Our history
Voice4Change England was originally known as the BME Standing Conference Partnership and developed following a national summit held in October 2005.
This event brought together over 40 BME organisations to discuss how the sector’s interests could best be represented within national policy making and programme development. The overwhelming conclusion of the day was that the sector needs a national voice, and that this voice should speak through a national body which is drawn from the existing BME national and regional infrastructure organisations.
19 founding partners submitted an application to the Home Office Active Communities Unit Strategic Funding Programme and this resulted in funding for an initial a three year period from April 2006 to March 2009. Responsibility for this programme has now passed to the Office of the Third Sector.