Black History Month is an annual event where for the whole month of October, the history, culture, achievements, and contributions of Black people are celebrated across the UK.

This year, we wanted to do something a little different to celebrate our 1,404 colleagues of Black heritage across Team BSMHFT. In a nod to this year’s theme of ‘Reclaiming Narratives’ we are shining a brighter light on staff stories through the form of videos.

Each week, colleagues of Black heritage will feature in a short video where they will share details of their heritage, what it means to them and who their biggest inspirations in life are. By sharing this information, we can all reflect on the rich diversity we have across our Trust and hopefully learn something new about Black history and culture at the same time.

Starting this week off strong we have Andrea Smith, Catering Assistant for SSL, located at the Barberry.

Taking time out of her busy role, we managed to grab Andrea for a quick chat all about Black History Month and what it means to her.

Andrea has immense pride in her Jamaican heritage and in the following video she shares her favourite things about it such as the community, the food and of course… reggae singer Beres Hammond. More importantly, Andrea touches on why she thinks events like Black History Month are so important.