
Join the conversation
Community of practice
We welcome people from all walks of civil society and their experiences. Whether you are one person dedicated to making a change, a local group or a large charity, there’s room round the table for you.
As the Project develops, we will share the thoughts, insights, experiences and ideas that emerge.
Core learning group

Alice Smith
Alice Smith is a transformational expert. Her unique 361 recovery programme for women empowers UK survivors with the benefits of an exceptional emotional education. Recently named in British Thoughts magazine ‘20 to watch in 2020’, Alice is developing her philosophy of emotional evolution whilst studying for an MA in Trauma Studies. She challenges current political thinking by asking society – victim, survivor, what lies beyond?
Bushra Ahmed
Bushra Ahmed established West Croydon Voice after her family business was burned down in the 2011 riots, which campaigns for compensation for victims. She is Chair of the Small Charities Coalition and Vice-Chair of the Asian Resource Centre Croydon, on the Civic Futures GLA leadership programme, the steering group of Broad Green Big Local and the Crystal Palace Football Club Inclusion Advisory Group. Bushra enjoys her voluntary work at the Mosque and is passionate about diversity and culture-change on boards.
Dan Boyden
Dan Boyden is a theatre practitioner, consultant, trainer and facilitator. He designs and delivers creative projects, often with marginalised groups and communities, in the UK and internationally. Dan is a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow and a Global Master Facilitator for the British Council’s Active Citizens Social Leadership programme. He is Director of the Change Collective, an organisation exploring current and emerging thinking and practice linking arts and social development. Dan did a 2017 Ted talk about his work.
Christopher Stacey
Christopher is the co-director of Unlock, an independent, award-winning charity that provides a voice and support for people who are facing stigma and obstacles because of their criminal record. He leads the charity’s policy and advocacy work, which includes supporting and challenging employers to change their recruitment policies and practices, and preventing unlawful criminal record checks. He is also a trustee of Clinks, which supports, represents and campaigns for the voluntary sector working in criminal justice in England and Wales.
Lucie Russell
Lucie Russell is CEO of StreetDoctors, a movement of healthcare volunteers who teach young people affected by youth violence how to save lives and keep themselves, and others, safe. Lucie’s career began as a youth worker and then a social worker, after which she co-founded The Big Issue and launched The Big Issue Foundation. She then started SmartJustice, a national campaign promoting community solutions to crime, and was Director of Campaigns at YoungMinds. Lucie is a trustee of Redthread.
Murshad Habib
Murshad Habib is a policymaker, currently working as a Policy Manager at Community Links. He is working to make ‘early action’ common practice. He uses what Community Links learns through its services to develop research and policy interventions around housing, health and mental health, welfare, inequality and diversity. Murshad has a strong interest in community development, focusing on people supporting each other to overcome problems, preventing them from occurring again and helping other to thrive and achieve their goals.
Rashid Nix
Rashid Nix is a south Londoner, a youth mentor, educator, journalist, social commentator and parent. He originally worked in advertising and then spent five years at Westminster REC as a mentoring expert, designing programmes for ‘hard to reach’ young people and training police officers. His 2010 film ‘Why don’t black people vote?’ explored political disengagement in Brixton. After Rashid’s housing estate was targeted for regeneration, dividing a closely knit community, he stood as a Green Party candidate locally and nationally.
Sophie Wills-Virk
Sophie joined Shelter in 2019 as Activism Officer. She is interested in exploring how large organisations can divert power and resource outward across the housing movement, and provide varied and interesting campaigning opportunities with Shelter. Previously she worked with Greenpeace, supporting Local Groups across Scotland and the North West through tailored support and training events, and with ActionAid where she worked on both domestic and international campaigns on women’s rights and tax justice.
Tony Cealy

Dr Wanda Wyporska
Wanda is Executive Director at The Equality Trust, the national charity that campaigns to reduce social and economic inequality. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of York, a trustee of ACEVO, Redthread Youth, and Equally Ours, and Governor of a primary school. Wanda has over a decade of experience in the trade union movement and is an experienced campaigner. She has spoken at TEDx, the United Nations, York Festival of Ideas, and Women of the World (WoW).
Power Sharing Project blogs and articles
Unleashing Young People’s Social Power
We asked Colin Dutton, a qualified Youth Worker at MAP, a youth charity in Norfolk, what can we do to unleash young people's social power? Colin began a degree in Youth Work and Community Development ten years ago and has worked as a JNC Qualified Youth Worker in the...
Sharing learning, sharing power
Understanding and transforming power for social change is a journey, just as much as it is a destination. When times feel urgent, perhaps taking a moment to pause and reflect is the most powerful thing to do. Today, looking back on the weeks that have passed since my...
Next steps for the Power Sharing Project
It’s been a privilege to be involved in so many diverse conversations over the past few weeks – all focused on the question ‘what would it look like if civil society in London was better at sharing power in pursuit of social change, and how would we get there?’ In...