Myrna – The Catalyst Collective & Link UP London
Link UP London connects Skilled Volunteers on short-term, structured projects with local London-based charitable organisations in need of those skills to help them do their work better and make a bigger impact.
The Catalyst Collective is a mentoring social enterprise committed to facilitating meaningful mentoring relationships between young Black women with professional black women who they can identify with. During their year-long mentorship, the young women are supported in achieving their goals. Founder Chloe Lewis knew her organisation was growing, and she approached Link UP seeking support from a skilled volunteer to help ensure Catalyst Collective had the right legal and policy infrastructure in place to scale up their organisation.
Having extensive experience in Human Resources and a deep understanding of organisational development, long-standing Link UP Volunteer Myrna was the perfect match for the Project. Following initial conversations Chloe and Myrna identified together that the most important policies applied to the Collective’s relationship with the volunteers. They agreed that a Volunteer Handbook would be the most coherent and user-friendly format to compile the necessary information. Chloe and Myrna worked together for three months and by the end of that time Catalyst Collective had a comprehensive Volunteer Handbook in place, detailing a number of key policies and procedures.
Chloe says that the Volunteer Handbook has been invaluable and has added “legitimacy” and “professionalism” to her organisation. It has meant that volunteers can feel confident that they are working for a compliant organisation that values their professionalism and time appropriately. Being able to help Catalyst Collective in their development has been hugely rewarding for Myrna. In fact they worked so well together a future project may be on the cards!
A lasting legacy that saves time and improves mentee experience
Six months on, Chloe reflected that Myrna’s help came at a critical time in the Collective’s development: their volunteer numbers were growing significantly, and the support she received helped her to onboard these large numbers more efficiently, reducing volunteer training time. The convenience of having all this documentation in one place has also made forming external partnerships with e.g. funders or schools much easier, and Chloe strongly believes it has also improved the experience for the young mentees the Collective was set up to help.
Chloe made me feel so good about my contribution to her project!
Link UP London is a fantastic resource for CICs, charities and any Social Good Organisation.
We’ve been able to benefit hugely from the expertise and support of an experienced HR professional, who helped us get our house in order at a really crucial stage of our organisational development.
I’d recommend it in a heartbeat!
Discover more
Visit the Link UP London website
Visit the Catalyst Collective website
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