Leading the Way is currently closed for applications.
Leading the Way
Leading the Way, delivered in partnership with Power to Change, supports leaders of community enterprises across the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber
Leading the Way
In partnership with Power to Change, Leading the Way aims to increase the confidence, resilience, skills and networks of people running community enterprises, including community businesses, organisations and trading charities, to enable them to develop their leadership and deepen the positive impact their organisation has in their community.
The programme
The programme consists of:
- One-to-one work with a mentor who will work with you to identify and develop your goals for the programme and co-produce an action plan. Mentors will work across a cohort and also have a role in facilitating learning between leaders on the programme.
- Cohort-based learning days, scheduled every 6 weeks and hosted in-person and in-region: most likely in Leeds, Newcastle and York. Across the ten learning days you'll have the opportunity to build your technical management skills and leadership skills, and work with your peers to share, learn and problem-solve together.
- One-to-one coaching to support your personal development throughout the programme, with ten sessions available to you.
- One-to-one specialist support to bring expertise into your organisation, helping you embed your learning from the programme and to address challenges or opportunities that are specific to you and your organisation.
- A grant to support your participation in the programme, embed your learning and the impact of your organisation. Your grant can be used to backfill your role while you take part in the programme, support your learning, cover any costs for childcare or other caring responsibilities, and for travel costs.
- Online talks and site visits, co-designed by the leaders on the programme, to bring you additional insight and value.
Diversity, equity and inclusion
We welcome strong applications from community leaders across the community enterprise sector. We will, however, be prioritising applications that demonstrate the greatest potential to learn and benefit from the programme.
We will be prioritising applications that:
- Are from organisations operating in the most statistically disadvantaged areas according to the 2019 Indices of Multiple Deprivation.
- Are from relatively young or early stage organisations.
- Whilst we cannot work with organisations which have been incorporated for less than two years, we are keen to support leaders of organisations which are in their early stages of development.
- Demonstrate strong social impact and community benefit from the organisation’s activities and scope for the programme to deepen this impact.
- We will also aim to ensure a diverse range of locations from within each region are represented in each cohort.
Frequently asked questions
To be eligible to join the programme, your organisation must:
- Be based in an area that experiences high levels of statistical disadvantage.
- Generate some of its income through contracts, products or services.
- Be community focused and operating within a local area.
- Have been incorporated for at least two years.
- Not be a sole trader.
- Have a community purpose and meet a charitable need in your community.
- Be for public benefit.
You as the applicant must:
- Be someone who leads your organisation.
- Have not accessed a leadership development programme in the last five years.
- Be able to commit to 1.5 days per month.
We are proud to be a Living Wage Funder, committed to tackling low pay by encouraging and enabling the organisations we support to pay the real Living Wage Link opens in a new window.