Jon Beech

Jon Beech
Leeds

I’m Director of Leeds Asylum Seekers’ Support Network, Chair of Solidaritech CIC and Mafwa Theatre CIC, and I help out with communications and strategy for the Leeds Migration Partnership.

My working background is in mental health, community development and homelessness. For almost 20 years, I’ve worked alongside refugees, people seeking asylum and other racialised communities in contexts shaped by inequality, displacement and flawed public policy.

Before joining LASSN, I managed community, advocacy and therapeutic services at Touchstone, and worked alongside people experiencing homelessness, addiction and mental distress at Shelter, Mind and in local government.

I’m at my best when I’m helping people work out how to change things for themselves — collectively where possible — and how to increase power and resources by sharing them.

Much of my work sits at the intersection of lived experience, services and the state. I’m especially interested in how people navigate, resist and reshape systems that often harm as much as they help.

Tea: strong, with a splash of milk if there's some around.