It’s time to swap ego and hierarchy for collaborative leadership Introducing the Collaborative Leadership Canvas, a new tool to help leaders and groups distribute power and responsibility. We know, you know, everybody knows that social change is never down to just one person. Many hands are needed to make real, long lasting transformation. Yet so often, the organisational processes and structures we fall back on reinforce top-down models of leadership, rather than collective endeavours.  We’re here to change that. After years of working with grassroots groups, social movements, public s ..read more

Recent highlights Over the last year, our team of consultants have worked with a number of clients in the migration sector, including The Refugee Buddy Project, Beyond Detention, Migrants in Culture, Care4Calais, Migrants Organise the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and Unbound Philanthropy.  We’ve offered a wide range of support, including messaging development, communications strategy, theory of change development, process design, event coordination and facilitation.  Our highlights have included:  ? Organising the Shared Ground Fund Residential, a two-day conference for groups from ..read more

‘Technology is reversing the trend of increasing gender equality’ – António Guterres, UN Secretary General Last month, Becca, Shaurya and Julia from the team joined the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) as official UN Women UK delegates.  CSW is an annual meeting of Member States at the UN, dedicated to shaping global standards on gender equality. Over the course of two weeks, town halls with the UN Secretary General and meetings with government ministers and NGO representatives took place, as well as hundreds of side events set up by grassroots organisations and activists.  ..read more

Five tips to improve your community outreach Effective community outreach is essential for charities and funders looking to make a positive impact in their communities. However, outreach efforts can sometimes fall short if they are not well-planned and executed. In this post, we share five quick tips to improve your community outreach. 1. Be clear who you’re trying to reach To be effective in community outreach, it’s essential to know who you’re trying to reach. Start by identifying the groups or individuals you want to connect with. Who are they? What are their needs, values, and preference ..read more

The following blog post was written by Aggie Taylor, Consultant at The Social Change Agency Are you an individual or a community group based in Brent? Do you have ideas you’d like to share about what the top priorities are for your area? Get in touch at aggie@thesocialchangeagency.org Co-designing a long term community initiative We’re really excited to be kicking off our work with The Football Association (The FA) to co-design a long term community initiative that identifies and addresses the top priorities for communities around Wembley Stadium and surrounding areas. Brent is a Lond ..read more

The following blog post was written by Eda Tajuddin, Programme Manager for The Social Change Nest There’s no way the impact of the cost of living crisis can be fully understood, especially not in one blog. It has managed to touch everything and it’s having wide knock-on effects that are hard to fully wrap our heads around – even last week, The Independent reported a rise in people using Pet Food Banks or giving up their pets all together. Throughout the crisis we’ve been talking to our groups in The Social Change Nest and one thing is clear: if we want to get through this without leaving ..read more

Tactics employed by social movements are evolving, strikes are enjoying unprecedented levels of public support, and communities are increasingly taking matters into their own hands. Director of Practice Anya Stern and Consultant Aggie Taylor discuss some of the movement trends they’ve been observing in 2023. What trends have you been noticing? Share your thoughts by tagging us on Twitter @SocialChangeAg 0:29 We’re in this together – Reflecting on movement trends in 2023″ Public support for strikes is at an all time high Anya: Welcome to The Social Change Agency podcast. I’m Anya, director ..read more

Last year, The Social Change Nest launched our very first fund: The Changing Ideas Mutual Aid Fund. As we emerged from the COVID-19 crisis response, many of the mutual aid groups we were supporting were facing difficult transitions. When the cost of living crisis hit, their challenges seemed to increase. Volunteer burn-out, shifting community needs and a struggle for funding were all working to dampen the incredible energy of the mutual aid movement. We didn’t want to see this fire die out and wanted to support the groups as they evolved into their next iteration.  The need was high an ..read more

At The Social Change Agency, we believe that people deserve to access appropriate remuneration for work. That’s why we’re excited to be working with York MCN Network to design and deliver a fair, equitable and just payment for involvement policy for people receiving benefits in York.  Are you interested in setting up a payment for involvement policy? Do you have good ideas you want to share? Click here to join our learning community and support our work.  What is payment for involvement? In the social impact sector, organisations are increasingly keen to involve and collaborate w ..read more

Happy birthday to us! Today we’re celebrating The Social Change Agency’s 10th birthday – Woohoo! ? And we have a lot to celebrate.  The Social Change Agency was established in 2013 with the goal of addressing some of the most pressing social issues of the day using cutting edge social change methodologies, new tech and working with social movements, networks and changemakers. Over the past 10 years we have tackled a wide range of issues, from poverty and inequality to education and the environment, with a dream list of partners, collaborators and co-conspirators. We have grown in size a ..read more