REACH Mission

To empower BME communities by ensuring that their health needs are fully met.

REACH Vision

A multi-cultural society in which all people have equal access to appropriate health services.

REACH History

The REACH team

REACH Healthy Living Project was founded in September 2000 in Glasgow by Shehla Ihsan and focused on health promotion to encourage better dietary and exercise habits within the Black & Minority Ethnic (BME) community.

In September 2001 REACH Healthy Living Project evolved into REACH Community Health Project due to:

  • Identifying the need to meet the specific and diverse healthcare needs of the BME community living in Glasgow.
  • Widening its focus on combining mainstream clinical experience with community engagement and development through partnership working with key stakeholders from across the health arena.

The purpose of this change ensured that a coherent strategy for BME health was based principally on needs based service provision, evidence-based research and community development.

Successfully REACH has delivered many innovative services and ground-breaking research which has contributed to actively empowering BME communities and ensuring that BME health is a priority on the health agenda by striving towards working for the BME community from the young to mid-range age and older people in partnership with statutory, private and other voluntary organizations.

In October 2006 REACH was given recognition for its innovative community based approach at a local level via funding from the Scottish Executive's Race Equality and Integration Community Support Fund (REICSF) to develop a comprehensive health package for Health Boards across Scotland.

Going from strength to strength REACH has now successfully established itself from a locally based organization to a national organization. Through undertaking the national project, REACH (in partnership with BEMIS) intends to make a significant contribution to BME community health development throughout Scotland. It is important to note that distinctive of this project is that while the benefits will be trans-sectoral, the assessments and analyses will be undertaken from a uniquely third sector perspective.