Finding Hope

 



“You find hope the way you find happiness — you give it to someone else and borrow a little of it back.” Robert Brault

As many in the Civil Society Sector will know, times are hard at the moment and despite the sense of purpose and joy we often feel from the work we do there is an additional heaviness right now. This is exacerbated by what else is going on in the world and it can be tough to find the happiness and hope we need.

That’s why I’m writing this, because last week I unexpectedly found both hope and happiness in abundance from a range of different places.

Firstly, our friends at The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood published their Shaping Us Framework. A fantastic piece of research which pulls together and helps us understand the social and emotional skills that matter the most. Here at The Centre for Emotional Health we know how important these skills are and this great document pulls together a range of thinking to help give people a common language to use as well as some hints and tips on developing the skills. We were delighted to play a small part in helping the team producing this research think about the framework last year. This research will really help wider society, and that gives me both happiness and hope.

Secondly, I attended the launch event for this year’s Empathy Week – an incredible event full of people from a range of education settings and charities which celebrated work done over recent years by EmpathyStudios and Empathy Week and the exciting events planned for this year’s Empathy Festival as well. What struck me most was how we need empathy more than ever in a world where being different is no longer valued and diversity and inclusion are being portrayed as negative in some places. We heard incredible stories about how children and young people were given experiences of difference through the power of film and story and how this evoked and developed empathy as a skill. We also heard from the wonderful Jo Berry on her journey dealing with incredible trauma by using empathy and relationships. This evening gave me happiness and hope.

Thirdly I was at a Relational and Restorative Practice Seminar hosted by The University of Portsmouth which was exploring community decision making. Hearing about ways in which the individuals and organisations there were working with their communities on research and service development was inspirational and hopeful. That type of collaboration and way of working is researched further in the DEMOS paper “The Motivational State” which is well worth a read.

Finally, I had to proofread a section of our manual for Parent Group Leaders which is part of our resources and training to deliver TheNurturing Programme to parents and carers across the UK. If I am honest, I hate proof reading, but I was once again reminded how transformative The Nurturing Programme is. I have had the opportunity to do the training twice, once 23 years ago and again when I joined The Centre for Emotional Health in 2022 and both times it has easily been the most transformational training I have ever done. Even though things are difficult knowing that we offer this gave me happiness and hope.

Last week a range of incredible, inspirational, and positive people gave me happiness and hope, as Robert Brault says at the beginning of this piece, it’s now my job to allow them to borrow some back from me. Onwards…

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