From being told by a teacher there was no point in looking at A-level english literature, to becoming a trustee at the age of 20 and working on death row in America, Monwara Ali has always defied the odds. Now as CEO of Waltham Forest Community Hub, that spirit is stronger than ever.
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Growing up in inner London where there were “a lot of problems”, Monwara Ali found that as a mature teenager, she was often pulled into those problems. In a community with a high number of Asian families, race was a central factor in some of the issues within the area. “We suffered racial discrimination in the 90s, we were always attacked by the national front”, she explains. These circumstances are what motivated her to study law: “I ended up fighting everyone else’s corner”.

Speaking to Ali, it’s clear that although she did fight for everyone else, there was also a drive to fight for herself. Arriving in the UK from Bangladesh at six, she was the oldest sibling in a single-parent household, a young carer and the first in her family to go to university. She defied every expectation, even one from an English teacher who said there was “no point” in her looking at an English Literature A-level because of her Bangladeshi background. She was expected to have to repeat English because that’s what the data on her demographics showed. “That put the rocket in my backside, and I knew what I needed to do,” she says, and she went on to study the course.

That fight to defy the odds has become a theme in her career. Ali became involved in youth work at a young age, and by 18 she had her first paid job in the youth service of Camden Council. At age 20 she had her first trustee role and became chair within several months. “To be honest, it’s like it happened to me as opposed to me planning it in my life,” she says. But that doesn’t mean Ali didn’t use her skills to everyone else’s advantage. From studying to become a lawyer, to working with victims of domestic violence, Ali has worked hard to help others. At one point, she realised her CV was too long, she laughs. But from that experience she learned she was “a bit of a champion and advocate for other people”. “I’m not afraid of facing my fears,” she adds, but it was only when one of her mentees asked why she wasn’t doing any fundraising that something ‘clicked’.

Riding the rollercoaster

From there, she pursued a fundraising qualification and became set on her path in the third sector. The path hasn’t been easy though, and the CEO role she’s now in wasn’t a given. In fact, Ali didn’t even consider taking on such a senior role to begin with. “Most of my life I felt like I got in my own way, in the sense that I had these ideas about what being humble meant, what humility meant and I didn’t want to take the CEO role because I wasn’t good enough.” Ali felt as though she was better at the operation side of things – and then she walked into Waltham Forest Community Hub as a fundraising consultant. “I’ve been there ever since, and it’s been a rollercoaster ride.”

The community hub at its heart is a grassroots organisation with a purpose to provide and facilitate developmental and support services for residents of Waltham Forest. It does this with everything from mentoring and employment support to a social club and activities for senior citizens. Delivered by a staff of 12 and a network of local volunteers, its impact is tangible in the area it serves.

As soon as she walked in, Ali saw that the hub had potential. Working her way up to CEO, the journey has had its twists and turns. “What I’ve learned over the years is that I thrive in that environment where there are challenges and we constantly have to deal with crisis management.”

And crisis management has been needed. In 2015, the organisation ended up on dispatches and underwent a name change. “I just followed my own instinct and leaned on all the support I had and it worked… I learned during that horrible experience that the local people who are prominent in our community believed in me.” That made a difference, she adds, to 2020 and everything that followed.

For some that must seem exhausting, but for Ali, it’s the sort of environment where she does some of her best work, within reason. “We’ve been led to believe the position of CEO is a very lonely one because responsibility is a lonely place to be, but it doesn’t have to be,” Ali states.

Through 2020 (in the midst of the pandemic), she relied on those around her and built on the strong relationships she had, but it didn’t come without its challenges, particularly as a small charity. “The challenge was realising the implications and implications [things have] when an organisation doesn’t take care of their staff…and people have jobs at risk. An employee has an entire family that any job loss is going to impact on and that family is part of a community and that community is also going to be impacted.”

Ali was working seven days a week in the pandemic, failing to switch off in her attempt to save jobs. It was only when a staff member reminded her that they all needed her to be in fighting shape that she remembered balance was needed. “It was a hard reminder but it was an important reminder to put my mask on first… I’ve got to survive in order to fight for everybody else.”

Your own champion

The inner strength Ali possesses didn’t come out of nowhere, it’s taken many years of work, reflection and some stumbling blocks along the way. One of the things that helped her when she became CEO was to tap into her own inner champion: “that little girl who was always looking after myself when I was the carer.” From that experience, she also knew reflection was a big thing for her and her leadership.

Building that community is also essential to her, she recognises. “Knowing you don’t just have to lean on the people above you, you can lean on the people ahead of you, you can lean on the people next to you. And actually how you lead has to come from what you think works best.”

Speaking to CEOs from vastly different charities, backgrounds and life experiences it’s clear that leadership style is a very individual thing and the same thing won’t work for every organisation, or even every team. Recognising that creates great leaders, and it’s clear Ali has put a lot of work into recognising her own leadership.

“I ask myself the question, is it working? If it’s not working then I need to do something about it. If it’s working, then I need to share it.” More perspectives like Ali’s are needed in the sector too. As she points out, 10 years ago it felt like it was the same people moving around in leadership roles but now there’s more faces entering the mix.

“I’m criticising myself here but ten years ago… I could have become a bit more visible. The most vulnerable I’ve ever been was in 2020 when I decided I wanted to be more visible.” This wasn’t only because of her job at the hub, but because she was mentoring, a consultant and a coach and has since started interviewing community leaders on her YouTube channel.

“One of the things I often get told by Asian women is that when they look out there, they don’t see anyone like themselves… I decided I need to be visible. I need to be uncomfortable. The first video on LinkedIn I did 18 takes,” Ali laughed. But it’s that realness that draws people to Ali, and makes her content so successful.

She also recognises that she’s very impact and mission driven and this fuels a lot of what she does. “I’ve never been in a job where I don’t see the impact, and I think when you’re CEO of a small charity you do see massive impact.” It’s this self-awareness that makes her so compelling to listen to and have a conversation with.

“It’s always been about me wanting to be me. This is me, and who I am as a leader or someone who does their work. My job isn’t about my views, not about my religion and how I look.” In a world where individualism is perhaps under strain, why shouldn’t we all be striving to be ourselves? It’s clearly worked out for Monwara Ali.

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