2022 Winner
PRIDE OF MANCHESTER
Dr Erinma Bell
Activist and campaigner has devoted her life to protecting young people from violent crime and giving them opportunities to build a bright future.
Erinma founded a local community organisation called CARISMA in 2003, after she witnessed a shooting with her husband Raymond.
“A friend of mine was shot and shot right in front of me,” she recalls. “From that night I thought enough is enough, because I didn’t want to have to go through that ever again. We needed to get local people to own the problem and concrete action.”
Erinma, who grew up in Moss Side, and previously worked for Save The Children, was determined to give young people in the area positive alternatives to getting involved in gangs and street crime.
She formed CARISMA – Community Alliance for Renewal, Inner South Manchester Area – to work with under-25s across South Manchester and counter the growing gun and gang violence in Moss Side and surrounding neighbourhoods.
“I realised we had to galvanise people together, get people to talk and work with each other in ways that they were not used to and work with the police. Relations with Greater Manchester Police were really strained but it was a case of stepping outside of our comfort zones. We then created Peace Week, going into schools and talking to young people, doing workshops based around peace leading school assemblies. In one of our record years we delivered 19 school assemblies in a week. We also were told through statistics that were done by GMP that gun crime had reduced over the years by 92%.”
She adds: “I led my team to be the voice for the voiceless when it came to gun and gang crime, speaking up for the young African and Caribbean men and their families who were so easily stereotyped as gang members and working with gang members’ mothers and families.”
Today, Erinma, now 57, continues to work with other community organisations and initiatives, such as the Chrysalis Family Centre in Moss Side. In 2007, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, recognized Erinma’s efforts in his book Britain’s Everyday Heroes, and the following year she was awarded the MBE for voluntary services to her community.
She was made Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester in 2011. And in 2017, a statue of Erinma made from melted-down guns was placed in Manchester Town Hall in tribute to her contribution. It was the first statue of a woman to go on display in the building’s iconic sculpture hall.