Sasha Leacock - Programme Director
“As Programme Director and Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), I am responsible for steering and managing the development, delivery and evaluation of Raw’s creative skills, creative health and social prescribing participatory programmes. My fingers are in many different pies all at once, and I oversee a myriad of programme development and operational functions, that traverse programme design and planning; partnership development, outreach and stakeholder relationships, through to quality assurance, professional performance, safeguarding, and data collection, analysis and reporting.
At its fundamental core my role is about engineering and ensuring unique and impactful creative, social and personal learning experiences for our participants. Achieving this, and driving excellence in all that we do is something I strive for daily in my role.”
Specialising in creative and community project management, Sasha has 20+ years’ experience of developing and managing grassroots arts, cultural and education projects, programmes and events, helping to widen access and participation, increase opportunity and inclusion, improve wellbeing, and benefitting and delivering value for local people and communities.
Sasha’s experience includes roles as Project Manager at Soundmix, a music charity supporting the social inclusion, wellbeing and musical education of young refugees and asylum seekers; the strategic lead of Forest Hill School’s Community Arts Programme, developing specialist music, dance and drama partnerships and projects; and Arts Development Officer at Lewisham Council, where she developed youth arts, and arts and cultural provision across the borough, and managed large-scale community and equalities festivals.
Sasha was formerly Chair of Lewisham Education Arts Network (LEAN), a charity which champions creative learning and arts x for children and young people, and a panel member of the Crystal Palace Park Community Projects Fund which increased funding and support for the involvement and participation of underrepresented groups in the design and delivery of community activities, projects and initiatives within the Park.
Sasha loves the inventiveness and dynamism of creative processes and environments, and in her spare time enjoys participating in creative pursuits - from jewellery design to African drumming. An ardent life-long learner, Sasha believes passionately in the transformative power of the arts to enrich and change lives, and is delighted to be joining the Raw Material team at such an exciting time in the organisation’s evolution.