Our Team
Beth Stout
With a background in the charity sector, Beth has spent over ten years working with individuals, organisations, and collaborations to explore long-term systemic change across issue areas including health, children and young people, and community development.
Beth has a deep understanding of issues relating to funding, cross-sector collaboration, and programme design and delivery. Her main interest areas are:
- Challenging paternalism in how work is funded, designed and delivered
- Collective learning within systems
- Reimagining how traditional institutions and power holders can best support communities and places to make and embed local change
Beth’s work in the social sector has given her an insight into just how often the social and public sector’s efforts to support change actually get in the way of it. Beth is deeply frustrated by the pace of change in the UK, and has seen first hand how traditional and risk-averse thinking around project timelines, funding cycles, risk and power cause millions of pounds to be injected each year into changes that have little lasting impact.
However, Beth’s work with a wide range of organisations and collaborations has also given her an insight into the many ways people inspire hope and make meaning in their communities day to day. She also sees this in her own community. Through her work at Renaisi, she hopes to join the dots between different approaches, to help new thinking to emerge, and to amplify great practice.
Before joining Renaisi, Beth led the development of Save the Children’s Early Learning Communities, a place-based systems change initiative in five communities across the UK. This gave her significant experience in setting up governance, funding, learning, and co-production approaches for place-based projects. She also led the Early Learning Community in Margate, building a collaboration to develop a shared agenda and collectively distribute funds. Prior to that, Beth worked alongside the NHS to explore joined up approaches to local change.
Beth is an experienced facilitator, with a background in coaching and supporting individuals leading local change, as well as facilitating partnerships to explore their own local systems and develop shared strategies.
Outside of work, Beth enjoys hanging out with her two tiny humans. She loves seeing the world through their eyes and learns so much about building a better world through their (many) questions.
Beth’s work at Renaisi
Beth leads Renaisi’s portfolio of place-based systems change work, working in collaboration with colleagues across the organisation. She works closely with Kezia del Carmen to explore how the charity sector approaches funding systems change, and also works with Daniel Morris and Cathy Hearn on place-based partnerships.
Specialisms
- Design and delivery of place-based systems change programmes
- Systems change principles and practice
- Systemic approaches to funding
- Understanding progress towards systemic change
- Training and facilitation on place-based approaches, systems change, and leading change
Portfolio
- Beth oversees Renaisi’s inquiries, ensuring we are using our learning to push forward thinking across charities, funders and local government on how to support place-based systems change.
- Beth oversaw our learning partnership with Youth Futures Foundation, working at a Project Director level across the sites to support the development of local strategies and ensure learning was embedded throughout the process.
- Beth oversaw our initial learning partnership with Smallwood Trust, supporting the team to ensure that learning was built into their Gendered Poverty Development Programme.
- Beth has worked with Turn2us on a number of projects including as a strategic advisor to their place work and supporting the development of their evidence and learning framework.
- Beth is currently working with the National Trust supporting social investment in place.
- As a senior leader in the organisation, Beth works alongside others to support the development of the team and the organisation.
