What's on our radar?

It feels like absolutely ages since our last ‘What’s on our Radar?’ post and yet - it’s only been a month! Time is a funny thing - it bends, stretches and contorts depending on how busy - or how deep into the weeds - you’ve been. And I can confirm we’ve been deep in the weeds here at Catalyst, experimenting with governance, co-budgeting, and iterating our vision and mission as we go along…

And as the Producers look forward to a much-needed week-long summer break next week, following the lead of our beloved newsletter which will be on break until September, we thought it was only right to whip up a bumper edition of ‘What’s on our Radar?’ to tide you over until the newsletter returns. 

Here’s a special edition of our list of our top TWENTY sources of inspiration this month, including some weeknotes from our core team reflecting on what we’ve been working on.

1. The team are thinking a lot about Outcomes, Indicators, Learning & Evaluation in light of forming a Working Group focused on this strand of work. And as part of this, we’re thinking about decolonial approaches to evaluation work, and we were thrilled to come across this article asking ‘What Does Black Feminist Evaluation Look Like?’ 

2. Our lovely Shanice recently bid us farewell, moving on from her role as Community Manager at Agencies for Good. Read her final Community Manager notes here and see what her biggest takeaways were from the experience

3. Our very own Ellie is now a fully-trained up Crane Operator! Find out more about why she wanted to use a different part of her brain and take on a challenge very different to her day-to-day work at Catalyst in her latest blog post!

4. Check out Siana’s weeknotes, reflecting on community, transformational governance, and the stickiness of money conversations for people; as well as alternative ways to think about budget sheets for those of us who don’t love them!

5. If you’re a podcast lover, Ellie has been enjoying this one hosted by Jose Ortega, reminding us of the need to always remember our histories and not divorce them from our present contexts!

6. Jo went to the launch of her friend’s album recently - you can enjoy the title track right here, nodding to the theme of belonging. Keep your ears and eyes out for the digital release in September!

7. Our friend, Zoe Amar, highly recommends ‘Sidesplitter’, by Phil Wang, off the back of conversations around being a first and second generation immigrant

8. We’ve used these Values Cards a lot across Catalyst spaces - we think they’re great to use with your friends and loved ones, as well as colleagues - give them a go this summer!

9. At our most recent network meet-up, an attendee recommended this Manifesto for Slow Thinking - a great antidote to (what feels like) life on a treadmill! 

10. Ellie has been loving Kae Tempest’s album, ‘The Line is a Curve’ - brought tears to our eyes!

11. Enjoy this playback of this year’s re:publica conference, asking ‘what does the space between tech utopia and dystopia look like and how can a feminist perspective help to see more clearly and build a better internet?’ featuring our friend Hera Hussain from Chayn‍

12. The 2022 Charity Digital Skills Report has landed! Check it out right here (including this Funders’ Pledge)!

13. One of our funder friends, Sam Grimmett Batt, from City Bridge Trust, explores shared infrastructure, the opportunities it represents for the sector, and offers ideas for ways that funders could embrace it moving forward in this blog post‍

14. Ellie has been thinking about Tech Justice, and read these reflections in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR)

15. For all those continuing to think about Inclusive Design, this series of events run by Fearless Futures in early August might be up your street

16. Thinking about how to ensure your events are more inclusive? Check out this toolkit by Doors Open Day, recently shared with us by the wonderful Nish Doshi at DataKind 

17. Siana recently commissioned a powerful report exploring the militarisation of policing (which includes sections on data and biometrics!) - come to the online launch on 4th August if you’re around. Sign up for FREE here‍

18. If you’ve never heard of Edge Fund, get to know them and their amazing work! Leaders in grassroots, community-led, participatory decision-making and grantfunding, they have a bunch of interesting resources to explore on their website here‍

19. Treat yourself to some stunning photography - Getty Images has opened access to 30,000 images of Black diasporans in UK and US. The photos are free to use for not-for-profit or educational purposes, granting access to previously unseen images for educators, researchers and content creators

20.  And finally, as this is the summer edition of ‘What’s on our Radar?’, it feels right to end it with this MONSTER new dance track by Queen Bey, ‘Break My Soul’ - a fitting reminder to not let the challenges of life, and indeed society, break your spirit. Grab your dancing shoes and ‘release ya wiggle’!

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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Photo by Emily Bauman on Unsplash