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Ownsay

Built on what people told us in their own homes.

Ownsay gives Black, Asian and other racially minoritised people in Greater Manchester trusted support, mentoring and a say in their own care at life’s riskiest moments.

Five Black men and women of different ages chat and laugh on the pavement outside a red-brick community centre in autumn, one older woman holding a cup of tea.

How Ownsay started

Some people opened up because their peer understood their world. Others needed someone who wasn’t part of it.

Ownsay grew out of peer support work in Salford: home visits, walks, listening, helping people find the motivation for the next step. Our founder found that Black and Asian clients opened up more readily than they did with white colleagues.

The work showed the other side too. Some people didn’t want a peer from their own close-knit community, in case their story reached family or friends. So Ownsay matches across communities by default, and lets people choose otherwise.

It also showed what happens when trust is missing. People are told to be careful what they say to services. So they wait, and the first time they meet a service is in a crisis, when choices have already been taken away.

Ownsay is the answer to both: trusted people from the community beside you before things get hard, a written say in your own care, and a secure platform that keeps it all safe.

A listening circle in a church hall: people of different ages, most of them Black, sit on wooden chairs while an older Black woman speaks.

Becoming a community interest company, with an asset lock.

Ownsay is being registered as a community interest company limited by guarantee. It has no shareholders and pays no dividends. Every surplus is reinvested in our community purpose.

  • A board of at least three directors, including someone with safeguarding or clinical experience.
  • A community advisory group of people who use our services, with a direct line to the board.
  • Peers and mentors with lived experience, trained, supervised and paid above the Real Living Wage.
  • A university evaluation partner to review our data and methods each year.

The principles behind every decision.

When two of them conflict, the one higher on the list wins.

  1. 1

    Safety beats convenience

    When in doubt, we escalate to a person.

  2. 2

    Consent is a record, not a tick box

    Who agreed to what, for whom, until when, and how to take it back.

  3. 3

    The person owns their plan

    They decide its words and who sees it.

  4. 4

    Humans decide

    AI drafts and suggests. A named person approves.

  5. 5

    Plain language, own language

    Written to be understood, and checked by fluent speakers.

  6. 6

    Evidence by default

    We record the smallest thing needed to prove what works, as part of the work.

Dates are targets. Gates are rules.

We are in Foundations now: registering the company, completing data protection work, recruiting peers and building the Hub.

  1. Phase 0, months 0 to 3

    Now

    Foundations

    • Register the CIC
    • Data protection impact assessment and ICO
    • Recruit and train peers
    • Build the Ownsay Hub

    Gate 1: Safe to start

  2. Phase 1, months 3 to 9

    Pilot

    • Peer support and plans
    • Community voice
    • 15 to 20 people
    • First talks with trusts

    Gate 2: It works

  3. Phase 2, months 9 to 18

    Grow

    • Mentoring for 16 to 25s
    • Transition support
    • Digital and AI skills
    • First paid contracts

    Gate 3: Ready to scale

  4. Phase 3, months 18 to 36

    Scale

    • Licences for partners
    • More Greater Manchester boroughs
    • Other UK cities
    • Earned income grows

Dates are targets. Gates are rules: each phase opens only when the gate before it is passed.

Talk to someone who gets it.

Message us on WhatsApp or fill in a short form. A real person from our team replies in working hours.

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