About
01
Our Vision
A world in which marginalised communities hold epistemic power, shaping the knowledge that affects their lives.
02
Our Mission
We build that power by joining advanced quantitative techniques with lived-experience interpretation, for robust, evidence-based systems change.
What we mean by
epistemic power
the capacity to influence what people know, believe, and consider to be valid knowledge.
The Challenge
Knowledge is shaped by choices.
What is recorded, how it is analysed, who interprets it and what is done with it. These choices are not neutral; they reflect who holds power and whose voices are heard.
01
A narrow set of perspectives
Knowledge production tends to be shaped by a narrow set of perspectives, excluding the insights of those most affected. This leads to incomplete understanding and, at times, harmful or ineffective decisions that reinforce existing power structures.
02
Communities as data, not partners
Communities are too often treated as sources of data rather than partners in shaping knowledge. Even where participatory approaches are used, influence is rarely shared across the full process, especially in how evidence is interpreted and applied.
03
Lived experience filtered out
As a result, lived experience is filtered through external perspectives and loses its power to shape what the evidence means.
While there is growing demand for more inclusive and meaningful evidence, the capability to deliver this consistently has not kept pace. Evidence is often judged as credible (produced by the right institutions) or legitimate (reflecting lived realities), yet these standards are rarely held together in practice.
Our Approach
Credible & legitimate.
· Rigorous data
· Lived experience
· Shared interpretation
We address this gap by combining rigorous data with lived experience, ensuring that knowledge is both credible and legitimate.
We work with communities and institutions to shift how evidence is produced, interpreted and used - embedding more inclusive and accountable practices across the full process.
By strengthening the role of lived experience and community knowledge in decision-making, we support more accurate understanding, more effective interventions and more lasting change.
Guiding Principles
Change is Possible
Inequalities affect each community differently. Lasting change requires solutions led by those who experience them firsthand, rather than imposed from the outside.
Knowledge is Power
Marginalised communities are shut out of knowledge production. We help communities build epistemic power — claiming the right to generate knowledge, ask their own questions, and ensure their wisdom is recognised and acted upon.
Working In the Open
Knowledge belongs to everyone. We share data, methods, and findings openly, ensuring communities can access, deploy, and build on the research we do with them. All our data, code, and methods are open and freely accessible.
Communities First
Communities know their places best. We provide the tools, resources, and evidence that support locally-led change, working alongside communities rather than for them.
Our Team
Dr Celestin Okoroji
Co-Founder
Celestin’s focus is in developing the knowledge and tools required for a more just society. A social scientist with mixed methods expertise, Celestin has led research teams across Black Thrive and the Royal Society of Arts as Head of Research. He has collaborated with a range of organisations and funders on impactful research including Wellcome, JRF, Forensic Architecture, Physicians for Human Rights, and across the UK, Europe and the United States. He received his PhD at the London School of Economics and published in a range of areas including race equity, unemployment and epistemic justice.
Dr Jolyon Miles-Wilson
Co-Founder
Jolyon focuses on the quantitative and software-driven elements of building tools and practices for a more just society. He completed his PhD in Psychology at the University of Sussex, exploring social injustice and social decision-making. He has worked as a quantitative researcher at Black Thrive and the Royal Society of Arts, leading and contributing to a range of social justice projects. He was Principal Investigator on a Wellcome-funded project examining the relationship between stop and search and young people’s mental health. His practice brings together rigorous quantitative methods with a deep commitment to justice, equity, and community-driven inquiry.
Mitali Sen CIOF(Dip)
Director of Philanthropy & Partnerships
Mitali is a senior funding strategist and resource mobiliser with over a decade of experience across philanthropy, social justice and international development, specialising in equity-led funding and strategic partnerships. She has led multi-million-pound funds and delivered grant-making strategy at scale, including co-leading the Lived Experience Leadership Fund at The National Lottery Community Fund and contributing to sector-shaping work with Future Foundations UK. Mitali recently oversaw a €16 million Google-funded programme at the Centre for Public Impact ensuring strong governance, accountability and impact for funders. Her experience spans leadership roles at The National Lottery Community Fund, Centre for Public Impact, Battersea Dogs & Cats Home and National Emergencies Trust.
Advisors
Dr Michael Little
Founder - Ratio
Michael is a founder of Ratio. His primary interest is in contributing to an emerging relational social policy, and to fashioning new ways of linking evidence to policy and practice. As an intervention scientist, Michael has led research teams in the UK at Dartington Social Research Unit and in US at the University of Chicago. He has worked with international philanthropy - Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies - and governments in the UK, US, Ireland and Spain. He is the author of a dozen books and over 200 other publications.
Lela Kogbara
Director - Place Matters
Lela is a qualified accountant and was a senior leader in the UK public sector for 25 years, including as Assistant Chief Executive for Islington Council, a director at NHS England and advisor at Department for Education. She was one of the founding directors of Black Thrive Global. Lela is currently Director at Place Matters, a member of NHS England Advancing Mental Health Equality Taskforce, a trustee of DFN Project Search and of Liliesleaf Trust UK, and is on the board of Social Finance.
Oliver Burrows
Founder - Treehouse Consultancy
Oliver runs a data analysis consultancy, focusing on economics and geospatial data. He has extensive experience of economic policy analysis, data strategy and data science from his time at the Bank of England, where he held a range of economics positions before becoming the Bank of England’s Chief Data Officer.
Dr Vanessa Pinfold
Research Director and Cofounder - McPin Foundation
Vanessa has worked in mental health research for 30 years, and has published studies on stigma and discrimination, families and carers, experiences of the mental health system, wellbeing networks and co-production in mental health research. She is now prioritising developing peer research methods and addressing epistemic injustice. Vanessa currently co-chairs the Alliance of Mental Health Research Funders and is co-founder and research director at the McPin Foundation, responsible for overseeing the work of the charity that centres expertise from experience in knowledge production. She previously worked at Rethink Mental Illness and the KCL IOPPN and has a PhD from University of Nottingham, Department of Geography.
