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

Redefining financial literacy and shaping policy

We spoke to Ali Zafar about how his Fellowship is shaping new approaches to financial education in the UK. After already founding LifeSmart, Ali used his Fellowship to explore why financial literacy remains low, learning from systems in Singapore, Vietnam, and Bali. His research has led to a new framework for understanding how financial capability develops, and has already informed updates to his work and contributions to UK policy discussions. Ali is now finalising his report and developing resources to share his findings across government, charities, and the private sector.

By Ali Zafar, 23 April 2026

Blogs & conversations

Redefining financial literacy and shaping policy

We spoke to Ali Zafar about how his Fellowship is shaping new approaches to financial education in the UK. After already founding LifeSmart, Ali used his Fellowship to explore why financial literacy remains low, learning from systems in Singapore, Vietnam, and Bali. His research has led to a new framework for understanding how financial capability develops, and has already informed updates to his work and contributions to UK policy discussions. Ali is now finalising his report and developing resources to share his findings across government, charities, and the private sector.

By Ali Zafar, 23 April 2026

Blogs & conversations

What it Takes to Build Trauma-Responsive Systems

After her Fellowship exploring trauma, attachment, and ACEs, Jane Pepa reflects on what it takes to move from trauma-informed training to real system change. Through her work with the Merseyside Violence Reduction Partnership, she has supported over 12,000 public service staff, from education to policing, to better understand and respond to trauma. Now working to embed trauma-responsive approaches across systems in Merseyside, she shares how this learning is being applied in practice through collaboration and ongoing support.

By Jane Pepa, 16 April 2026

Blogs & conversations

Bringing resilience to life through flax

Zoe Gilbertson looks back on her Fellowship exploring flax and bioregional resilience across Europe. She shares how learning from community-focused projects shaped her understanding of how local production can be rebuilt through culture, creativity, and collaboration. Now, through her organisation Liflad, she is working to revitalise flax and linen production in the UK, with her work being supported by growing networks and shared learning across Europe and beyond.

By Zoe Gilbertson, 9 April 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

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

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