aware of what’s available,” she added.
They also collaborate with The King’s Trust for young people, and hold workshops for young entrepreneurs.
The centre in Maidstone Road also has a cafe for people to enjoy meals.
The ACC is not only for the African and Caribbean communities. Although it was originally created for those communities, the centre is open to anyone.
Tinu said: “I think historically there is interculturalism between communities, between races.
“We recognise, whilst this is the African Community Centre, and it is about supporting the African Caribbean community, it does not exist in the exclusivity. And it definitely is not just to support Caribbean people.
“If anybody came here with a need, we would support and we would direct accordingly. I think for me, it’s about recognising them. So if I’m honest, people that probably would come here and feel comfortable to come here would probably be black people, Caribbean people, probably more white people than Asian people.”
The centre is open every day from 9am to 9pm.
