Extra support for London chairs
Peer support & mentoring
Are you or your charity based in London?
Association of Chairs provides extra support specifically for London chairs and vice-chairs in the form of regular peer support sessions and a co-mentoring scheme. This is thanks to specialist funder City Bridge Foundation. If you chair a charity serving Londoners, or you are a chair based in London, we strongly encourage you to get involved!
We intend to roll out this support across the UK as funding allows, but for now the mission of our London-based work is:
- To enable more London chairs to lead more effectively
- For chairs to have access to a London network for mutual support
- For more equity, diversity and inclusion among London chairs
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Mentoring for you
AoC personally matches chairs and vice-chairs to work together in co-mentoring relationships. The relationship is for a period of 6 months with monthly meetings. The scheme follows a co-mentoring approach, whereby a space is created for both parties to listen and mentor each other. This is a development partnership through which both parties share experience, perspectives, and insight to support the development of the other.
Connect with other chairs on LinkedIn
Join our LinkedIn group for London chairs. If you are a chair based in London, or you chair a charity that benefits Londoners, you are welcome to join, make connections with other chairs, and chat about topics and challenges. The group is a private space so you can share freely.
Peer support group sessions
AoC hosts monthly face-to-face peer support group sessions in London, to offer you support and help you build a network of chairs you can call on for ideas, and encouragement.
These are two-hour facilitated sessions in the evening, where you will be introduced to fellow chairs, get to know each other and talk though issues with other chairs who share similar challenges and experiences.
We’ll take a deep dive into common chairing issues at each session and will encourage you to bring live issues with you to the event, with the opportunity to explore them with your peers in small groups.
More equity, diversity and inclusion among London chairs
We’re working on projects to encourage all London chairs to engage on issues relating to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). We will be regularly sharing EDI-related resources with our network and hosting events through the year with a focus on EDI. Lots of this work will be done in partnership with specialist organisations including Young Trustees Movement, Board Racial Diversity UK, and the Black and Asian Future Chairs’ Academy.
We will also be carrying our targeted work to engage and support more chairs from under-represented groups and we want to get dialogue going with different groups about experiences, challenges, ideas and actions to build our work in this area. Please contact us if you would like to be involved in this work: [email protected]
Useful resources for London chairs and vice-chairs
Your local CVS is a good starting point for practical support. Most London boroughs have one. LondonPlus has created a helpful list to help you find your local London CVS. If you have governance events or resources that you think will be helpful to London chairs and trustees let us know, we’ll be happy to help spread the word.
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