The National Family Fund is now formally incubated by Catalyst4Change
image credit: www.4wardeveruk.org
source: 4WardEverUK | published: 8 August 2020
We are pleased to announce that (with effect from 29 July 2020) the National Mikey Powell Memorial Family Fund (NMPMFF) is now formally incubated by West Midlands based social enterprise Catalyst 4 Change, thereby taking on its legal identity but maintaining our operational independence.
Catalyst 4 Change has a powerful social mission to strengthen the capacity and networks of user-led, voluntary, social enterprise, grassroots, statutory organisations and businesses to ensure the right mental health care is in place.
The Catalyst 4 Change team is made up of directors and associates that came together in 2015 with a shared vision to tackle mental health inequalities, and support grassroots activities aimed at those affected. The team have several decades of combined experience in delivering a range of wellbeing and community initiatives to some of the most vulnerable people in our society.
How this helps the National Family Fund!
Being incubated by Catalyst 4 Change provides the NMPMFF with a legally constituted lead/governing body to guide and administer good governance and accountability practices. The incubation also opens up new avenues of funding and income generation for the NMPMFF until it is formally constituted in its own right.
Other long term aims of the NMPMFF include:
- Stage a range of national events (e.g. live music, theatre & drama, films & Q&A’s etc) to raise both awareness of the issues of deaths in custody in the UK, and revenue for the fund
- Develop regional helplines (in partnership with Red Alert HELP!) for families concerned about a loved one detained in police, immigration, prison institutions or detained under the Mental Health Act
- Develop a range of counselling & therapy hubs across the UK to help children, young people and families deal with the devastation following a custody death
- Provide respite, group outings and short UK-based holidays for families affected
Mikey’s cousin, Tippa Naphtali said;
“This fund has the potential to make a real difference for families and their campaign groups that need financial support during the often long and drawn out struggles for justice that can last for decades.
“The needs of affected families and children can often get lost in the equally important work of campaigning and lobbying of state institutions. We want to change that with a permanent national support fund set up specifically for their needs.“
The new Roger Sylvester Centre at Canning Crescent will honour the memory of the man it is named after, by making it easier for more in the borough to get the help they need.
The new National Mikey Powell Memorial Family Fund (NMPMFF) Therapy Care Initiative Pilot funded by the Lottery Community Fund, is now active, with the selection process resuming shortly.
After years of waiting for change, friends and family of people who ‘died in police custody’ are coming together to demand justice from the police writes James Whitfield.
In July 2025 the Independent Office for Police Misconduct (IOPC) released the full details of their custody deaths statistics for England and Wales 2024-2025.
The INQUEST Oral Histories Archive documents state violence, death and resistance in the UK since 1981 and explores over 40 years of fighting for justice through sound, image and print.
Since becoming the Children’s Commissioner, I have travelled across the country meeting children whose lives are shaped by decisions made far away from them, whose voices are rarely heard.
