Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG), a national race equality charity established in 1991 and a leading voice for reform across education, employment and criminal justice, has today re-launched as Action for Race Equality (ARE) and with it revealed a brand-new website.
The launch follows on from a series of consultations held with Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and young people across England. It responds to urgent calls from the voluntary and community sector for a solutions-based approach to addressing the country’s deepening and systemic racial disparities. This is a call that has become all the more pressing since the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The rebrand also comes as the organisation marks its 30th anniversary which it celebrated on in November 2021 at the Camden Arts Centre, where the new name was first revealed to the charity’s supporters. The event featured reflections by special guests including acclaimed author of Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race, Reni Eddo-Lodge and performance poet, Shareefa Energy.
Seema Manchanda, ARE’s Chair of Trustees stated:
We are a dynamic organisation committed to ending racism. We have seen progress during the past thirty years, but also new failures are regularly revealed. There has still not been sufficient progress to end systemic racism, and many young people don’t feel that much has changed since the tragic murder of George Floyd and the BLM protests.
Young people and our networks told us they wanted to be part of a movement focused on action. Our new name embraces this. ARE will focus on developing and implementing practical policies and programmes in partnership with the public, private and civil society sector. Efforts to build an inclusive and equitable country will only succeed if systemic racism is eradicated.”
Jeremy Crook OBE, CEO of Action for Race Equality, speaking of the name change, explained:
‘In 1991 when BTEG was set up by a network of local black and Asian led organisations and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations there was more consensus to identify with the term ‘Black’ as an inclusive label. This has changed. We support young people from black, Asian and mixed heritage backgrounds and there is much debate about appropriate ethnicity terms. We can only make a difference by working collaboratively with individuals and organisations from all ethnicities and sectors. But we want to keep the focus on action to tackle systemic and institutional racism.’
Action for Race Equality’s aim for the new website is to ensure visitors get the best browsing experience possible, and that it can meet the needs of today’s users by making content more accessible, more searchable and easier to utilise the breadth and depth of ARE’s research, policy work and long-standing programmes.
The team at Action for Race Equality is proud to be taking this step into the new decade to strengthen and futureproof its already deep and solid roots.