Rita Sanderson is the Director of York Racial Equality Network (YREN), which incorporates the Connecting Communities North Yorkshire Project, and has been instrumental in the development of the Racial Harassment Strategy and Racial Harassment reporting centre in York.

YREN is also the key BME (Black Minority Ethnic) voluntary sector infrastructure specialist organisation in North Yorkshire and as such is aware of the challenges BME organisation face in order to have an equal voice and gain empowerment and the recognition they deserve.

In the past specialising working with young people, Rita’s previous experiences involved working within the Criminal Justice System and Youth Services, with one of the highlights being the appointment of Youth & Community Development Worker in the Cayman Islands (BWI) where she lived for 2 years.

Amongst her qualifications Rita has a BA (Hons) degree, a PGCE and vocational qualifications in Youth and Community work, however she considers her life and work experience as one of her biggest achievement and greatest challenges!

Email: equality@onetel.net