The Change Makers: How to Create Better Lives (Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallett)

This week we meet Ed Fidoe who in his twenties decided to create a school that had an entirely different approach to education, hence he established School21, where children did things differently, develop skills and attributes that went beyond what was tested in exams, including speaking skills, craftmanship, grit and spark.

This week Sir Tom talks with Dame Stephanie Shirley who arrived in Birtiain as an unaccompanied child refugee in 1939 from nazi Germany on the kinder transport. She started what became Xansa plc (now part of the Sopra Group) on her dining room table with £6 in 1962. She is now a successful IT entrepreneur, serial charity founder and ardent philanthropist. She established Shirley Foundation and co-founded the Oxford Internet Institute.

In this episode we meet Marcellus Baz. Born and raised in Nottingham, Marcellus grew up to become a product of his surroundings. Involved in gang activity from his youth, Marcellus spent much of his time running from the law and dealing with the consequences of his lifestyle throught he deaths of loved ones including his best friend. A moment of chance changed Marcellus’s life forever, when he was avoiding the police and found himself in a leisure centre boxing class. Supported by the coach, Marcellus reformed his life through learning to box and now in a similar way he is reforming lives of others through Switch-Up.

In this episode we meet our host Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallett who will talk with Lady Juliet Hughes-Hallett, his wife and inspiration; co-founder of Smart Works, a UK based charity that provides high quality interview clothes and interview training to unemployed women in need.

In this episode Sir Tom talks to Sophia Parker, who founded a very successful charity Little Village while looking after three children under six. Little Village is a "food bank", but for clothes toys and equipment for babies and children up to the age of five. Last year alone they supported 7,281 children.

In this episode, we meet Geoff Stevens, who inspired by his faith and his fathers dementia founded Pathways Care Farm, which gives vulnerable people the opportunity to learn, re-build and grow through a range of hands-on farming activities. This might include planting, fruit and vegetable cultivation, helping to restore a barn, animal husbandry or even the basics of machinery maintenance.

In episode seven we listen to the extraordinary story of Sister Mary Joy as she moves from being Europe’s first female professional firewoman to being a jockey, a nun, and then a Change Maker. Sister Mary Joy established The Wormwood Scrubs Pony Centre which provides riding and equine therapy for children with special needs and people with dementia.

In episode eight we meet a part-time Change Maker Nick O’Shea who besides being Chief Economist for Centre for Mental Health also runs Ignition Brewery, a brewery employing people with learning disabilities, involved in all aspects of the business from brewing and bottling to selling and product promotion.

In this episode we meet a founder of the Listening Place, a charity where a team of trained volunteers offer free, confidential and ongoing face-to-face listening, by appointment, to people who feel that life is no longer worth living. The organisation sees 4000 people a year. Sarah started the charity in her 60s and is a living proof that it is never too late to start a charity that Creates Better Lives. 

Our next Change Maker Sat Singh started the Renaissance Foundation following personal experiences in his youth. The Renaissance Foundation offers a 3-year tailored outreach programme that aims to inspire, and support disadvantaged young people facing barriers to education, work, and fulfilment.

In this episode Sir Tom introduces us to Dame Laura Lee, who leads a charity - Maggie's, that cares for those living with cancer. Maggie's was a vision of Maggie Keswick Jencks, who lived with advanced cancer for two years and whose vision became a reality thanks to Dame Laura, Maggie’s nurse and friend.

Rory Moore is our next Change Maker. Rory is an LSE student who, in the challenging times of the pandemic, founded Coronavirus Community Volunteering (CCV Global) supporting people in their local communities. The charity has now spread all around the world with help of Rory's fellow students.

In this episode of The Change Makers we meet an inspiring youth leader Junior Smart, who on release from prison set up the SOS Project, London’s largest gangs' ex-offenders exit programme, and a charity St Giles Trust. Junior talks about his personal experience and failings of the penal system.

In the new episode of The Change Makers, Sir Tom introduces us to Dame Esther Rantzen, who following her career as a successful broadcaster, created two charities Childline promoting child protection  and The Silver Line UK combating loneliness in older people's lives

In episode fifteen of The Change Makers we meet Brad Gudger whose personal experience with cancer has given him an asset and skills to create a charity Alike to support and guide other people diagnosed with cancer.

In the second last episode of the first series of #TheChangeMakers, Sir Tom meets with Sophie Humphreys OBE, founder and driver of two charities: Pause, focusing on the wellbeing of children taken into care and SHiFT, a charity enabling children & young people to escape the destructive cycles of crime.

“Survivors feel different to other people, like they don’t fit in, whereas here they meet each other and they connect...” In the last episode of the Change Makers Sir Tom meets Fiona Ellis and Clare Wilson, founders of Survivors in Transition helping survivors of sexual abuse.