Community Cohesion

Since the Moss Side Riots in 1981, various community projects and support networks have grown up, but many of these are now in decline. Community centres such as the West Indian Sports and Social Club (WISSC), the Carmoor Road West Indian Centre (home of the West Indian Organisations Coordinating Committee (WIOCC)) and the African Caribbean Care Group for the Elderly (ACCG) are either under threat of closure or severely run-down. MSHCDT aims to redevelop all of these community assets in cooperation with their occupants.

Employment and Business

The Windrush Scandal exposed the fact that dozens of local people had lost jobs or were unable to work due to their residency status. Unemployment rates for African Caribbean people are approximately double that of the white majority in Manchester.

Education

African Caribbean students face numerous challenges within the education system, including lower attainment levels, higher exclusion rates and placement in pupil referral units and less access to higher education. 

Health

Health systems affecting African Caribbean people do not take adequate account of social determinants of health and cultural factors. The African Caribbean community have been disproportionately devastated by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. In mental health, there is a major problem of Black people being disproportionately over diagnosed and over medicated for certain mental health conditions because social and cultural factors are ignored.

Criminal Justice

According to the UK Ministry of Justice, in 2020, black people made up 3% of the general population in England and Wales but accounted for 12% of the prison population. 41% of children in youth custody in the year ending March 2020 were black or mixed heritage. The Home Office has been criticised by the Wendy Williams Lessons Learned Review 2020 for “a profound institutional failure” regarding how it’s policies and practices have seriously harmed African Caribbean people. Therefore, new approaches are required to eradicate racial discrimination within Home Office immigration law enforcement, police action and the wider criminal justice system.