[WiLT] BAME Women Councillor Shadowing Scheme - deadline 31st July 2009

[WiL Admin]

BAME Women Councillor Shadowing Scheme

Operation Black Vote and the Government Equalities Office Black Asian Minority
Ethnic Women Councillor Shadowing Scheme

Deadline 31 July 2009

The representation of Black and other minority ethnic (BAME) women at every
level of governance from the Houses of Parliament to local government is
markedly low. Of the 646 MPs in Westminster, two are BAME women and out of
20,000 Councillors, 149 are BAME women.  This represents less than 1% of
Councillors nationally.

On 24th April, Operation Black Vote launched the country's first national BAME
Councillor Shadowing Scheme.  The scheme invites 50 women from BAME communities
across the country to take part in a ground-breaking leadership programme, which
is designed to encourage them to find out about the wide-ranging role of
councillors.

The project aims to demystify the role of councillors and open up the process to
allow greater diversity and to help tackle the under-representation of BAME
women within the UK's elected Council Chambers.

http://www.obv.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=17&id=132&Itemid=149