Community

Bristol Refugee Festival grew from a few events a year in 2008 to a month long festival and celebration across the city, bringing refugees, asylum seekers,refugee support agencies, organisations and projects together to share their work and join with the wider community . I am a member of the board and we have just recieved 3 year Big lottery funding , have a great team of employees and are ready to represent and celebrate the refugee community better,find ways to increase social mobility, make links with host communities and elevate the profile of refugees and asylum seekers in our city where the lable ceases to be important and their skills are valued and developed for the good of all .

Tribe Of Doris and Imayla and Bristol Refugee Festival are three community organisations I have co-developed over my thirty years of living in Inner city Bristol, all dedicated to representing cultures, being creative as individuals and valueing the natural world.

Currently I am chair of Kori Youth Charity working in London and Gambia. Website

In 1992 Tribe Of Doris began, from a love of the drum, music and cultural differences, enjoyed, shared, explored and respected. Drawing also on my deep instinct for bringing people together through learning we developed a life changing, unique workshop based event somewhere between a festival and a summer school. Still to this day there is nothing quite like it, and over the years we have worked with some of the most amazing musicians, dancers and cultural ambassadors from across the world. Over the past few years we have managed to transition to a new management, younger and more diverse, a new site in Leicestershire and the organisation is in good hands .

Established in 2002 Imayla grew out of ten years of inner city youth work, TOOT, Tribe of Doris and my fortunate childhood as a farmer's daughter in N. Cornwall. It was apparent that young inner city youth and families needed support in accessing culture and the countryside, something those better off don't need to think about. But how do you take a family of four to the beach with no transport, low funds and no idea where the beach is? So Imayla grew to serve inner city communities. and support the development of relationships with the natural environment. We support young people and children to find themselves in the outdoors, we support families to make that happen and encourage creativity and cultural engagement as an important part of everyday life. Imayla is a Ibo word from Nigeria and means "Thank you and well done".