The Harambee Partnership
Our say, Our Way
Harambee is a collaborative three-year partnership, funded by Impact on Urban Health.
It supports local organisations to design alternative help systems which centre Black communities in Lambeth and Southwark.
What we’re doing
Harambee is looking to place power, voice, and resources in the hands of Black communities.
There is a specific focus on co-designing with young people, carers/caregivers, families, and other community members.
Our current delivery partners are ParentSkills2Go and Max Roach, Loughborough Community Centre, with the learning partner being audience insight specialists, Word on the Curb.
-
Through ‘Harambee’ partnership, our work fits the ambition of our strategic goals:
a) to design alternative help systems alongside Black and racialised communities
b) build capacity within community
c) and redistribute power, knowledge and resources, through a co-design and participatory approach that invests in long-term healing for Black communities.
-
The Partnership’s main objective is to place power, voice, and resources in the hands of Black communities.
It aims to do this by:
Redistributing power and resources so communities can define what meaningful support looks like.
Bringing together community organisations and residents to build relationships, shared governance, and collective decision-making.
Creating space for learning and exchange, drawing on lived experience, cultural knowledge, and professional insight.
Developing new community-led approaches that could inform wider systems change.
Testing participatory and collaborative ways of designing services, shifting away from top-down models.
The Journey so far
-
The first year of the Partnership (June 2024 - June 2025) focused primarily on laying the foundations for collaboration.
The initial phase began with:
two months of mobilisation as a Partisan start up team
building awareness of the project and the approach, and
beginning to identify the right partners to come alongside in the work.
In this period, we identified and brought together the community organisations who would form the core Harambee partnership. There were several iterations, models and approaches that helped us to identify and prioritise values alignment, trust, and shared commitment to community-led change.
From February 2025 - June 2025, once partners were identified, the focus shifted towards:
strengthening relationships between partners
exploring how to grow our own capacity as Black-led organisations
developing governance structures for collaboration
Designing and testing the infrastructure needed to support collective working
-
In August 2025 community members were recruited to join the Harambee Partnership.
Following this, the project entered a broader collaborative phase, bringing together community members, partner organisations, funders, and Word on the Curb as learning partner.
This phase centred on:
creating space for people to get to know one another
developing shared understanding of the Partnership and its purpose
building trust and collective ownership of the work
Capacity building was designed into the project from the outset, with the Partisan start up team, partners and community members beginning to develop skills and confidence to shape future work together.
In [November 2025], Harambee was preparing to move into a deeper phase of shared learning and an expansion of our world views.
-
We announced our closure in March 2026. Read the news story.
While our delivery has ended, the Harambee Partnership is continuing; Loughborough Community Centre are taking on project leadership, ensuring the work lives on in the communities it was built with and for.
“I count it a privilege to be working on this project with great leaders in the community. At Parent Skills2Go we are motivated by our values: Community and parents; Skills development; Collaboration and inclusion, and I believe these all tie into what the new partnership stands for. I am excited and hopeful for our community.”
- Margaret Taribo, Director of Parent Skills 2 Go
Harambee Discovery Day, February 2025
Why this work matters…
“I’ve seen a friend of mine struggle to engage with appropriate mental health support that can effectively address their very specific needs. They’ve been on three to five year waiting lists, misdiagnosed and passed from pillar to post. It’s been an incredibly confusing and disempowering journey. I’m personally invested in this project - an alternative form of provision that centres and empowers Black and racially minoritised communities would be welcomed!”
— Sheyi, Senior Research and Strategy Consultant at Word on the Curb1 in 4 people live in poverty in Lambeth
1 in 3 in Southwark live in areas with the highest levels of deprivation in England.
4,000 people have a serious mental illness in Lambeth, the highest in the country and 3x the national average.
In Lambeth and Southwark, 33% of residents report feeling lonely compared to 22% across England.
Source: Impact on Urban Health
Latest news
“We believe that by listening closely and engaging deeply, we can develop a healthier, more connected community where everyone has access to the care and support they need to thrive.”
Candice James - Director of Loughborough Community Centre
Partisan’s Harambee delivery team
-
Jay Perkins
Project Lead. Consultant Community Psychodynamic Psychotherapist
-
Dr Ama Hagan
Clinical and Community Psychologist
-
Rudo Dube
Trainee Clinical Psychologist
-
Joden Joseph
Community Counsellor and Integrative Psychotherapist
Collaborating for change
The Harambee Partnership has been working with a cross-section of Lambeth and Southwark residents whose lived experience and insights shape the actions of the Partnership. Seven Harambee Community members were recruited to the programme in November 2025, bringing an intergenerational and intersectional lens to the programme.
For more information on Harambee, please contact hello@partisanuk.org.