Southampton's BME Steering Group has been working on the "Connecting Communities" BME housing project since 2004. The group is funded by Southampton's Social Housing Partnership:

• Atlantic Housing Association
• Hermitage Housing Association
• HydeMartlet Housing Association
• Sovereign Housing Association
• Swaythling Housing Society
• Testway Housing Association
• Western Challenge Housing Association.

These organisations are Southampton's Preferred Partners, which help to develop affordable housing across the city. They work in partnership with Southampton City Council and Southampton's BME Housing Steering Group. This project wants to connect housing providers in the city with local BME communities.

The steering group plays a central role in this project. It is the sounding board for BME housing issues across the city, and works with Southampton's Social Housing Partnership to promote fairness and race equality in housing.

The steering group is always looking for volunteers to join it. The group is friendly and informal. Members meet once a month for two hours in a central location. Food and drink is provided, and we do everything we can to make it easy for people to attend. These are some examples of what the group has been involved in:

• Research into the housing needs of Southampton's BME community and publishing the "Connecting Communities" housing report
• Southampton's first inner-city Affordable Housing Roadshow
• The design and construction of an information website
• Monitoring ethnicity figures for Southampton.

If you are a BME resident living in Southampton, we'd like to welcome you to join the group and share your views.

The steering group members are:

Ali Khobzi: Ali is a Tenant Participation Officer

Don John: Don is a Community Development Worker

Phil Simmons: Phil says "The main skills I contribute to this group come from my experience in dealing with mental healthcare settings for the past 10 years. I joined the group specifically to contribute towards the needs of mentally ill clients in the communities.

I have been on the steering group since it started in 2004 and have enjoyed helping to meet the future housing needs of Southampton's diverse and growing BME communities."

Robert NAGY is an office and technical co-ordinator.

David Roath works for the Wheatsheaf Trust Organisation in Southampton.

Sarah Khan says: "I became interested in joining Southampton's BME Housing Steering Group through working in the NHS, trying to bring better care to people from BME communities with mental health problems."

Gregory Richards says: "I am a black male originally from the Caribbean, who came to England in 1966 and settled in Birmingham. At present, I work for Hampshire County Council as a Community Development Worker (CDW) for BME communities in mental health, working out of Basingstoke and Deane borough council offices. I am working on three themes: better information, better engagement and appropriate services. For the last 18 months I have been working for the BME. communities in one way or another, which is what I want to do, and look forward to this new challenge."

Nadia Mansoor says: "I became interested in the housing sector through my work with people who had a history of illegal drug misuse, helping them to find work."

If you are interested in joining the steering group, please contact Ranthir Rathore.