Summer Gathering 2026 – Moving Forward with Courage

13th August 2026

The Ten Years’ Time Community of Practice (CoP) is a holistic programme of support and development for trusts, foundations and charities on their journey towards racial justice. It was launched in April 2024 with member organisations from across England and Scotland. We held our inaugural in-person Community of Practice Summer Gathering in June 2026.

Our gathering was anchored in the belief that, in a time of global and national instability where DEI programmes are being rolled back and trust in public institutions is eroding, coming together to learn, reflect, and act was more necessary than ever.

Our Summer Gatherings are held in person, not just to share learning, but to build community. A key element of the CoP is to connect with peers across the sector, to learn from each other and exchange experiences. Coming together in this way allows for real conversations: unfiltered, responsive, and grounded in trust.

These gatherings are an opportunity to build greater connections with and between members while creating a sense of unity and emotional resonance that’s difficult to achieve online. There are more than a day of workshops and presentations, it’s a space for care, challenge, reflection and solidarity.

For members, it’s an opportunity to build their own peer support network with those on similar journeys, because it’s not just about what we learn – it’s about who we are ‘in community’ with. These in-person gatherings help strengthen those relationships and remind us all that we’re not doing this alone.

An essential part of these annual gatherings are Community Insights – the opportunity for funders to have honest, open, unfiltered conversations and discussions led by campaigners, community organisers, funders, artists, and system-change leaders. Members were invited to reflect on the challenges we face in our racial justice journeys and how we want to show up in this work – with one another, with our teams, and with the communities we serve.

This year, the theme of our Annual COP Summer Gathering was “Moving Forward with Courage”. At a time of polarization, racial injustice, climate crisis and the palpable impact of this – globally, now more than ever – requires not only reflection and learning, but bold action rooted in courage and solidarity.

Building Community Wealth & Power

Through the perspective of building community wealth through long-term, place-based organising to challenge conventional approaches to funding and systems change.

What funders can do:

Invest in long-term, place-based relationships rather than short-term projects.
Question which funding barriers are structural and which can be changed through leadership and decision-making.
Create spaces for honest dialogue and shared learning, rather than performative commitments to participation.

Supporting marginalised communities in a hostile environment

This session highlighted expertise in strengthening organisations and individuals across the refugee and migration sector, alongside campaigning work, to explore what it means to fund with courage in an increasingly hostile political climate.

What funders can do:

Invest in refugee-led organisations and movements with long-term, flexible, unrestricted funding.
Centre lived experience in funding decisions through meaningful partnership, not tokenistic consultation.
Support movement building and systems change work that challenges the hostile environment, rather than only funding services that respond to its consequences, to end exlusion and build belonging .

Supporting Community Based Work

From an informal community initiative to an established led by and for Black African communities in Edinburgh and the Lothians, the session explored how funders’ risk appetite can either enable community leadership to flourish or constrain it by overlooking the value and impact of trusted, community-rooted organisations.

What funders can do

Invest in grassroots organisations before they fit traditional funding criteria, recognising the strength and legitimacy of informal community leadership.
Reframe risk by trusting community expertise and recognising the hidden labour and infrastructure that sustains communities beyond funded projects.
Provide flexible, long-term funding that enables organisations to respond to evolving Incorporate lived experience in board recruitment, governance, and decision-making.
Fund early intervention, peer mentoring, and holistic support systems for organisations led by live experience practitioners.

Moving Forward with courage by leaning into your power as an organisation

To end we held a fireside conversation exploring what moving forward with courage looks like at both institutional and sector levels, challenging funders and cultural organisations to consider their role in addressing structural inequalities within the heritage sector. It examined the importance of confronting the legacy of empire, slavery, colonialism and migration, and the wider societal value created when these histories are supported and made visible.

What funders can do

Support museums and heritage organisations to centre underrepresented histories and challenge dominant narratives.
Recognise that funding cultural work creates wider societal value by strengthening understanding, belonging, and collective memory.
Invest in long-term institutional change that addresses structural racism and supports more inclusive heritage practices.

The Community of Practice provides a vital space for people and organisations to connect with each other and reaffirm their commitment to racial and social justice. Collectively, we’re building a community of funders who are unafraid to ask hard questions, centre those most impacted, and reimagine philanthropy and wealth as a tool for transformation rather than preservation.

If you’d like to find out more about the Community of Practice and how your organisation can join, please have a look at our website or email communityofpractice@tenyearstime.com