The Suffolk Windrush Select Committee has been celebrating Windrush 2023 with a range of events, starting off with Part 1 of the Windrush Lectures which took place on 16th June 2023, and now a Part 2 Online Lecture titled ‘Windrush 75 years on’.

The Online Suffolk Windrush Lecture will be on Friday 14th July 2023

7.00pm-8.30pm, and we encourage early bookings so that you don’t miss out!

The lectures will be facilitated by Research and Exhibition Lead Ivya Scott (Consultant, Teacher and Lecturer) and supported by the Exhibition and Research team made up of: Christine Hawkins, Imani Sorhaindo, Anthony Yearwood, Brian Powlett, Carol Grant and Charles Moore.

Our special guests that evening are Morgan Dalphinis, Elaine Arnold, Patrick Vernon and Marva Rollins, supported by the third generation co-host Akosua Osei.

BIOs – ABOUT OUR GUEST SPEAKERS:

Marva Rollins, OBE Retired Headteacher and Education Consultant

Marva is the Director of Rollins Education Consultancy Ltd. Marva retired from headship in August 2019 after 24+ years leading two schools. Both schools were in urgent need of improvement. Marva developed strong leadership teams in both schools, positively impacting on the outcomes and wellbeing of children in two of the most deprived areas in London. She has a wealth of experience working in partnership with school leaders as well as a long history devising and leading programmes on developing future leaders. These include Investing in Diversity – Institute of Education, and is one of the first programmes focused on developing Black leaders in education. For the past 10 years she co-led Equal Access to Promotion (NUT/NEU), a programme targeted at increasing representation of BAME school leadership and is currently co-leading Positioned for Success (NEU). She leads similar programmes for other trusts/organisations. Marva runs a series of sessions focused on EEDI in primary and secondary schools. She has been an active voice for equality and equity for over 40 years, sitting on a number of national and local committees and driving change in a number of charities. She is a regular conference speaker. Marva is currently a Patron of The Reach Society – a social enterprise organisation led by successful Black male professionals, with a focus on enhancing the opportunities for young Black male and female students in moving onto higher education. She is also Trustee of Success Club Charity whose team leads Mindfulness programmes in schools and colleges and Learning with Parents. She is a Non-Executive Director for an organisation who has several settings/schools for pupils with Neuro-Diverse Identities, and a governor of 3 schools.*Please see REACH Society, Success Club and Learning with Parents websites.

Morgan Dalphinus, Author and Educationalist

Morgan has published many articles and 5 books on Caribbean and African languages and on educational issues. Morgan has been a voluntary teacher in Black Supplementary Schools over many years, including Sankofa, at the east London Black Women’s Organisation (ELBWO). He has taught in all education phases except primary and worked as a General, Senior and Chief Inspector of schools in London education authorities.

Morgan has also worked as Executive Manager, Academic Development, City College Birmingham, Chief Executive of the Urban Learning Foundation Teacher Training College, Head of School for Health Care and Early Years Professions and Senior Faculty Manager: Quality, at Newham College.

He also has carried out consultancy work on curriculum and evaluation for UNESCO, the Ministries of Education in Saint Lucia and Jamaica as well as for CfBT, Peckham Voluntary Sector Forum and the Windsor Fellowship. He is retired and is completing a number of publications. Morgan has a PhD in Caribbean and African languages, an MBA, a BA (Hons.) in Linguistics and Hausa and a PGCE in ESOL and French.

Patrick Vernon, OBE: Social Commentator and Political Activist

Professor Patrick Vernon OBE. Patrick is Interim Chair of Birmingham and Solihull ICS where he leads on inequalities, Chair of Walsall Together Health Partnership. Patrick is also Independent Adviser on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for the Crown Prosecution Service. Patrick was awarded an OBE in 2012 for his work on tackling health inequalities and ethnic minority communities and in 2018 he received an honorary PhD from Wolverhampton University and was selected as one of the 1000 Progressive Londoner by the Evening Standard. In 2019 he was awarded a lifetime achievement award for campaigning and advocacy work by the SMK Foundation. Patrick led the campaign for a national Windrush Day since 2013 and helping to expose the Windrush Scandal in 2018 in one of the first growing online petitions calling for an amnesty for the Windrush Generation. He currently advises Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Chairs ARE Windrush Justice Grants Programme and Convenor of Windrush 75 with British Futures.

In August 2021 Patrick was appointed by Wolverhampton University as Honorary Professor of cultural heritage and Community Leadership for the Department of Community Development. In 2020 Patrick was selected by British Vogue as of Britain’s top twenty campaigners and was included in the 2020 Power list of 100 influential Black People in Britain. Also, in 2020 Patrick co-authored one hundred Great Black Britons and established the Majonzi Fund, which is providing small grants to families and community organisations to organise commemoration events for individuals from BAME communities who have died of covid-19 over the last two years.

Patrick is a sought-after broadcaster, public speaker, EDI adviser and writes blogs and articles for the national and international media on healthcare, cultural heritage and race.www.patrickvernon.org.uk

Akosua Osei – Young Author Akosua Osei-Loué is the author of KojoBooks.com: The World’s First Multilingual Children’s Books featuring Adinkra symbols and a Social Entrepreneur. Akosua is of Jamaican-Israelite Akan-Asante ancestry. This pedigree and background has permitted her to acquire knowledge of self and empower young minds through her creative children’s workshops and coding clubs in France and Ghana, as well as developing programs and high profile events for international governments and independent entities. Her current projects are focussed upon Positive Maternal Health outcomes, e-community homeschooling and fundraising for youth projects Ghana, France and the UK.

MORE ABOUT THE SUFFOLK WINDRUSH

With the support from Ipswich Borough Council, Clarion Housing and the Ipswich and South Suffolk NEU, we have been able to put these FREE events to raise awareness of the contributions the Windrush generation, and the generations taking on the baton, have made to UK life.

The lectures will be facilitated by Research and Exhibition Lead Ivya Scott (Consultant, Teacher and Lecturer) and supported by the Exhibition and Research team made up of: Christine Hawkins, Imani Sorhaindo, Anthony Yearwood, Brian Powlett, Carol Grant and Charles Moore, and we intend for these lectures to offer a social platform for leading national speakers to share their experiences and knowledge about aspects of Caribbean history, links to current day issues affecting Black people, and also celebrating the remarkable journey of resilience, pride and achievements of the Black community, despite the challenges.

Your donations help to keep this invaluable work going! Thank you!

The events have been supported by Suffolk Black Community Forum, Caribbean and African Community Health Support Forum, Be Me Like We Ltd and the Ipswich and South Suffolk NEU.