What’s on our radar #15?

We’ve been grappling with letting go of many things lately, including our own deep systemic conditioning, in service to allowing something new to emerge. It’s not easy work and it’s very painful at times. It’s both a personal and professional endeavor, as they often can’t be separated. 

We found this quote from Tina Turner (may she rest in love), very apt;

“You don’t need strength to let go of something.  What you really need is understanding.  There are things that we never want to let go of, people we never want to leave behind.  But keep in mind that letting go isn’t the end of the world, it’s the beginning of a new life.”

As summer arrives, there’s so much evidence of new beginnings and new life, which has been  giving us hope. So here’s ten of our top sources of inspiration right now:

1. Have you tried a regular gratitude practice? Ellie loved this TED talk on how ‘gratitude rewires your brain’ by Christina Costa. 
2. We’ve been following the work of the Transformational Governance learning cohort closely as they embark upon their journey. Jasmine Castledine, from the School of Systems Change, recently joined our steering group as part of the governance team. We’re delighted to have her on board to help us co-create a governance model.
3. Jo has joined a systems change sangha locally. Over 8 sessions, a small and diverse group will meet in person to explore how we might build new systems together. The work follows a course from the Tamera institute in Portugal, an inspiring community-led organisation working towards ‘autonomous decentralized models for a post-capitalist world.’
4. Nish Doshi, a Catalyst initiative lead, wrote this insightful piece following a workshop on decolonising evaluation. They say; ‘Decolonising evaluation is about addressing the inherent power dynamics of the whole evaluation process…There is not a simple or quick solution to solving these power dynamics; it is an on-going process.’ Their 4 step guide will prove helpful for anyone interested in exploring this topic.
5. Megan Gray joined our small team as our Operations Lead, and has written a blog on her experiences so far. Welcome to the team Megan!
6. You might’ve noticed that we love Miki Kashtan. This short podcast on what could possibly go right? is well worth a listen.
7. An interesting report from our friends at Power to Change / Promising Trouble on community tech was released recently.
8. Incredible insights are already bursting forth from the Charity Digital Skills Report 2023, ahead of the launch of the full report this summer. The team have produced blog posts about their EDI approach and the interim findings.
9. The members of the Catalyst Support and Training Circle wrote a handy collective update on what is going on in the world of Catalyst support services to the third sector. 
10. For an update on the work of the Catalyst steering group, check out this latest piece from Jo and member Kate Swade, which outlines where the group are at and what is coming next. 

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If you have a resource of any kind that you think we should have on our radar, please share it with us! We would love for the wider community to influence our work and provide creative input. 

Drop us a line at hello@thecatalyst.org.uk Or tweet us @wethecatalysts.

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