Kunle Olulode

Kunle Olulode, Director of Voice4Change England Kunle Olulode MBE is a co-opted member of the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities and attends meetings relevant to his work on the Windrush Working Group. He is the director at Voice4Change England, a BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic) charity and infrastructure support body. With over 400 members, its aim is to strengthen the BAME voluntary sector to meet the needs of disadvantaged communities. The members are from Black community organisations and charities, and interests range from criminal justice to migrant rights. Kunle was recently instrumental in the publication of the report 'Home Truths: Undoing racism and delivering real diversity'. It highlights the experiences of BAME people working in the charity sector, many of whom are subject to racism. The project was carried out by Voice4Change England and ACEVO, involving 493 participants. He has a strong track record working within the BAME sector. As a trade union activist at Camden Council, from 2002 – 2011, he led the Camden Black Workers staff group. He represented over 500 Black and Asian staff members and founded its award-winning Camden Black History Forum. Kunle is also a trustee of the English Heritage Trust who, in 2017, became one of its the first Black board members. With a long-standing interest in arts development particularly in film, he is on the programming board South Bank's BFI's African Odyssey. He is also a regular on television and radio including Radio London, Al Jazeera, Sky TV, RT on debates relating to politics the arts, diversity and race. Kunle believes that it is time to develop a new narrative around race equality, away from deficit models. Working in the sector has made him acutely aware of how the lack of diversity in thought is crippling serious debate on social policy issues, particularly race. Best wishes, Katrina Hinrichsen Marketing & Communications Administrator