Rose, aged 15, is a great fan of Para Dance. She has been taking part in Para Dance, since COVID, for about five years. When I asked her why she likes it so much, after a moment’s thought, she smiled broadly and commented “I like it because I feel sense of freedom inside me. When I dance, it lifts my body up. It helps my body – my hip and my heart.”
CEO Blog – What Are We Asking Communities to Carry?
I’ve become increasingly cautious about simple explanations for complex problems. We are living through a period shaped not by a single crisis, but by the interaction of many: sustained economic pressure, demographic change, rapid technological acceleration and, in parts of the world, open conflict and violence. These forces don’t operate separately. They collide, compound and reshape how people behave, what institutions can realistically hold, and where responsibility is felt.
CEO Blog – The Tensions That Frame Our Work
This has been a year of both clarity and contradiction.
Across the voluntary sector, especially among small and medium-sized charities, a shared truth has surfaced: the work has never been more needed, more complex or more undervalued.
Rising need, shrinking resources and deepening societal divides have pushed local organisations into a new era - not defined by crisis, but by exposed fault lines. 2025 has shown us the limitations of old assumptions: about partnership, funding, capacity and the very role of charities in civic life.