Our Spring newsletter

It’s officially spring but could someone please remind the weather!

In this newsletter, we are shining a light on how our work interrupts intergenerational cycles of trauma - and on the profound possibility that what we pass on to the next generation doesn't have to be our pain. It can be our healing. That can feel difficult when there is a lot we cannot control right now.

The world the next generation is inheriting is more uncertain, more unstable, and more complex than the one most of us grew up in. Climate change is reshaping what we thought was permanent. Technology is advancing faster than our ability to understand its consequences. Political and economic instability has become a background hum that is difficult to tune out. For many people, powerlessness has stopped feeling like an occasional experience and started feeling like a default state.

And yet. 

There are things we can change. Trajectories we have the power to redirect. Futures that are not yet written. 

At Foundation for Change, we work with people who know what it means to feel powerless, who have lived that experience in its most acute form. And what we see, again and again, is that when people are given the tools to understand themselves - to make sense of their own story, to recognise where their responses come from - something shifts. People become less reactive and more intentional. Less defined by what happened to them and more capable of deciding what happens next.

For parents, that shift carries a particular weight. We've always known this and are proud to be giving parents, their children and families, the spotlight they deserve.

BREAKING CYCLES OF TRAUMA

Around half the people we work with are parents. And the change we see in them doesn't stay with them - it moves into their families, into their relationships with their children, into the homes their children grow up in.

This is why, at the end of March, we hosted an invitation-only evening at Art'otel Hoxton.

The event was centred around a question that sits at the heart of our work: "What would it look like if it was healing - not trauma - that was passed down through generations?".

WAYS TO GIVE

Earlier this year, Hawksmoor restaurants gave their customers the opportunity to add £1 to their bill throughout January — a simple idea that raised an extraordinary £6,422 for our work. We are hugely grateful to Hawksmoor and to every customer who chose to contribute. It's a reminder that support for this work can come in many forms, and that small acts can add up to something significant.

If you'd like to support Foundation for Change, there are several ways to get involved. A one-off or regular donation - however large or small - goes directly towards keeping our courses free for the people who need them. 

Or if you're feeling inspired, you could take on your own fundraising challenge on our behalf. Details of how to do any of the above are on our website.

Donate today!

COURSES & COMMUNITY

We began the year by bringing our graduate community together for a workshop on setting intentions - a chance to reconnect, reflect, and keep the learning alive as a new year got underway.

Our first Psychology for Change course of the year completed in March. The changes we witnessed throughout were profound and we are proud of every graduate who made it through. We are now preparing to begin our next course, Feminism for Change, and look forward to welcoming a new group of participants in April.

In March, we also marked International Women's Day by inviting female graduates from our community to join the Million Women Rise march in London. It was a powerful reminder of what our work makes possible - moving from struggling to take up space and use their voices to marching together in solidarity and strength.

FFC IN FOCUS

Over the past few months, we have published two thought pieces as part of our FFC in focus which explores the thinking behind our work.  The first looks at how different pathways out of addiction lead to very different outcomes and why abstinence alone is rarely enough. The second explores what we mean when we describe our courses as therapeutic but not therapy and why that distinction matters more than it might seem.

Both are well worth a read. So too are the other pieces on our blog - including a piece on why critical thinking is so central to what we do, and a personal reflection from our Comms Officer, Antonia Griffiths, on the lasting impact of what she learned on our courses.

THANKYOU & FAREWELL TO CHARLIE

After four years, we're sad to be saying farewell to a member of our team.  Charlie graduated from Psychology for Change and started volunteering with us in 2022, before moving to a paid role last year. 

He played a key role in delivering courses, working one-to-one with our trainees and supporting with our work around impact. 

We’re grateful for his time, experience and contribution and wish him well in the next chapter.