Our stories

According to the over half of the world’s people live in urban areas, a figure that will reach nearly 70% by 2050. One challenge of urban growth is to ensure cities are healthy and sustainable places where people can thrive. But how can that best...

This journey starts in October, when I joined the On Purpose Associate Programme, started at my first placement at King’s College London and took the WWF for the first time. Horrified, I learnt that annually I was using 200% of my share of the...

The science is clear. We are facing a climate crisis — a crisis that could cause . We need to take dramatic action to cut emissions in half within 12 years, in order to limit the most catastrophic consequences of climate change. Just as the...

How to confront existential threat, and remain positive.“It is worse, much worse, than you think.”The Uninhabitable Earth, David Wallace-Wells’ new book about climate breakdown, gives fair warning before pummelling the reader with horrifying...

Sophie Preuss is half way through the On Purpose Associate Programme. Here she shares her experience in the social investment space, which she’s gained during the first 6 months of the programme with a placement at CAF Venturesome. "As my first...

The term ‘social enterprise’ can describe a wide range of organisations which look different in pretty much every way. When who they help and how they do it vary so wildly, it can be tricky to see the common thread.Most of the time, it doesn’t...

I believe passionately in the value of creativity. As an awkward child in many ways, whose constant feedback at parents evening was something along the lines of “ I think Hannah is doing fine, but it’s hard to tell because she never speaks ”. I...

In this post, Victor Gimenez, an Associate of the London April 2018 cohort, analyses the historic flow of innovation, the characteristics of frugal innovation and how the work carried forward by Nesta, his first placement, has helped support...

On one of the first warm weekends in June, sixteen On Purpose associates arrived at — excited but perfectly clueless about what was to come next. Not that knowing in advance would have done any justice whatsoever to the experience we shared...

Dot Dot Dot’s Property Guardianship encourages people to act with positive impact.I was first introduced to Property Guardianship a few years ago by a friend. As an actor trying to make it in London, he was looking for accommodation that matched...

How big of a problem are mental health issues?The figures will perhaps surprise those who haven’t heard them before: approximately 1 in 4 people in the UK will experience a mental health problem each year; in England, 1 in 6 people report...

I’ve spent the last 6 months searching for a job that I really want to do. It’s an incredibly privileged position to be in but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. As another On Purpose cohort prepares to do the same, I thought I’d share some of my...