ABOUT BCOHCO
A personal quest for equality
BCohCo founder, Katie Donovan-Adekanmbi, has a unique story. From growing up as the only dual-heritage child in very White spaces, to travelling the world, her story may be unique but her experiences and family make-up are not unusual and becoming increasingly commonplace.
The daughter of a White English/Irish mother and Black Jamaican father, Katie often found herself as the only ethnic minority person living and socialising in White spaces. Even in her home life with her White mother, stepfather and sibling, while safe and secure in a loving family unit, there was always a sense she was different and that something was happening in the world that she needed to understand.
Determined to learn about the world and her place within it, Katie studied International Relations and Social Psychology at the University of the West of England in Bristol. While at first overwhelming, this education was just what Katie needed to find the language in which to express herself and form opinions on the issues that mattered to her. As her confidence and knowledge grew, she developed a fighting spirit which has only developed as she leads her life fighting for social justice in the everyday lived experiences of ordinary people.
Fighting for change
Following a year spent travelling around the world experiencing different cultures, Katie landed back in the UK and headed to the front line of change working as a Sustainable Communities Manager. During the next 10 years, Katie had several outstanding achievements.
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As part of the Priority Neighbourhoods programme, aimed at giving all residents the same opportunities to enjoy a good quality of life and achieve, she managed 49 agency partners including police, schools, youth clubs and other voluntary groups. Her work was in uniting these organisations and in doing so improving the quality of life of the residents. Testament to Katie’s dedication, she and the multi-agency partnership managed to elevate the area out of Priority Neighbourhood status in just six years.
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She created the Anti-Hate Crime programme which worked proactively in schools and communities to reduce the root cause of hate crime. The programme received an impressive £90,000 in central government funding as part of the government's Prevent Agenda and remains a huge success story that Katie remains involved with to this day.
Upskilling and professional growth
Throughout her decade as Sustainable Communities Manager, Katie greatly enhanced her skills repertoire as a teacher and trainer by achieving various qualifications. From gaining teacher training and project management qualifications to spending time with industry icons developing skills in designing and delivering training solutions, Katie emerged with a unique combination of lived experience, hands-on community experience, and expert level learning & development programme creation and delivery skills.
It was time for Katie to apply her skills in a wider-reaching format. So it was, as Big Ben heralded the beginning of 2020, Katie took the leap and registered her new company, BCohCo.
Katie Donovan-Adekanmbi - BCohCo Founder
And so, BCohCo was born
BCohCo is a shortened version of Katie’s goal of Building Cohesive Communities so that no matter how big the company grows, this mission will always remain at the heart of everything we do.
As it turned out, BCohCo had never been more in need than in 2020. With the rise of Black Lives Matter amidst the murder of George Floyd, the population’s consciousness was suddenly flooded with issues of diversity and equality, and many people began to look inwards and be open to making change within themselves. As businesses grappled with the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic and were eager to engage employees now permanently home-based, suddenly the requirement for virtual professional development courses exploded. This perfect storm of undesirable circumstances created a world that was ready to hear from BCohCo and, vitally, ready to equate financial value to diversity and equality as they do other professional development and strategic business investments.
Leading the change
Today, Katie leads a team of trainers at BCohCo and is an undisputed leader in her field. Speaking at key industry events and working with some of the largest organisations in the UK and around the world, thousands of people have been inspired, helped, motivated and fundamentally changed by Katie’s words.
The DICE Programme she developed and now delivers to hundreds of people is operated as an intimate, self-reflective learning experience in small virtual and in person groups. Participants must actively participate, share and be willing to get vulnerable to truly make progress and learn on a visceral level. This is no ordinary learning and development programme and is certainly not a tick box exercise. It is Katie’s goal that people emerge from the programme ready and willing to do the work, to unlearn what they’ve been conditioned their whole lives to “know”, and to evolve themselves first, using the learning to influence change amongst their teams, networks and communities.
- Katie Donovan-Adekanmbi
Meet the BCohCo Team
All DICE trainers, facilitators, and development workers come with their own rich portfolio of experience within social justice. They spend at least 20 hours working directly with our director to learn and understand the principles that underpin our practice.