Help us build something communities can trust.

Ownsay runs on people with lived experience, organisations that share the work, and funders who back it early. There is a place for you.

A young Black woman helps an older Black man in a flat cap at a laptop in a community centre.

Fund the pilot.

Our first ask is a £10,000 trial grant. It runs our first pilot with 15 to 20 people in Salford and Manchester: peer support, written plans and community voice. Year one, with 100 people, costs about £76,500.

Talk to us about funding

What you can expect

Outcomes measured from day one: engagement, plans written and shared, wellbeing, trust and safety.
Anonymised reporting with small-number suppression, ready for your board.
Once registered as a community interest company with an asset lock, every surplus goes back into the mission.

Become a peer supporter.

If you have lived experience of mental health services, migration, care or the justice system, your experience is the qualification. Peer supporters are paid sessional workers, set above the Real Living Wage.

Training before you start: boundaries, safeguarding, trauma-informed practice, rights and advance statements, using the Hub, and self-care.
Monthly supervision, debriefs after hard visits, and caseload limits.
Everything through the Ownsay app. Never your personal phone.
An enhanced DBS check. Convictions are considered carefully, not ruled out.

A Black man in his forties, in a navy overshirt, stands on a rainy Manchester street outside a red-brick building.

Become a mentor.

Share the path you took. Career role models work in the field a young person wants to enter; lived-experience mentors have been through similar challenges. Applications are open now; matching starts with our next phase.

Weekly sessions, in person or by video inside Ownsay, for six or twelve months.
Training and checks before you’re matched, including the children’s barred list where needed.

Apply to mentor

In a college workshop, a Black mentor and a young Black man work together on a small robotic arm.

Partner with us.

We partner rather than duplicate. If you run community support, a faith setting, a college or a statutory service, we can refer to each other, co-deliver, or you can run your own programme on the Ownsay Hub.

Start a conversation

Host Ownsay cards in your venue, so people can reach us privately.
Refer people with their agreement, and get consented updates.
Become an early partner for the Ownsay Hub.

Shape Ownsay from the inside.

People who use our services meet every quarter, with a direct line to our board. You help decide what we build, how we talk, and whether we’re keeping our promises.

Tell us how you’d like to help.

We’ll reply by email. We only use your details to respond to you.

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.

Talk to us Refer someone