Blogs & conversations - The Churchill Fellowship
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Blogs & conversations

Churchill Fellows offer their views and advice on topical issues, based on global research and UK activities.

To connect with a Fellow, please go to their Profile page. To find related content, click the tag under each item below. To receive regular blog alerts, sign up at the foot of this page.

If you are a Fellow and would like to write a blog for us, please email communications@churchillfellowship.org to discuss the topic you have in mind.

Blogs & conversations

Songwriting for Confidence, Self-Expression, and Connection

During her Churchill Fellowship, songwriter Hannah Louise Partridge – known professionally as Anna Anise – explored how collaborative songwriting retreats in the United States help musicians build confidence, connection, and lasting creative networks. Drawing on visits to six retreat programmes, she reflects on the power of shared creative space to support wellbeing and sustain musical careers. Now applying this learning through her organisation CHORUS Songwriting CIC, she is developing retreats that strengthen community and widen access to songwriting across the UK.

By Hannah Louise Partridge, 26 March 2026

Blogs & conversations

Songwriting for Confidence, Self-Expression, and Connection

During her Churchill Fellowship, songwriter Hannah Louise Partridge – known professionally as Anna Anise – explored how collaborative songwriting retreats in the United States help musicians build confidence, connection, and lasting creative networks. Drawing on visits to six retreat programmes, she reflects on the power of shared creative space to support wellbeing and sustain musical careers. Now applying this learning through her organisation CHORUS Songwriting CIC, she is developing retreats that strengthen community and widen access to songwriting across the UK.

By Hannah Louise Partridge, 26 March 2026

Blogs & conversations

A Changemaker Mam: Building Theatre for Survivors

JoJo Kirtley reflects on balancing her Churchill Fellowship with life as a mother of three while exploring how survivor-led theatre can challenge violence against women and girls. Drawing on learning from practitioners across Europe, North America, and Africa, she shares how community-led creative work can build safety, solidarity, and lasting change. Now developing her Theatre of the Survivor framework in the North East of England, JoJo is putting this learning into practice to support women and communities.

By JoJo Kirtley, 12 March 2026

Blogs & conversations

‘The Right to a Break’?

Drawing on her own experience of caring for her mum, and her work alongside unpaid carers every day, Fi Brown reflects on the “mental load” of caring – and what it means to protect carers’ mental health before crisis point is reached. With Scotland’s ‘Right to a Break’ marking a significant shift in care reform, she explores why a legal right must translate into breaks that are genuinely meaningful and restorative, with prevention at their core.

By Fi Brown, 20 February 2026

Blogs & conversations

Building together: rethinking teacher wellbeing and career sustainability

During her Churchill Fellowship in Ghana, Dr Chiedza Ikpeh explored how teacher wellbeing grows through community, adaptability, and shared responsibility. Speaking with teachers, she how collective approaches help educators thrive, even in challenging conditions. Witnessing this resilience reshaped how she understands teaching and what allows careers to be sustained over time, and Chiedza is now bringing this learning into her research and development work with teachers across the UK.

By Chiedza Ikpeh, 12 February 2026

Blogs & conversations

In conversation with Darren Way: From gang intervention to pioneering research unit

We spoke to Darren Way about how a Churchill Fellowship helped shape a new model of long-term youth intervention – from opening a charity with £10, two chairs, and an empty shopfront, to building Streets of Growth into a nationally recognised organisation supporting thousands of young people. Darren reflects on learning from pioneering community projects in the USA, putting that learning into practice in East London, and why he is now launching a research and policy centre to influence how youth harm prevention is understood, funded, and delivered in the UK.

By Darren Way, 5 February 2026

Blogs & conversations

Mark Damazer: Stepping into the role of chair

Mark Damazer reflects on his first weeks as Chair of the Churchill Fellowship, from reading and scoring this year’s applications to engaging with the scale, diversity, and generosity of ideas coming forward from across the UK. He shares how the Fellowship connects people rooted in communities nationwide, what he has learned from seeing the process up close, and his ambitions to build on this work – including through the Activate Fund – as the Fellowship enters its next chapter.

Blogs & conversations

Following the questions: a Fellow's journey

From an off-the-cuff question as a teacher to lasting change across policy and practice, Sarah Beresford traces how curiosity shaped her Churchill Fellowship and everything that followed. She reflects on learning from other countries, turning insight into action, and how asking the right questions has helped centre children’s voices in the criminal justice system.

By Sarah Beresford, 22 January 2026

Blogs & conversations

Supporting adolescent mental health in schools

Through his Churchill Fellowship, Charlie Samuda explored how schools in the USA, Canada, and South Korea are responding to the adolescent mental health crisis. Visiting over 30 organisations and schools, he examined how independent guidance, curriculum design, counselling, and safety systems can help schools support students more effectively. He reflects on what England could learn from these approaches as pressures on schools continue to grow.

By Charlie Samuda, 15 January 2026

Blogs & conversations

From Prisons to Community Studios: Fellows’ Blogs from 2025

As 2025 draws to a close, we’ve selected a range of Fellows’ blogs that capture the learning and perspectives they shared throughout the year. Covering topics from domestic abuse and criminal justice to arts, health, and innovation, these reflections show how Fellows are applying international insights in practical ways across the UK. Together, they offer a window into the conversations and connections shaping their ongoing work.

Blogs & conversations

From Prisons to Community Studios: Fellows’ Blogs from 2025

As 2025 draws to a close, we’ve selected a range of Fellows’ blogs that capture the learning and perspectives they shared throughout the year. Covering topics from domestic abuse and criminal justice to arts, health, and innovation, these reflections show how Fellows are applying international insights in practical ways across the UK. Together, they offer a window into the conversations and connections shaping their ongoing work.

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