As Chair of Wellsprings Together, the charity that has employed Kaneez Khan since July 2017, I am happy to commend her work. Kaneez has made an extraordinary impact within community groups across West Yorkshire in her role as Near Neighbours Coordinator, particularly in the areas of equity and cultural cohesion. She has invested hugely in getting to know individuals and community groups at a grassroots level, listening to them and their concerns and enabling especially young people and women to speak and be heard by leaders and policy makers at a local, regional and national level. For this she has been recognised with awards ranging from an MBE to a national award from the Archbishop of Canterbury to one from Mitzvah Day, a national Jewish community engagement charity. Kaneez has been brave in challenging patriarchal structures, racism and islamophobia in her work, and creative in bringing diverse groups of people together. She has been involved in enabling local groups to work together across difference in accessing small grants for community work, leading the training of young people from diverse backgrounds through the “Catalyst” young leaders’ programme in different contexts across West Yorkshire, and in coordinating the programme of local conversations, “Real People Honest Talk.” Her extensive networks enabled her to engage numerous and diverse groups with the government’s test and trace and vaccination programmes. Again, this work was recognised nationally by Baroness Barran, Lord Bethell and the adviser to Dido Harding. More recently, Kaneez’ work has broadened to include West Yorkshire health and care by chairing the VCSE voices panel for race equality across the whole partnership.
I wholeheartedly commend Kaneez and her work to you.
Toby Haworth, Bishop of Bradford