Blog

The Equinox Consulting Blog - News and views

Home/Blog/

Evaluation Report for Mali Enterprising Leaders (MEL)

Though community businesses exist within the black community, and black community organisations who owned their own premises have been in operation over the past 50 years, it took research by The Ubele Initiative to highlight the degree to which some of these black organisations have lost or been dispossessed of these buildings and community facilities. That research – A Place to Call Home – also revealed that these organisations were not benefiting from the many initiatives directed at encouraging community ownership and management of assets. The research found out that whilst some of these facilities were owned by communities of [...]

By |2019-03-27T01:42:22+00:00March 27th, 2019|Uncategorized|1 Comment

Nyɛ haa wɔ laa: Gadangme Festival of 9 lessons and carols

    Sunday 10th December 2017 was such a joyous occasion because we were blessed when we participated in a festival of nine lessons and carols.  I will not say that it has been many years in the planning.  A problem of choosing to worship on the fourth Sunday of every month is that our worship day is always too close to Christmas and sometimes occurs after Christmas to make it practical to organise a regular service let alone a carol service.  This year, however, we had to make special arrangements to bring our day of worship forward to the second Sunday of the month. [...]

By |2017-12-26T03:13:53+00:00December 26th, 2017|Uncategorized|0 Comments

The changing needs of the community and voluntary sector – Lambeth

The changing needs of the community and voluntary sector - Lambeth   Cuts to public sector funding have impacted on the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) at national, regional and local levels. This has exacerbated some of the difficulties that voluntary and community organisations have faced over the last two decades as they have adapted to various government initiatives to regulate its relationship with the sector.  . Some of the major transitions have made it relatively difficult to define the sector and this is further complicated by issues relating to emerging communities and the changing role of the VCS in [...]

Organising

Organising Question You referred to the principles of management in your last advice shop, what does organising entail and how different is this from the other principles Asif - Bristol Answer There are different ways of looking at the work that managers do. One way is to look at this from a traditional view of the process of managers at work. The sequence of activities suggests that managers plan, organise, staff, lead, and control. Organising deals with the activities of determining the tasks, assessing the capacity, setting up the structure of the organisation to meet the objectives, and scheduling the [...]

By |2017-02-11T20:42:47+00:00March 31st, 2016|community development, economic development|0 Comments

Planning

Planning Question:  You referred to the principles of management in your last advice shop, what are these principles and how does one implement them Asif. Bristol Answer: Most successful endeavours start with a plan, but all not all plans are successfully implemented. The flip side to this is that most endeavours that do not succeed do not have good plans. This must suggest to you that planning is the most important activity within the framework of management. It is also perhaps the first activity in the scheme of things. The other management activities are organising, staffing, leadership and control. The [...]

‘Africans Were In Britain Before The English…’

‘Africans Were In Britain Before The English…’ This powerful statement of fact is how historian Peter Fryer started his seminal book Staying Power (Pluto Press, 1984) documenting the black presence in Britain Posted in Voice Newspaper 28/12/2015 10:00 AM SONGSTRESS: An unnamed member of The African Choir from South Africa who played concerts for a high-profile audience including Queen Victoria, courtesy of Hulton Archive/Getty Images   IT IS a notion that would confound most people, particularly against the backdrop of today’s fierce debate on migration. Yet the truth remains that African history in Britain stretches back to the 3rd Century when [...]

Do You Mean Business?

  First published in VS Magazine February 1990 Some people think that you just get an idea, a bank loan and then you are in business. This may be true for a few people, but for the majority of us it takes a little longer. Ade Sawyerr looks at the strategies that you need to apply when you say ‘I want to start a business, and mean it’. TO START • You need to have a sound idea of the product or service you want to supply. • There must be a viable market for which demand is likely to [...]

Charitable Status

Question We are a group of lone mothers who have been meeting informally for a year. We now have a growing number of members and feel it is time to become a charity. What do we have to do and be prepared for? Answer Becoming a charity must not be taken lightly because there are several responsibilities attached to this move. Most new organisations think that they will automatically have access to funding because they turn themselves into a charity. That is not always the case, in the same vein, there are several associations that are able to raise funding [...]

By |2017-02-11T20:42:47+00:00January 11th, 2016|community development|1 Comment

Random thoughts on Black History Month 2015 @Southwark

Cllr Evelyn Akoto moderating the panel at Southwark Black History Month Event on 17 October 2015 Karin Woodley, Dr.Kandie Ejiofor , Ade Sawyerr, Professor David Muir With so many issues within the black community it was always going to be difficult for me to prioritise on the topic to talk about.  I was therefore happy that the black councillors in Southwark who organised their annual Black History Month event provided the panel with a list of issues - attainment, pride in civic and political engagement, culture and identity and access to public services.   -On attainment African children in the [...]

By |2017-02-11T20:42:47+00:00November 26th, 2015|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Reaping benefits of the brain drain – Ade Sawyerr, Equinox Consulting

Reaping benefits of the brain drain – Ade Sawyerr, Equinox Consulting As the British government continues its tough talk on the need to control economic migration one wonders when governments of the country of origin of these migrants will start implementing policies and programmes that would attract these seasoned professionals and their children back home to help contribute to the prosperity of economies much in the same way they are doing in Britain. This diatribe against migrants flies in the face of continued schemes such as the work permit system and the Highly Skilled Migrant Visas that are meant to attract [...]