BLAM ( Black Learning Achievement and Mental Health)

Culture, heritage and events | Arts | Heritage | People and communities | Race and ethnicity | Social justice and democracy | Law and legal support

Organisation aims / mission / values

  • BLAM (Black Learning Achievement and Mental Health) is committed to improving the wellbeing and self-esteem of people of African descent. They work to unify and strengthen the links with the Black diaspora in the UK and worldwide. They do this by offering Black history lessons at schools, community groups, and after-school clubs, to tackle lower educational attainment, and ensure history is taught to empower pupils of African and Afro-Caribbean descent.
  • The Constitution states the aim is are to create a close knit Black British community by celebrating our cultural capital and creativity. We are directly ensuring that Black art and culture is championed celebrated. We also focus on improving the mental wellbeing of peoples of African Descent which has has being affected globally due to racism and racial trauma.
  • Advancing education. We host events and educate those in attendance about the Africa Diaspora's culture and traditions. We also host events with Black British Activists and community elders to encourage inter-generational dialogue with those currently leading the fight against racial injustice in the UK. We also host a 6 week summer session for children aged 8-10 to ensure they are taught a history that reflects the background and imparts pride and belonging in them. We also give them homework and mark this to help improve their general reading and writing skills. The Hub. The Hub takes the form of a diverse and rich panel talking to young people aged 18-30. They often are asked questions by BLAM team. We also show videos and hand out flyers on the topics discussed. The children sessions are very much class room based, we provide worksheets and homework to the children. Each session has a theme decided in advance and the outreach worker prepares sessions and games that last for an hour each week for the children in attendance.
BLAM Charity

BLAM Charity

How we deliver these aims

We also host a 6 week summer session for children aged 8-10 to ensure they are taught a history that reflects the background and imparts pride and belonging in them. We also give them homework and mark this to help improve their general reading and writing skills. We host 4 events a year that encourage positive dialogues about Africa and Black Britishness. We host events showing positive portrayals of Blackness. We host events that shed light on injustice and host campaigns that people can join. We host campaigns on discrimination within the criminal justice system against Black males and we focus on issues to do with the ethnic minorities pay gap in the UK. We focus on solutions to end racial disparities within the mental health sector and use promotion of positive Black dialogue as a way to improve the self-esteem of people of African Decent in the UK. We ensure our spaces are BAME friendly and focus on encouraging networking and social capital amongst Black Britons that often do not have the spaces to network within and often feel like the outsider at general networking events due to the lack of diversity within many British spaces and industries. We are also connected with Pan African groups and we are aiming on doing more projects with people from Africa to create and connect with projects based in Africa.

Who benefits from our work

anyone can attend if they are interested in ensuring the history and uniqueness of African, Caribbean and Black British culture is celebrated, recognised and discussed. For the children sessions, you must be from a London borough and be interested in learning about Black diaspora history.