Anti-Racist Community Work

‘Communities’ has become a buzzword within policy and practice contexts, and has been endorsed by Prime Minister David Cameron’s concept of the ‘Big Society’. Under the ‘Big Society’, communities were expected to make good the deficit in social care provisions left by the welfare state’s withdrawal as provider of services. Filling the gap left by manufactured scarcity or the lack of investment in social resources became particularly important in communities already stressed by the lack of adequate housing, employment opportunities, accessible health services and high quality education. Comparisons will be drawn between the use of self-help - a common feature of black and minority ethnic (BME) communities which have a long history of creating alternative services because mainstream services have failed them - and the opportunities available to BMEs in an age of austerity featuring dwindling state grants and charitable contributions.