Catalyst launches the LEx Leaders Development Programme

source: Catalyst 4 Change CIC
published: 21 December 2020

Catalyst 4 Change is pleased to announce our upcoming LEx Leaders Development Programme which has been made possible with 2-year funding from the National Lottery's Leaders with Lived Experience 2020.

The programme aims to support lived experience (LEx) leaders and their organisations to be central to recovery and renewal efforts as we move through and beyond the Covid-19 crisis.

The National Lottery said;  "The programme builds on the Leaders with Lived Experience Pilot Programme and is part of a wider journey to share power with communities, improve perceptions of LEx and create parity between different types of knowledge and experience. The impetus for the programme, its shape and vision, came from witnessing the commitment, innovation and resilience of the pilot cohort, particularly in the early stages of the crisis when mainstream organisations were retreating. This confirmed that LEx experience leadership needs to be at the forefront of strategies for the future of civil society."

Our LEx Leaders Development Programme will consist of three key elements: 

1) To support emerging BME entrepreneurs and grassroots organisations who are working in the field of mental health, by incubating and/or supporting them over the life of the programme. This will help to create both new and innovative approaches to BME mental health support as well as providing role models from within the community.

2) Co-produce an online resources suite (our ‘living toolkit’) which will be freely available to all LEx Programme participants and Catalyst’s members. This toolkit will also form a series of training modules to be delivered to participants in 2022.

3) Work with the BME communities to build awareness, resilience and confidence to articulate their needs and become civic and community decision makers and future leaders.

To achieve these elements, we will include running a series of group workshops and one-to-one interventions with the programme participants on a variety of topics (e.g., legal structures, good governance, service planning & development, fundraising strategies/applications, marketing & promotion etc), which will build capacity, performance, knowledge, and resilience amongst the participating BME led mental health groups/organisations.

At Catalyst, we believe that to successfully renew civil society it is imperative that we make access to services equal and that those services are culturally representative and responsive. We believe that we can only affect meaningful change by empowering and equipping grassroots African and Caribbean communities to provide high quality, culturally relevant, mental wellbeing services and by co-producing and co-designing statutory mental health services.

Please Note: This programme is open to any Catalyst 4 Change members that meet the following criteria:

• Participants must be user led initiatives or have significant operational input from people with lived experience
• Participants must be in need of significant operational, governance or strategic development support
• Participants will agree to sign a Memorandum of Agreement and complete our Skills Mapping and Due Diligence Forms to be part of the LEx Leaders Development Programme

Those not meeting these criteria can access support via Catalyst’s other member options – read more here: www.catalyst4change.org.uk/membership1

For information please contact:

Tippa Naphtali (Services & Development Manager)

Email: tippa@catalyst4change.org.uk