Supporting Black communities: Yvonne Field
Supporting Black communities: Yvonne Field
Author
Introduction
Black communities in the UK are often disproportionately affected by poverty and unemployment. Many live in deprived areas, without access to community spaces or opportunity to develop their potential.
"There is no doubt in my mind that the Churchill Fellowship has helped me to leave a significant footprint." - Yvonne Field, Fellow
Social entrepreneur Yvonne Field (CF 2012) founded the Ubele Initiative to support the long-term financial sustainability of Black communities in the UK. Ubele is an inter-generational leadership project, supporting the development of a new generation of community-based leaders, change agents and social activists who can help address the needs of their community. Since its creation in 2014, Ubele has supported more than 3,200 individuals and organisations, providing business support and training to help community-led initiatives and businesses to flourish. It also co-owns a 3.5-acre food-growing and community space in London, the Wolves Lane Centre, and is leading the development of the iconic Lloyd Leon Community Centre in Brixton, which was given to the Black community in the aftermath of the Brixton uprisings in 1981.
In 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic, Ubele was appointed by the Greater London Authority as the main regional infrastructure organisation for minoritised racial groups in London. This meant that Ubele played a leading national role in the Covid-19 response, developing a highly publicised campaign to support Black communities disproportionately affected by the virus. Under Yvonne’s leadership, Ubele helped to set up three major funding initiatives, providing more than £14.5m in support for minoritised racial communities. Additionally, Yvonne and Ubele secured a £50m five-year National Lottery investment to be delivered via The Phoenix Way, a programme that connects decision-makers from Black and minoritised community-led charities and grassroots groups.
Yvonne was inspired into action by seeing the needs of the communities around her, particularly amongst descendants of the Windrush generation. Her Fellowship to New Zealand and the USA explored how to create future community-based leaders from the African-Caribbean community and led to the foundation of the Ubele Initiative.
Yvonne says, “As they say, a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. There is no doubt in my mind that the Churchill Fellowship has helped me to leave a significant footprint from this phase of my professional and personal life story. We need to galvanise minoritised racial communities so that their voices and views can be heard and taken seriously. The work we have been doing has been stretching, at times exhausting, but very necessary.”
"There is no doubt in my mind that the Churchill Fellowship has helped me to leave a significant footprint." - Yvonne Field, Fellow
Social entrepreneur Yvonne Field (CF 2012) founded the Ubele Initiative to support the long-term financial sustainability of Black communities in the UK. Ubele is an inter-generational leadership project, supporting the development of a new generation of community-based leaders, change agents and social activists who can help address the needs of their community. Since its creation in 2014, Ubele has supported more than 3,200 individuals and organisations, providing business support and training to help community-led initiatives and businesses to flourish. It also co-owns a 3.5-acre food-growing and community space in London, the Wolves Lane Centre, and is leading the development of the iconic Lloyd Leon Community Centre in Brixton, which was given to the Black community in the aftermath of the Brixton uprisings in 1981.
In 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic, Ubele was appointed by the Greater London Authority as the main regional infrastructure organisation for minoritised racial groups in London. This meant that Ubele played a leading national role in the Covid-19 response, developing a highly publicised campaign to support Black communities disproportionately affected by the virus. Under Yvonne’s leadership, Ubele helped to set up three major funding initiatives, providing more than £14.5m in support for minoritised racial communities. Additionally, Yvonne and Ubele secured a £50m five-year National Lottery investment to be delivered via The Phoenix Way, a programme that connects decision-makers from Black and minoritised community-led charities and grassroots groups.
Yvonne was inspired into action by seeing the needs of the communities around her, particularly amongst descendants of the Windrush generation. Her Fellowship to New Zealand and the USA explored how to create future community-based leaders from the African-Caribbean community and led to the foundation of the Ubele Initiative.
Yvonne says, “As they say, a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. There is no doubt in my mind that the Churchill Fellowship has helped me to leave a significant footprint from this phase of my professional and personal life story. We need to galvanise minoritised racial communities so that their voices and views can be heard and taken seriously. The work we have been doing has been stretching, at times exhausting, but very necessary.”