Black organisations to receive free advertising through The Independent

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Black organisations will receive free advertising space on The Independent’s platform through a major initiative launched to coincide with Black History Month.

In a wide-ranging campaign, this platform will be partnering with eight Black-led organisations in 2024, donating £120,000 of advertising space across the publication to aid their efforts in enacting change.

The organisations partnering with The Independent include Black Equity Organisation, The Safety Box, The Ubele Initiative, FiveXMore, The Black Curriculum and Swim Dem Crew.

Nathaniel Peat, CEO of The Safety Box, said: “ This opportunity will hopefully open more doors so we can go on to inspire, encourage and impact positively on more young people.

“The Safety Box is driven to support young people and divert them from crime and violence. 80 per cent of our interventions support Black youth and we have created a significant impact over the years in diverting them away from crime into education or employment, working with over 25,000 at-risk and high-risk young people and over 1000 high-risk offenders in HMPPS.”

Milk Honey Bees, a Lambeth-based social enterprise supporting Black girls, will also receive advertising via The Independent’s platform, prompting founder Ebinehita Iyere to hail the “opportunity to show the amazing work that girls at Milk Honey Bees are doing to ensure Black Girlhood is seen and heard.”

“This partnership is an important part of our wider mission to support the needs, wellbeing and safety of Black and mixed Black girls within the education system and wider society,” Ms Iyere added.

This comes amid heightened national concern about inequalities and violence faced by Black women and girls, evidenced in cases such as Child Q.

To ensure these organisations see continued progress, The Independent will provide funding from the start of 2024 throughout the whole year, illustrating its dedication to achieving lasting change for Black communities.

This builds significantly on last year’s programme, which ran over one month, and underlines the title’s commitment to making change happen across sectors including education, civil rights and health.

Mentivity, a mentoring organisation and alternative educational provision that provides support for young people, will also partner with The Independent on this initiative.

Tyson Holmes-Lewis, Leon Wright and Sayce Holmes-Lewis (CEO), co-founders of Mentivity, said: "We are extremely proud to be recipients of The Independent’s Black History Month Initiative.

“As a Black-owned organisation, marketing and communications can prove costly and reaching a wider audience can also be difficult. This advertising space donation will allow us to reach a greater audience who can lend support to the important work we do in our community.”

Studies have revealed that access to funding, which may in turn boost advertising opportunities and brand visibility, remains a top barrier for Black-owned businesses.