Our stories

On 18th April 2019 I lost my Dad to suicide. That moment will be forever imprinted in my mind. I remember my blood curdling scream, blocking out all life. Being suspended in a never ending moment of silent sickening horror. In the months and...

Last Friday saw Kwasi Kwarteng, the UK’s new chancellor, announce his first budget - or his mini-budget to be precise. A Chancellor’s first budget is their opportunity to set a new course for the country, to share their vision for the UK’s...

Second Hand September is now coming to a close for the fourth year in a row. A campaign initiated by Oxfam in 2019, the goal is to encourage consumers to try buying only second hand clothes for at least 30 days. Gradually we are seeing more of a...

National Car Free Day started 25 years ago in 1997. In 2022, it falls on the 22nd September. It is a day where motorists are encouraged to give up their vehicles for the day, when roads are taken over by pedestrians and people are encouraged to...

For the past decade, many of our recreational decisions and desires have been influenced by social media. Whether it's choosing to go on certain holiday destinations, restaurants, or choosing what outfits to wear and picking what’s trending....

This month marks the one-year anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the fall of Kabul, and the retreat of Western military forces. August also marks 11 years since I finished the last of my four deployments to Afghanistan as an RAF...

The term "Refugee" has become loaded with all sorts of political and social connotations, so we sometimes forget that refugees are just normal people. People just like us with all the good, bad and indifferent characteristics that make us human,...

“We have so much fun”, “you make new friends”, “everyone listens to you”, “we have really nice leaders”, “we are always laughing here” - just a few quotes from my Brownies group when asked why they like coming to Brownies every Tuesday. “We get...

What initially drew you to On Purpose (and maybe still does)? I had known Tom Rippin since before the establishment of On Purpose, and over a period of several years we had occasionally met up and discussed the problems that we both saw in a...

During their time on the Associate Programme, our Associates work in two purpose-driven organisations and get hands-on experience with challenging industry projects. Placement hosts can be social enterprises, social divisions of for-profit...

'Lived experience’ can be defined as “Personal knowledge about the world gained through direct, first-hand involvement in everyday events rather than through representations constructed by other people” (1). The term has been increasingly used in...

The stereotype of a leader in the workplace has moved on from a white man in a suit, barking orders at his underlings through a plume of smoke. But what has this image been replaced with? The word ‘leader’ is still likely to conjure up images of...