Metanoia Institute promotes Black History in October, as a time to highlight historical and cultural impacts made by black members of our society and reflect on how we can support positive change. We also recognise that Black culture and history is not just for celebrating and remembering in October, but in our white-dominated society and sector, we use October as Black History Month until full equality is reached. 

As part of our commitment for change, we are reviewing our student recruitment activity. We have recently included ethnicity data in our open event applications process to monitor any race-related issues and are exploring how we can make further changes to embrace all forms of diversity. We  recognise that black and minority students are  under represented on counselling and psychotherapy courses nationally and within Metanoia. We therefore intend to launch later this academic year recruitment events designed to support and address the barriers to black and minority students accessing therapeutic training. 

Metanoia Institute students (and members) can now sign up here to join a Black Members student peer collective. The shape of this collective and its purpose will be decided by its members. Last year a process group was formed for black and brown students, Still Hear, with a second group to be running this year. This group will be given our platform and our organisational reach to issue their own statement on BHM. Their statement can be found here

Without question black students experience racist behaviours which need challenging, and we are using this BHM to call for them to be stopped. If you are a non-black person and notice this behaviour, ask yourself why is the heavy burden of change always on your black peers? As Part of our Ethos and Values we hope to continue to seek ways to improve and challenge our own organisation and strive to be as inclusive as possible, by magnifying black voices and experiences throughout the year. As we continue this journey to ensure all our Black members are “Proud to Be”. 

Dr Dwight Turner recently wrote for BACP Why We Still Need Black History Month and we are pleased to host him as part of our CPD event calendar on the 29th of October; members can click here to register. We hope this will be an informative and inspiring CPD event for all our students. 

At Metanoia Institute we recognise that we need to continue to do more to become an anti-racist organisation. Black members voices need to be heard and listened to. 

“Black History Month is an increasingly important point of celebration for Metanoia Institute.  We fully recognise that BHM itself raises questions nationally – not least, what we do in the other 11 months of the year.  But we can begin not to shy away from that question, as for us, the past year has seen conversation and recognition of the direction we need to take.  The establishment of a new ED&I Committee and the formation and development of a process group for black and brown students have seen us take positive and increasingly confident strides forward .  We know there is still a lot of distance to travel, but BHM provides the important opportunity to reflect, review and renew our commitment to progress. BHM 2021 should be a point of celebration for Metanoia Institute, not because we have reached a destination - but because we have started on our journey.  I feel humbled to be a part of that process, and ready to take the feedback we need.”  Professor Carrie Weston 

BACP Black History Month

https://www.bacp.co.uk/news/news-from-bacp/2018/28-september-black-history-month/