Leading Beyond Borders: Closing Ceremony Recap

The Leading Beyond Borders programme drew to a close last month with a closing ceremony attended by fellows, facilitators, and funders.

This programme was co-designed and co-delivered in partnership with Clore Social Leadership, the Centre for Knowledge Equity and LEx Movement (Lived Experience Leaders Movement hosted by the Centre for Knowledge Equity). It is developed with the support of  Migration Exchange. Building on the success of the 2020 summer programme, 'Responding to Covid-19 Online Programme: UK Migration & Refugee Sector', the programme officially began in Autumn 2021.

Both Emerging and Experienced Leader programmes within Leading Beyond Borders quickly evolved and adapted to the challenges that arose over the year, including the ongoing pandemic and refugee crises from Ukraine and Syria. This was most apparent from the participant challenge projects. Several of these challenge projects have already begun to spiral into larger projects and Clore Social will continue to support fellows in their objectives. Projects included:

• Racism in the immigration system; the role of funders in driving forward anti-racism work in the migration and refugee sector
• How might we create welcoming environments at all stages of the asylum process
• Influencing in the hostile environment
• Taking steps to develop lived experience leadership

The closing ceremony was hosted by Centre for Knowledge Equity and Clore Social Leadership with speeches from Programme Facilitator Nicola Parker, Programme Directors Amneet Johal and Angharad Irvine, and Centre for Knowledge Equity's Head of Partnerships Alexandra Ruhland-Syquia. Alexandra hosted a panel discussion with a member of each challenge group, before opening discussion up to attendees. The main question posed was: 'Since 2020, what have we learned about the need for leadership development in the migration and refugee sector?' - a subject that came up throughout the ceremony. Leadership is a lifelong journey, and it was evident from the event that the fellows would take forward their new findings into the wider sector.

2022 Update

Learnings from the Leading Beyond Lockdown programme have since been featured in the Migration Exchange report: A snapshot of leadership development in the UK refugee and migration sector: The findings and recommendations from a scoping review of leadership development in the refugee and migration sector in the UK (2022).

We captured a short highlight reel of the participant experience: