Tamsin Koumis

Supporting organisations, local and city governments, communities and grassroots groups to work towards justice, dignity, and fair treatment of all, including marginalised groups.Using research, evaluation, project management, facilitation, creative development, and more.

Helping organisations

- 'Applied' research: learning for better practice
- Expertise in migrants rights, integration, legal advocacy, grassroots organisations
- Expertise in holistic wellbeing
- Increasing effectiveness of organisations, projects, institutions
- Finding effective solutions to complex problems
- Serving intelligent movements + diverse communities

Creative perspective

- Creative thinking
- Creative project design + development
- Visual creative skills - design, illustration, simple graphics, graphic facilitation, photography

Leading projects

  • Reunite Families UK - leading research into the impact of the spouse and partner migration rules on families and couples

  • New Europeans - helping European citizens register for the EU Settled Status

  • MiFriendly Cities project - making cities in the Midlands more migrant friendly. Supporting grassroots migrant led organisations to deliver local projects

  • Dunkirk Legal Support Team - establishing a legal advocacy project in Dunkirk refugee camp

Creative

  • Reunite Families UK - creative direction + commissioning

  • East European Resource Centre, Domestic Violence campaign development

  • Thread Bearing Witness, research and development

  • Public Interest Law Centre, illustrations (and evaluation)

  • NACCOM, report design

  • Report design (several)

  • Personal: photography; collage; painting; movement

Evaluations

  • Public Interest Law Centre

  • Haringey Migrant Support Centre

  • Women's Resource Centre

  • St Mungo's Horn of Africa Project

  • Ascent project

  • Migrants at Work

  • PITP 'Transitions' project

  • ...and more

Research

See publications

Publications

Creative examples for social projects

Further creative examples available on request: report design, photography etc

Philosophy + other interests

My work and perspective is informed by my training in Taoist movement and meditation practice, philosophy, and Chinese Medicine. This informs a broader set of research and practice interests:- The inter-connected nature of being
- Wellbeing and holistic medicine
- Preserving wisdom from different cultures and ancient traditions (including holistic medicine)
- Learning from different ways of being: including embodied practices, community oriented, collective, devotional etc
- Bridging this learning into today's society: how we can learn from other communities and use this knowledge to inform and improve today's society (medicine, social work, community building, peace building)
- Where inner insight meets community action
- Presence, Taoism, Buddhism, Chinese Medicine, meditation, Sufism, Mysticism, wisdom traditions, contemplative practiceIf you have projects which connect to part of this list, I'd love to connect and explore how we might collaborate.

Current class offerings

In addition to my work with organisations, I also run classes for individuals:- Body opening and moving meditation class: Wednesday mornings, 7.30-8.30am. Online and sometimes in person (Dorset)- Dharma club. Reading excerpts from texts from different wisdom traditions, sharing our reflections, and having a laugh. Wednesday mornings 8.45 - 9.15am. Online and sometimes in person (Dorset). It's a lovely community!Contact me to join

My story

I am a third generation migrant. Two of my grandparents fled to London, where they met, one a political exile, and the other fleeing an oppressive religious community. This background laid some of the foundations for my commitment to supporting those who seek sanctuary.A part of my journey has been exploring and celebrating the diversity within myself (not just culturally but in a more general sense). I believe that if we are able to accept the diverse and contradictory nature within ourselves, we can better cherish and celebrate diversity in the world around us. I am interested in how the inner journey feeds into the work that we do in the world.