Impulse: BAME communities represent a significant gap in our visitor demographics, despite the fact that our mission applies most urgently to those affected by gynaecological racism. Black maternal mortality rates are 3.7 times higher & Black women are 50% less likely to be diagnosed with endometriosis than white counterparts.

Funding: Without the time or capacity to make trusts & grants bids we pursued alternative pathways. Proposing a collaborative community outreach programme to contacts at UCL, the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism & Racialisation were very interested.

Partners: Networking & market research lead us to other core organisations working in the reproductive health space with communities of colour. From there, we built up the programme cohort. Thinking creatively we leveraged existing partnerships & knowledge bases.

Delivering: Working with communities in a productive & non-extractive way meant figuring out what we need that they offer & what we can offer that they need. We had space & reach; they had expertise & access. Trusting their expertise, we gave partners freedom to design their offerings, handed over the keys & promoted their hard work.

Katja Holtz