We didn't set out to build a bridge.
We became one.
The Setu CIC was born out of a shared vision by Sabah and Chris, driven by our own lived experiences to create a more inclusive world.
'Setu' means bridge, representing our mission to bridge the gap between exclusion and equity, one meaningful decision and action at a time – no matter how small, by everyone – leader or not.
We are a lived-experience-led consultancy dedicated to empowering organisations through trauma-informed practice, inclusive leadership, and authentic representation, ensuring that every voice is not just heard, but valued in building sustainable change.
About
Our story
Sabah and Chris met at Brighton & Hove City Council, where Sabah led the equalities team and Chris worked as an EDI officer. What started as colleagues became something harder to categorise: two people who recognised the same gap from different sides of it, and couldn't stop talking about how to close it.
Sabah Sharma has spent over twenty-three years in HR, organisational development and EDIB leadership across corporate and public sector settings, and is now training as an intersectional psychotherapist. Her work is grounded in the interior view — how institutional culture actually shifts, from the inside, one decision at a time. She keenly understands, therapeutically and practically – How the individual is affected by the collective and what the collective can do to change this, one individual and one key decision at a time.
Chris Brown has spent twenty-five years in frontline third sector work — mental health, suicide prevention, disability and LGBTQ+ health inclusion. She co-founded Grassroots Suicide Prevention in 2006, one of the first Community Interest Companies in Sussex, where she led development of Stay Alive — now used hundreds of thousands of times across the world. Her grounding is relational, community-built, close to the sharpest edges of exclusion.
We're both disabled, queer, diverse – from migrant and racialised lived experiences to neurodivergence and more. We both know similarly and differently what it costs to work inside systems that weren't built with people like us in mind. This is where the heart of our expertise comes from on top of our many qualifications and trainings.
Why "Setu"
Setu is a Sanskrit word meaning bridge; a causeway, deliberately built, connecting two things that were separated. It appears across Vedic, Jain and Buddhist traditions, always with the same core idea: a bridge isn't found, it's built, through sustained and principled effort, by whoever is willing to do the work - however unlikely or overlooked they might seem.
Building bridges of understanding through action despite discomfort or challenges along the way, while remaining ethical and compassionate, is the essence is core to both of us and the values we live and act in – squirrelling away to create change, however small but impactful.
Just like the squirrel that helped build the Setu in ancient stories – no person or effort is too small and the smallest shifts are equally important.
That's the whole of what we're trying to do. Not consult from the outside. Build the crossing.
01
Empathy First
We center the human experience in everything we do, ensuring that inclusion is felt, not just implemented.
02
Accessible Design
Accessibility is the floor, not the ceiling. We create solutions that work for everyone from the ground up.
03
Lived Equity
We lead with lived experience, bridging the gap between theory and action.