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Joy. Community. Change
WHAT IS HOPEFUL MESS
We hold spaces for joy, care, reflection and change. Spaces that honour heritage, challenge systems, and celebrate the messy brilliance of being human. Founded by Nzinga and Maren, HOPEFUL MESS is rooted in the belief that change isn’t clean but loud, emotional, and deeply communal.
We are female led, anti-racist, and radically hopeful. We don’t wear suits (unless it’s a theme). We dare people to dream big and to imagine new ways of being together.
Language is often used to exclude or control, we see it as a way to connect. We talk about big and difficult things, using simple words. We gift, we play, we invite, we welcome.
WHAT WE DO
Bespoke Training
We offer bespoke safeguarding, mental health first aid and wellbeing training that centers lived experience. Our approach blends evidence‑based practice with cultural awareness, creativity, and joy. We don’t offer “tick‑box” training. We offer experiences that shift people, and the systems they are part of. We work with collectives, individuals and organisations to create training that is relatable, speaks to your communities and can be used straight away.
Hosting & Facilitation
We invite people to join us in conversations on topics that occupy and free our minds. We host, moderate, and design discussions that matter, creating hopeful and intentional spaces for panel discussions, community dialogue, large gatherings & conferences and difficult organisational conversations.
Events & Workshops
We facilitate and curate events, workshops and experiences that ignite imagination, deepen connection, and open new possibilities. HOPEFUL MESS events are immersive, playful, and community centered.
Research & Evaluation
Learning is something we gift to one another, rooted in community knowledge, cultural awareness, and joyful curiosity. We design kind, creative, and participatory evaluation processes that honour lived experience, centre multiple truths, and make space for reflection and imagination.
Introducing the mess
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NZINGA MASCALL
SHe/Her
Pronounced: en~ZING~ga / Meaning: Angolan warrior princess
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MAREN ELLERMANN
she/her
Pronounced: ma~REN / Meaning: Of the ocean, rebel
NZINGA MASCALL
I am a community wellbeing specialist and facilitator. My work is grounded in the power of lived experience and the belief that community is the most transformative force we have. Raised in a Rastafarian household, I grew up with a deep understanding that the village is everything. That care and resilience are built collectively, not in isolation. This foundation shapes my commitment to creating circuits of care that honour heritage, nurture connection, and strengthen wellbeing.
My practice centres on building environments where people feel held, heard, and supported. I want people to feel they can show up as their full selves, free from external pressures and societal expectations.
I bring a grounded, culturally rooted approach to community wellbeing, challenging systems that harm while nurturing practices that heal. Always deeply communal and radically hopeful. I truly believe we thrive when we take care of each other.
MAREN ELLERMANN
I’m a dancer and cultural producer, born in the Netherlands but now firmly rooted in East London. Moving countries reshaped my sense of belonging, and dance became the first place that felt like home. It gave me a chosen family that showed me the transformational power of art, culture, and collective care first hand. That experience, along with my love of travelling and learning from the world, continues to guide everything I do.
I love creating and facilitating experiences that welcome people in and invite them to imagine more boldly. I’m drawn to the spaces where creativity, care, and social change meet and I work to honour and amplify stories that are often unheard, overlooked or edited out.
Art can shift how we understand ourselves and each other. It can soften what feels rigid, spark unexpected joy, and open cracks in systems that urgently need to change. Leading with empathy and curiosity, my practice centers communities not as participants but as leaders, dreamers, and co‑creators of the futures they want to build.
At the heart of everything I do is a belief in the radical power of community, and a desire to create spaces where new worlds don’t just feel possible, they begin to take shape.
‘Mess as Method’ refers to our approach and creative practice that embraces and reflects the non-linear and messy realities of the world. We don't intend to impose order and clarity through traditional "clean" methods, we invite chaos, complexity and contradiction and believe multiple truths can be held.
If you think we might be a good fit, we'd love to hear from you :)
hello@hopefulmess.com