Sasha Leacock

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 education 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.