Mali Enterprising Leaders Launch Event
Leadership Day
Saturday, 29th July 2017
On Saturday, 29th July 2017, an intergenerational group of almost 50 people from London and Manchester gathered for the Mali Enterprising Leaders – MEL launch event at Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre, London. This national inititiative for BAME communities, which is the first of its kind, is co-ordinated by the Ubele Initiative and funded by Power to Change.
The purpose of the event was to introduce the community enterprise and community asset programme and to explore move forward the exciting goals set by the MEL agenda.
Twelve (12) people from 3 different community organisations in Manchester travelled down brought together by one of MEL’s 7 delivery partners TS4SE.
The focus of the day was to work with the younger leaders (under 40’s) and elder leaders (over 40 years) from a range of national Black and Minority Ethnic organisations to:
· Further the development of young leaders
· Explore together models of projects that have proved successful
· Provide opportunities for networking and dialogue between the two generations
· To identify an effective role for elders in the current context of the life of the African Diaspora in the UK
The day was divided into two workshops led in separate spaces, the one for young leaders was led by Natalie Bell from Unleashing Talent and Coin Street and Phillip Udeh (founder of Brain Füd and Community Builders and the other for elders was led by Michael Hamilton (one of the Director of Ubele Initiative)
The young leaders shared their personal leadership journey and their experience with in their respective involvement in initiatives in their community organisations. They explored their own skills and capacity to herald societal change. The participants also received a comprehensive presentation from the founder of Brain Fud, Phillip Udeh and looked at different leadership models. They discussed how they could network more effectively and work more effectively with Elder leaders.
In the elder leaders workshop, the participants identified the essential qualities that make for effective eldership in the current context of life African Diaspora in the UK. They used their creativity and joint voice to fashion models that could embody these concepts and discussed the application of these ideas and their much needed for building dynamic inter- learning relationships with the younger generation.
The day was heralded as an overall success. However, there was a need for extra time to bring the two groups of younger and older leaders together to discuss actions that would enable them to work together more effectively. The Ubele Initiative are now going on to plan a residential experience where a core from both groups will be brought together to give some quality time and attention to building the relationships that will begin to support the baton-passing processes needed for sustainable BAME community organisations.
