Progress is not inevitable, universal or irreversible. — I first realised I was different to other boys when I was 4. In that year, 1987, only 11% of the British public agreed that same-sex relationships were “not wrong at all”. By 2013, when the Same Sex Couples Act was passed, that view was held by the majority (and…

From wild IPO documents to motivational marketing, WeWork sold us an impossible dream. — A couple of months ago, I saw a woman on the tube with a t-shirt emblazoned with the words do what you love. Three things about this feel-good mantra irked me: Its seductive simplicity. So many people jump from job to job desperately trying to ‘find their passion’. But the…

Feather-ruffling, hustling and flying over the grass — As I make way for new leadership at Year Here after 9 years at the helm, I’m distilling the lessons I’ve learnt — the hard way. This is a letter to my successor, to the entrepreneurs behind Year Here’s burgeoning venture portfolio and to anyone who finds themselves in position…

Beyond the immediate crisis, we can finally see the possibility of real social change. — In February, when Coronavirus was a mere footnote in the news, I spoke at the launch of our 12th cohort of Year Here Fellows at Toynbee Hall in East London. In a nutshell I said, as I had many times before: society is facing almighty problems; inequality won’t fix itself…

Doing something useful in the biggest crisis of our lifetime — Like the 700,000+ people who signed up to become NHS volunteers or the tens of thousands more who are volunteering for mutual aid groups, food banks and other frontline services, I desperately want to help. I just don’t know how. With no clinical skills to offer, my mind changes every…

Reflections on founding Year Here and stepping down as CEO after 8 years. — It was the third day of the first Year Here Fellowship when I finally submitted to the exhaustion of all the late-night, last-minute prepping I’d been doing in the run up to our launch. The first 12 Fellows were sat in a circle listening carefully. Somebody else was leading the…

Meet three social entrepreneurs who are unafraid to use their platforms to lobby for change. — This year, whether we like it or not, the mince pies, mulled wine and yuletide ditties (not yet, btw) will be accompanied by something altogether less festive: a maelstrom of fractious TV debates, awkward photo opportunities with bacon sandwiches, and manifestos that seem to consist of the same words in…

Why you should resist white saviour complex and strive for change in your own backyard. — In the midst of anti-apartheid protests in the late 80s, my primary school ruler was emblazoned with the words “BOYCOTT SOUTH AFRICA”. This bold political statement (to, er, my 6-year-old classmates?!) must have been my older brothers’ influence. I would have had no idea what it meant. I remember the…

Meet five types of social business driving systemic change in the UK — Hear the words ‘changing the system’ and you might picture grassroots activists like Emmeline Pankhurst, Rosa Parks or Gandhi. Maybe mass movements like Black Lives Matter or Extinction Rebellion come to mind. Or perhaps you think of leaders in government like Abraham Lincoln or William Beveridge. You are perhaps less…