Blackbright Community Services

General information

BLACK-BRIGHT COMMUNITY SERVICES LIMITED (BBCS4Luton) believes that equality, diversity, and human rights are inextricably linked. We are all different or diverse with different needs, and yet we all share a common, equal humanity. To minimise a sense of vulnerability, BBCS4Luton focuses on rights to equal treatment; challenging discrimination and promoting fairness, dignity and inclusion, while providing specialised and indigenous services.

We are aware that the vulnerable are exploited in the UK, along with the following groups:

• Failed asylum seekers and victims of human trafficking, who are often destitute and homeless or living on a no choice basis in a ‘no cash’ system;

• People with mental health problems, fluctuating levels of mental capacity, and/or learning disabilities;

• Those at the margins of low paid work and poverty, sometimes employed in an informal economy with minimal protection of their rights, sometimes out of work, and often facing barriers to work;

• Those experiencing gender violence, and all forms of hate crime or harassment;

• Ex-offenders, prisoners and recently released offenders seeking to re-integrate into the community or rehabilitation in custodial and probation settings;

• Migrant communities in general, and Romany Gypsies and Irish Traveller communities in particular, who fare worst of any ethnic group in terms of access to services, and health and education outcomes.

Vulnerability increases exposure to abuse. Vulnerability is a state rather than a condition so people can be more or less vulnerable at different times or in different contexts, and those in vulnerable states may need a higher level of advocacy, signposting, outreach, advice and counselling services, which is why BBCS4Luton focuses on the vulnerable, the under-represented, disadvantaged, and exploited in Luton.