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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT / REGIONS & CITIES / LONDON
Enfield Council, NHS North Central London CCG and partners are working in collaboration with the Caribbean and African Health Network (CAHN) and other Black-led organisations in Enfield to promote inclusion, increase residents’ voices, and strengthen community resilience.
The objective of this initiative is to promote collaboration between multi-agencies and Black led organisations working across Enfield in order to maximise service offers to communities and ultimately improve health outcomes.
Many years of inequity and delayed access to local services have left the Black community with poorer health outcomes and not much input to decision making. The current COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected this community and shone a light on the historic inequalities.
This collaboration started in June 2021 when CAHN was approached to support the Covid-19 vaccine uptake in the African and Caribbean Community in Enfield. The aim of the campaign was also to create a platform for collaboration and engagement between health system partners and the Black community. Some direct engagement activities included:
These direct engagement activities on one hand, gave residents from the Caribbean and African community in Enfield, an opportunity to voice their concerns; on the other hand, in an effort to bridge gaps and facilitate a better access to services, Enfield Council as well as Enfield CCG were looking forward to further engagements with grassroot community members. This led CAHN to set up the CAHN Enfield Black Network in January 2022.
Following these successful outcomes and the growing interest in the network, CAHN organised an official launch event for what’s now known as the Enfield Black Community Health Forum, held on the 28th of May 2022 at a partner’s venue, the RCCE, 47 London Road.
The aim of the CAHN Enfield black Community Health Forum is to support residents to take ownership of health matters and build connections in Enfield.
We are glad to say that this event was a great success as we recorded an attendance of 70 people in total.
What we achieved:
"It’s important to recognise the milestone that this event represents for Enfield. This brings together a urge amount of commitment from lots of people here today in the local community but also from our statutory organisations, the NHS, the local authority, our voluntary sector to look at how we address the black health improvement.
We also take this opportunity to see how we can work together to address the Black Health Improvement"
When talking about the Covid Vaccine Inequalities Group, Riyadul mentioned: “The learning from this work is that you’ve got to build trust and relationship. And you need to start somewhere, we cannot change everything in one go, but what we can do is to make real tremendous transformational steps in a methodical way. The best way to do that is to build the trust, and to reciprocate; it is how you build friendship."
"I’m delighted to be attending the Enfield Black Health Community Forum today and I’m hoping this initiative would drive change. In the services offered to Black people in terms of our health."
As to his views about his relationship with GPs
Knowledge is power, to be informed when we are seeking help is a powerful thing. I am glad to be here today and share useful information. "If we know that we are more likely to develop a condition such as prostate cancer earlier than other ethnicities, it will make us more proactive to go to the GP and insist on having a PSA blood test earlier days than officially recommended."
"I never knew an organisation like CAHN could bring people together in this manner. I am so happy, as a community member to see such a great initiative. It was great to see high profile staff from the local authority here. Thank you, CAHN, for this event and I hope to see positive outcomes from this forum."
“This is the first time I’m hearing about CAHN. I have lived in Enfield for 30 years. This is a good initiative and it is time to talk about Black health. Bottom line is that all plans are implemented.”
“Exciting, very interesting and hope more people get involved”
“This initiative is very important for health and well-being of Black people in Enfield and I am looking forward to CAHN working in the community”
