Black Men Belonging

Childhood exposure to resources such as Black Scientists & Inventors: Book 2 taught me to take pride in Black achievement and showed me how education can create representation, confidence and possibility. Influenced by David Harewood’s Why Is There No Black Prime Minister?, alongside figures such as Jason Arday, Kehinde Andrews, Lester Holloway and Simon Woolley, to name a few, I studied Education, Policy and International Development at Cambridge, where my research through the Access and Participation Plan Participatory Action Research (APP-PAR) project deepened my understanding of structural inequality and the Black awarding gap. In May 2024, I identified a gap in dedicated support for Black men’s wellbeing, identity and community, and began thinking about how the kind of culturally affirming, creative space I had experienced in London could be bridged into Cambridge. Inspired by parallel work at Harvard’s Black Men’s Forum, I founded Black Men Belonging (BMB) as a social design initiative, combining community engagement, creativity, and wellbeing for Black and mixed-heritage male students. I led the launch, growing BMB to nearly 70 members within its first year through workshops, discussions and creative events, with its vision later carried forward through the Cambridge African Caribbean Society’s (ACS) BRO2BRO programme. This contributed to my recognition as one of Britain’s most outstanding Black university students by the Powerlist, officially as a Top 10 UK Future Leader, serving as a role model for students across schools, sixth forms, colleges and universities.