Hello hello!

How are you? I hope you have enjoyed some downtime over summer! I, for one, have had a relaxing summer in India and also managed to sneak in a week in Ladakh in India. (a long term dream come true for me! )

But after all those glorious warm and sunny days, I am back to my lovely and cold (!) Leeds and today I want to share details about a path breaking programme that I have had the honor of leading. Like many of you may already know, TPL Experiences has pledged to be a business for good and working with communities and the voluntary sector across West Yorkshire has been an integral part of our journey to becoming a business for good.

And so when we were asked to design and lead this innovative coaching programme that builds the sustainability and overall resilience of the third sector in Leeds, we had to say a YES! We have been privileged to be asked on multiple instances in the past few years to lead on regional funded programmes to help build the overall resilience and sustainability of the third sector across different parts of the country. One such programme that I am so proud of leading on, is the Leeds Power of Communities Leadership programme to support the growth and development of organisations working with culturally diverse communities in Leeds.

The Culturally Diverse Hub has been running its first development programme for a cohort of eight small, culturally diverse organisations in Leeds. This programme has been funded by West Yorkshire Power of Communities, in partnership with Forum Central and Voluntary Action Leeds, and delivered with the expertise of independent consultants and trainers, led by yours truly :)

 The Coaching and Training programme was launched in December 2023 with the aim to help build the capacity and sustainability of the third sector with a specific emphasis on increasing the capacity and resilience of community groups managed by culturally diverse community leaders. The delivery and content of this programme has been designed on the back of the findings and recommendations shared by West Yorkshire Power of Communities, and Leeds Community Foundation.

The scope of this programme has been to offer strategic coaching support to a small cohort of organisations that have historically not been supported in the system and have been delivering on critical community support.

The idea of this programme has been based on principles of coaching, mentoring, co-creation and action-based results. There are eight small community organisations participating in the first leg of this coaching programme. These organisations were selected on the back of an application process.

Commenting on the progress of the programme, Minoti mentioned “The coaching programme is progressing really well and the cohort are finding this peer led, action based coaching programme, very beneficial for their respective growth and development. We know that through the pandemic, these local community groups have played a critical role in delivering crucial services to diverse communities across Leeds. The demand for these services has only increased since the pandemic. This makes programme’s such as these absolutely necessary to build the fundamental capacity of these community led groups who are providing lifesaving services to their communities.”

The participants have been focusing on building the sustainability of their community groups and have been looking at practical goal setting and embedding evaluation and analysis into the ambitions of their organisations. Some of the themes that the group have explored include but are not limited to vision and values, goal setting, fundraising, project management, leadership skills, resilience, future planning, Trustee management, governance, networking, conflict management, partnership building, collaboration, Processes and policies and overall skills development.

 By offering impact driven strategic support to a select cohort, alongside grant funding, we hope to inform a wider conversation around how to support the growth of a more resilient and sustainable culturally diverse infrastructure. The approach to this programme has been based on building ‘action’ based frameworks that can be measured, tools and resources that enable accountability as well as impact driven growth for the participating organisations.

 Sharing her thoughts on the application and selection process for this programme, Abigail Olaleye, Project Worker, Culturally Diverse Hub said “After years of the hub working and listening to voices of Culturally diverse communities and organisations, it was imperative to design a programme that addressed their needs and challenges. Accounting for historical barriers that have hindered full participation in similar programmes; to address these barriers, we implemented creative approaches. For instance, we provided backfill and encouraged organisations to nominate a 2nd attendee to address capacity issues.

To ensure sustainability and learning is embedded, we built the content around the areas of development of the cohort and applied a “Learn by Doing” approach. The “learn by doing” approach gives the cohort the perfect opportunity to apply what they have learnt straight away on a funding brief prepared by the hub, which will give them the opportunity to access real life funding for their organisation. We have also ensured that Trustees are involved in this programme as they play a critical role in the growth and sustainability of charities. Through this holistic approach, we hope to not only empower but also cultivate lasting impact.”

The ambition of this programme is to build a more resilient and sustainable third sector by empowering the community group leaders to develop their leadership and overall skills to lead thriving organisations. The aspiration of this programme and all its future chapters is to help the third sector to move from a place of surviving to a place of thriving. Programmes like this are crucial to enable us to build a robust, professionally managed third sector that is inclusive and diverse as well as effective.

We are beyond proud of the impact we are able to build in the communities and the small but mighty role we have in making Leeds a more inclusive city.

Right on that note, off to run a Strategy day for a lovely Charity :)

Laters!