Multicultural Richmond exists to promote a thriving, integrated and inclusive multicultural community in Richmond upon Thames and surrounding boroughs.
Our mission is to be the leading charity working to secure racial equality and inclusion in, and celebrate and strengthen the multicultural nature of, the Richmond upon Thames community and communities in surrounding London boroughs.
Our history
Multicultural Richmond is our new name. We’ve chosen it as part of a big project to refresh our organisational strategy. It better represents who we are today, the people we work with and what we’re striving to achieve together. But we’re also proud of our long history as The Ethnic Minorities Advocacy Group (EMAG). EMAG was set up in 1992 to address issues affecting people from minority ethnic backgrounds in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames (LBRuT) and became a registered charity with the Charity Commission on 22nd February 1996. It was led by its then director Prehlad Dhall. Under Prehlad’s leadership, EMAG became an established and credible organisation, with a strong network of partners across both statutory and non-statutory sectors. In May 2011 Ravi Arora took over the role as Director and has continued to increase our profile across Richmond Borough and surrounding areas.
What we do today
We are the only organisation in the borough which represents all ethnic minority communities. We support people who experience racial disadvantage or crime and/or find it difficult to access mainstream services. We build community cohesion and celebrate cultural and ethnic diversity. We help people from minority ethnic backgrounds to understand the host community and develop skills to flourish in British life.
Multicultural Richmond is run by a committed Executive Committee who come from a wide variety of minority ethnic groups. The members of the management committee and staff have varied skills and experience to promote the aims and objectives of Multicultural Richmond.
The Executive Committee meets up eight times per year to undertake both strategic and executive functions. It has set up four sub committees, Finance, HR, Strategic Planning and Communications and Marketing, to deal with issues in detail and report back to the full EC committee for consideration and approval.
We have a director and two members of staff:
Ravi Arora – Director
Ravi is responsible for the day to day running of Multicultural Richmond. To contact Ravi send an email or call him on 020 8893 9444.
Surinder K Sembi – Projects Officer
Surinder runs the Multicultural Elders Group (MEG) and is a Coordinator and Caseworker. To contact Surinder send an email or call her on 020 8893 9555.
Mariana Cano Márquez – Community Mental Health Officer
Mariana runs our mental health service across the borough. To contact Mariana send an email or call her on 020 8893 6000
Our Trustees
- Geoff Pope – Co Chair
- Jo Barrett – Co Chair
- Peter Burrows-Smith – Treasurer
- Paul Smith
- John Azah
- Dean Tyler
- Krishan Sachdeva