Chris Brown
My passion and purpose is to support communities of all kinds to be positive about mental health, to be suicide alert and inclusive.
I have worked in the third sector for 25 years: delivering frontline services, training professionals and community members, and co-founding and leading a successful and dynamic charity. I am now freelancing as a trainer, consultant and facilitator, with a particular interest in designing bespoke training courses. I have a passion for inclusion, community engagement and the transformative potential of experiential learning. I see my purpose as serving communities to support them to be as well as possible, whether they are large corporates or small, grassroots organisations.
Co-founding and being a Director of Grassroots Suicide Prevention brought me even closer to this purpose and perhaps some of the most vulnerable members of any community – those affected by suicide. My work in developing the charity to serve its communities has provided me with significant insights into the impact that exclusion has on individuals and groups, and has deepened my commitment to intersectional inclusion.
In 2017 I completed the highly acclaimed Embodied Facilitator Course, and am now a Certified Embodied Facilitator. I am developing my skills in bringing the body into my work, and using an embodied approach to deepen participants’ learning. I have a private practice offering Embodied Coaching.
I am committed to equality and inclusion in all aspects of my work and for the last five years my freelance work with Switchboard work has had a strong focus on LGBTQ inclusion and allyship, and the broader area of equality, diversity and inclusion.
Experience
In 11 years at Grassroots I led on and supported a range of projects including campaigns, innovations, community events and research. Projects I led on included developing Stay Alive, the UK’s first suicide prevention app, coordinating the #AlrightMate men’s suicide prevention campaign and organising events to mark World Suicide Prevention Day each year. Projects I have supported in a specific role include strategic work such as helping the city pursue ‘suicide safer‘ designation. I also have a lot of experience of monitoring and evaluating projects and reporting back to commissioners and stakeholders; over the years at Grassroots I developed a project-focus that has given me experience of all aspects of project management.
Clients
Relationships and partnerships have always been important to me and partners I’ve worked closely with include Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Public Health Brighton and Hove, Network Rail, Southern Water, Brighton Chamber of Commerce and a number of local businesses.
For over 20 years I have worked within the community and voluntary sector in Brighton & Hove and further afield, and have been privileged to work with fantastic local charities including Rethink Mental Illness, Switchboard, Gendered Intelligence, LGBT Foundation, MindOut, Mind in West Sussex, QTIPOC Narratives Collective, The Clare Project, Trans Survivors and many more. I count myself lucky to live and work in a city with such a dynamic and well-connected third sector.
Associate work
I am currently an Associate Trainer, speaker or consultant with:
MindOut | Mental Health Charity for the LGBTQ community
National Suicide Prevention Alliance
Switchboard | Connecting You to LGBT Support
Education
1993–1996 University of Sussex; BA Hons., Applied Psychology; 2:1
Certificate in Training Practice
Embodied Training Certificate
Awards:
Fellow of the University of Sussex, 2017
East Sussex High Sheriff’s Award, 2015
Lifetime Achievement Award: LivingWorks Education, Canada. 2016.