It’s not every day you get the chance to work for an organisation like Afrocats.
Our board and team are a diverse, dedicated crew from many walks of life, with different kinds of lived experiences and skillsets, and from all types of career backgrounds.
But we all have one thing in common – we are all hugely passionate about achieving equity and equality for vulnerable people from the global majority.
This summer, CEO Magdalen and the team reflected on how far we’ve come over the last couple of years, and all while learning, planning, and having fun.
Read on to find out more.
Learn
Afrocats’ team building takes place even across different time zones and continents, with project producer Estee and dance practitioner Nessa hopping on Zoom to join us from overseas to share their views and ideas on what we are doing well, and what we can do better.
Trustee Lola was able to share her wide scope of knowledge and expertise on strategies and engagement gleaned from her career working alongside other organisations, and so the team were able to explore Afrocats' values, purpose, and vision, and our ‘why’ we work here – which is essential to ground the team in motivation when things become challenging.
And speaking of challenges, we were able to openly examine what kinds of difficulties the team experience, from communication to pastoral issues, which can often arise from working remotely and in often high-intensity situations as part of youth and wellbeing/arts provision.
Plan
The future can seem daunting, particularly where the need to adapt and evolve is concerned - for Afrocats this looks like organisational changes taking place, shifts in staffing, and how things will operate in the near future to help the organisation and our work run more smoothly.
It has truly felt like three years’ worth of work in one as our activities and provision have taken off across the city and even the region since 2023, from the city centre to Bolton to Rochdale, Gorton to Longsight, and many other locations in between.
As such, being aware what is expected of the team and how to make it as simple and streamlined as possible for everyone while fulfilling our mission and objectives was certainly a topic that we touched on.
And in light of recent tragic events in Southport and indeed across the country, Magdalen urged us to look at protection strategies to support our vulnerable participants whilst actively taking on board voices from the sanctuary seeker community; one of whom was on session with us to represent the people we work with.
Our participant expressed understandable fears and worries as she goes about her daily life, which will no doubt have wider implications for us as an organisation now and into the future.
But no matter the outcome, we will always say it loud and proud for the whole of Manchester: refugees are welcome here.
Have fun
The team will never look at loo roll the same way again as Alice asked us to take a few pieces of TP and tell everyone a fact for how many pieces they had - now that's an icebreaker for you.
We then later broke up the session with Edel’s Mario Party-inspired game of trust, with participants following the lines drawn on paper with guidance from their team members – blindfolded!
And we even got to know our inner selves a little better with the Adobe Creative Types personality quiz – we had Dreamers, Thinkers, Visionaries, and more on the team - which one are you?
Lastly, team feedback on the day included:
The day was great in terms of team building and clarifying information, and was positive for how we work together as everyone is constantly evolving.
It was good to speak to everyone in person, and reaffirmed why I wanted to get involved with Afrocats in the first place.
It’s a great way to see Afrocats’ vision come to life for where it is now and where we want to be – it helps with our purpose and envision where we’re going.
I enjoyed meeting trustee Lola, and discussing management strategies with her.
I found it helpful to ask questions in the space, and it helped me self-reflect about my work and why I do it.
I appreciated the open discussion about any questions we had about processes, and the occasional disconnect we experience due to all of our different roles.
So while for many of you right now school is out, the Afrocats team are hard at work making sure everybody has a fair shot at a better quality of life across Manchester.
Join us and make a difference for vulnerable people who need our help.
Find out more about working with the team at Afrocats here.
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