Interculture is a Community Interest Company based in the heart of St Pauls, Bristol. Our Founder is Lisa Whitehouse and we have been working closely with the local community and beyond since 2016, providing training, events, and consultancy. Our aim is to increase intercultural communication, awareness, and sensitivity for underprivileged communities. We bring people together from diverse backgrounds to break down perceived cultural barriers, creating safe spaces for dialogue around important cultural matters. We provide both virtual and in-person interactive events and training, offering an educational and supportive platform for individuals and organisations. Our allyship extends to all marginalised communities – intersectionality is at the core of what we do.
We will hold numerous workshops & interactive panel events every year on the multiple topics from allyship, addressing ADHD in diverse communities, white privilege and intersectionality. Panellists at the events include experience speakers as well as 1st time speakers who discuss individual and shared experiences with the audience. We have been asked to help diversify disabled spaces to include people of colour, refugees and LGBTQ+ within organisations that lack representation. We promote and signpost relevant projects and organisations. Our events also include spoken word, comedy & art exhibition. Events are recorded for posterity.
Interculture aim to build networks/stronger community cohesion and increase awareness of issues affecting many different marginalised groups and communities. We promote events through our extensive network of local press contacts, social media, Bristol Equality Network, RSA, Black South West Network, and Black Seeds Network, including community media; Ujima Radio, Noods, BCFM. Also, through the many organisations we have developed relationships with over the last 9 years and include their networks and newsletters. We have a proven record of impactful allyship events, and are more than confident about these subjects. However, we feel we need to grow to be more inclusive of team members. In 2020, post George Floyd, we focused on how people can be allies to people of colour, and can see the need to extend allyship to other communities. This helped increase our capacity to develop existing and new revenue streams, which directly contributed towards the long-term growth and sustainability of our organisation. This project allowed us to provide quality community services, build capacity of our communities and promote positive change for disadvantaged groups. We have continued to increase our disabled representation including our advisory board and directorship, giving our organisation a deeper understanding of allyship with disabled people and their issues. We will also aim to increase our pool of associate trainers with lived experience of intersectionality including disability, LGBTQia+, neurodiverse, global majority and many others.
Our beneficiaries are from communities disproportionately affected by social isolation and at Interculture we strive to bring people together to break down perceived cultural barriers and build community cohesion. Our USP is that we are about everyone, and we do not have a target demographic so our network and reach is extensive and incredibly diverse. We have recruited more volunteers and paid staff with different impairments as we firmly believe in the power of lived experience. Event and training attendee’s (including panellists, team members and volunteers) all report an increase in confidence & awareness of appropriate language when discussing issues relating to the featured theme in both formal and informal contexts. Our projects provide an opportunity for more engagement with marginalised communities, as well as a better understanding of intersectionality for participants.
Part of our ethos is to continually have conversations with people who live in Bristol through both formal and informal ways. We are continuously in talks with various organisations, the community, our volunteers as we recognise the importance of how they understand their lived experience is valued. We will further normalise images of people with a variety of both visible and invisible disabilities through the events and our ‘I’m Interculture because…’photo campaign. Volunteers with lived experience have been recruited. Our board members are representative of our diverse communities.
Our founding director – Lisa Whitehouse was finally diagnosed with ADHD less than 2 years ago and 2 other core team members are waiting for assessments for autism and ADHD.
