Margaret Taribo founder story

This isn't another story about good intentions and missed connections. It's about a mission-driven approach that changes how groups truly reach, understand, and serve diverse communities. And why that matters more urgently today than ever before.

The Mission: More Than Translation, True Connection

Margaret Taribo didn't set out to become a bridge-builder between groups and BAME communities. She became one because she saw first-hand what happens when that bridge doesn't exist.

Early in her career, working in community and family outreach, she saw a pattern repeat itself. It happened across councils, government departments, and charities. Well-meaning programmes launched with fanfare. Resources were allocated. Targets were set. Yet families who needed support most remained unreached.

Not because they didn't want help. Not because services weren't available. But because the connection—the genuine, trust-based relationship—was missing.

"We weren't speaking the same language," Margaret observed. "And I don't mean literally. We weren't understanding the same challenges. We weren't sharing the same priorities. We weren't building trust in the same ways."

That insight became her mission: to bridge the gap between groups and BAME communities. Through real engagement. Through cultural knowledge. Through relationships built on mutual respect rather than guesswork.

Key Takeaway: Good community engagement isn't about translating existing programmes into different languages. It's about rethinking how groups listen, design services, and build trust with communities they aim to serve.

Who Margaret Taribo Serves: The Overlooked Stakeholders

The Margaret Taribo approach serves multiple groups at once. A rare feat in community engagement work.

Local Councils and Government Departments

These groups face mounting pressure. Deliver better outcomes with fewer resources. Show value to diverse people. Meet equality duties. Rebuild trust after years of cuts.

Margaret's work provides the cultural insight and community links they desperately need. But rarely develop internally.

A typical scenario: a council launches a mental health scheme targeting South Asian families. Take-up is disappointingly low. Rather than blame "hard-to-reach communities" (a phrase Margaret actively challenges), her approach asks different questions.

What cultural factors shape how mental health is discussed? Who are the trusted voices within these communities? What barriers—practical, cultural, linguistic—prevent access?

BAME Communities and Families

On the other side of the bridge stand families navigating systems not designed with them in mind. Forms in the wrong language. Services scheduled during religious events. Support workers unfamiliar with cultural contexts that shape family life, health beliefs, or school expectations.

Margaret's work ensures these families aren't just consulted. They're genuinely heard. Their lived experiences inform service design. Their feedback shapes delivery. Their community leaders become partners, not afterthoughts.

Community Advocates and Charities

Grassroots groups often understand their communities deeply. But they struggle to influence larger bodies.

Margaret's approach amplifies their voices. It translates their insights into policy language. It creates pathways for real collaboration.

Key Takeaway: Good bridge-building serves all stakeholders. When groups truly understand communities, and communities can access responsive services, everyone benefits. The bridge must be strong enough to carry traffic both directions.

The Outcomes That Matter: Beyond Box-Ticking

Twenty years of community and family outreach work has taught Margaret what success actually looks like. And it's rarely what gets measured in quarterly reports.

Trust: The Foundation of Everything

In 2023, research from the Runnymede Trust revealed stark findings. Only 38% of Black Caribbean respondents felt local councils understood their needs. Only 42% of Bangladeshi respondents felt the same.

That trust gap isn't abstract. It translates directly into families not accessing early help services. Young people disengaging from youth programmes. Communities feeling invisible to bodies meant to serve them.

Margaret's work rebuilds trust through consistency, cultural knowledge, and genuine partnership. When a council works with her approach, communities begin to see their values reflected. Their concerns addressed. Their input valued.

Trust doesn't arrive overnight. But it compounds. One successful engagement leads to another. Word spreads through community networks more effectively than any marketing campaign.

Better Service Design

Consider children's services. National data consistently shows BAME families are both under-represented in early help services and over-represented in child protection work.

This paradox—too little early support, too much late intervention—stems partly from services designed without deep community input.

When groups genuinely bridge the gap, service design changes. Outreach happens in community spaces, not just council offices. Information reaches families through trusted channels—faith leaders, community centres, cultural groups. Support adapts to cultural contexts rather than expecting families to adapt to rigid systems.

Lasting Community Relationships

Perhaps most importantly, Margaret's approach builds lasting infrastructure. Not one-off consultations or temporary projects. But ongoing relationships between groups and communities.

These relationships survive staff changes, budget pressures, and political shifts. Because they're embedded in how groups operate, not bolted on as afterthoughts.

Key Takeaway: Measure success by trust built, not just boxes ticked. The outcomes that matter—families accessing support earlier, young people engaging with services, communities feeling heard—emerge from sustained relationship-building, not quick fixes.

Common Misconceptions Margaret Challenges

Myth: "Hard-to-Reach Communities"

Margaret actively challenges this phrase. Communities aren't hard to reach. Groups are hard to trust.

When councils complain about low engagement from BAME communities, she asks: Have you engaged on their terms or only yours? Have you built relationships before asking for input? Have you shown that their views will actually shape decisions?

The shift from "hard-to-reach communities" to "hard-to-reach groups" isn't just words. It changes who bears responsibility for building bridges.

Myth: Translation Equals Access

Translating documents into multiple languages matters. But it's not engagement.

Real access requires cultural knowledge. Understanding how different communities process information. How they make decisions. How they build trust. It means recognising that a Somali family's approach to education support may differ fundamentally from a Polish family's. Even if both need the same service.

Myth: One Community Voice Represents All

BAME communities aren't monolithic. Margaret's approach recognises the diversity within diversity. Different generations. Migration experiences. Economic backgrounds. Cultural practices.

Genuine engagement means building relationships across this complexity. Not finding one "community representative" and calling it done.

Practical Insights for Organisations Today

Whether you're a council officer, charity director, or community advocate, here's how to begin bridging gaps in your context:

Start with listening, not programmes. Before designing your next community scheme, spend three months genuinely listening. Attend community events. Build relationships with cultural groups. Ask open questions about what families actually need. Not what you assume they need.

Invest in cultural knowledge, not just diversity training. One-day workshops on unconscious bias don't build bridges. Invest in ongoing learning. Community partnerships. Staff who reflect the communities you serve. Make cultural knowledge a core skill, not a tick-box exercise.

Co-design services with communities. Bring community voices into service design from the beginning. Not just consultation at the end. Pay community members for their expertise. Give them genuine influence over decisions. Be transparent about what can and cannot change based on their input.

Build infrastructure, not projects. Stop thinking in terms of time-limited projects. Build lasting relationships. Ongoing partnerships. Sustainable ways of working. Embed community engagement in your group's DNA, not your project portfolio.

Measure what matters. Track trust indicators. Relationship quality. Community-defined outcomes. Not just participation numbers and demographic data. Ask communities how they'd measure success. Then track those metrics alongside your own.

Key Takeaway: Bridging gaps requires sustained commitment, not quick fixes. Start small. Build relationships authentically. Let trust compound over time. The infrastructure you build today will serve communities for years to come.

Where Community Engagement Is Heading

As we move deeper into the 2020s, several trends will reshape how groups engage with BAME communities.

First, communities will demand genuine partnership, not performative consultation. The days of extractive engagement are ending. Taking community input without giving back influence or resources. Groups that don't adapt will find themselves increasingly irrelevant to the communities they claim to serve.

Second, digital tools will create new opportunities and challenges. Virtual engagement can increase access. But it can also deepen divides if not done thoughtfully. The groups that succeed will blend digital convenience with the relationship-building that still requires face-to-face connection.

Third, the next generation of community leaders will push harder for structural change. Not just better service delivery. They'll challenge groups to address systemic inequalities. Not just improve access within existing systems.

Margaret Taribo's two decades of experience point towards a future where bridges between groups and communities aren't exceptional. They're expected. Where cultural knowledge isn't a speciality. It's standard practice. Where BAME communities aren't consulted. They're partners.

That future won't arrive automatically. It requires leaders willing to do the sustained, relationship-focused work that Margaret has modelled. It requires groups brave enough to genuinely share power. It requires communities willing to engage with bodies that haven't always earned their trust.

But the outcomes make the effort worthwhile. Families thriving. Communities flourishing. Groups genuinely serving everyone.

The bridge is there. We just need more people willing to cross it. Strengthen it. And ensure it carries traffic both directions.

The gap between groups and BAME communities won't close itself. But with approaches like Margaret Taribo's—grounded in authentic relationship-building, cultural knowledge, and sustained commitment—we can build bridges strong enough to last.