The participatory roles of black and minority ethnic (BME) in community regeneration

Many studies have been conducted in the field of community cohesion, participation and engagement and there seems to be a consensus that community engagement and participation aids the achievement of a good and sustainable regeneration in our communities. Past research have also shown that without a sense of cohesion among the members of the community, the urge to be a part of community activities will reduce, hence community participation will be low. However, contrasting to the fact that members of Black and Minority Ethnic (BMEs) groups participate less in community activities is the fact that recent citizens survey by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows that members of the BME groups are more likely to see their community as being cohesive than Non BMEs, also, people from most ethnic minority groups were more likely than White people to agree that they could influence decisions in their local area. For this reason, a question of what triggers participation and why BMEs participate less than Non BMEs arises. This paper aims to investigate factors that trigger community participation, and explores the level of participation that is expected from the BMEs by investigating what other factors are there that can contribute to the BMEs community participation experience. Government publications and relevant literatures is also reviewed to get the current state of the art and the initial results from pilot interviews will be analyzed and focused initial findings will be discussed. The paper concludes by drawing inferences on the implication of some of the factors that can make BMEs attain their utmost community engagement potential.