“There are years that ask questions and years that answer” – a thought from writer Zora Neale Hurston that aligns with Foundation for Change at the moment.

2023 has been a year of questions, reflection, development and change. Our focus has been on strengthening the delivery of our courses, planning for our future delivery, and better understanding the impact of our work on the people accessing our courses - our trainees. 

With us also strengthening how we work together as a team and tightening up our foundations (not a pun!), each month this year has been full to the brim. We weren’t able to share a newsletter every two months as intended, but we will be going forward. Until then, we welcome you to the summer edition of our newsletter - an update on what’s happened and what’s to come!

Launching a graduate community

Our organisational values play a huge part in how we work and support each other as colleagues, as well as how we work with our trainees. They contribute to our decision-making and idea generation, and we constantly want to develop our offerings to align with them. Most recently, we launched our new graduate-focused newsletter and blog - the FfC Community. Building a meaningful community of graduate trainees, staying connected, and cultivating/sustaining the life changes that people experience on our courses are at the heart of this community. The first blog can be found here.

9th Birthday

This summer, we celebrated our 9th birthday! That’s nine years of believing in the power that our radical courses have on the lives of people who are willing to explore themselves. Nine years of supporting people to understand the relationship between social inequality and trauma, and the impact that unaddressed trauma can have on individual lives, health, relationships and communities. Held at Shoreditch Church, this celebration meant a lot to us - we were bowled over by the turnout, and it was a joy to connect with trainees and supporters, past and present. Next year we turn ten, and are already thinking about how to celebrate ten years of Foundation for Change. All we know is that it’s going to be a wonderful celebration! Look out for updates from us.

 Upcoming Feminism course

For those of you unfamiliar (and familiar), we run five courses a year - three Psychology for Change, and two Feminism for Change courses.

This week, we are launching our last Feminism course of the year, running from August to October. It’s seen some changes recently, as we have added an extra week to the timetable in order to cover even more feminist concepts.

This space is extremely important to our work at FfC, as it is a course for women, run by women and happening in a women-only, safe space. Don’t just take our word for it - we’ve shared what a few women from our last course in April 2023 found most rewarding:

Launching one-day courses

In other news, we also launched a one-day course as a way to bring feminist theory to men and women in recovery on our waiting list. Called ‘Patriarchy: What is it and what are the harms’, it is a space for people to explore and apply some of the basic concepts we cover in our Feminism for Change course. As well as experiencing some valuable learning, it gives participants to get a taste of our approach whilst they wait to be allocated a course. Premiered at our 9th party (mentioned above), we are SO proud of a video we developed in collaboration with some of our course graduates. Now living on our homepage, watch to hear more about Foundation for Change, our courses, and the impact we have on our graduate's lives. 

Our Impact

Our work supports people's ability to reconnect with a sense of belonging and worth, so we can all contribute to a better future. Here’s a snapshot of how we've been doing so far this year:

FfC picks

 A few things our team are reading, enjoying, laughing at and sharing this month:

 A video shared from Jayne. We love a plot twist!

A book that Amberlee is revisiting.

A very soothing experience.

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