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In the words of Adele, “Hello….from the other side”

After almost a year away on maternity leave I am happy to announce I am firmly back in the Future Foundations saddle and resuming my role as Senior Partnerships Manager. It’s such a pleasure to be back working with the best team in the world and exciting to see the positive impact FF’s incredible programmes have had on the lives of young people around the globe in the past 12 months.

It’s clearly been a productive year across the board and I’m delighted to introduce to you all to my son, Rory Christopher Wilford Baines Hamblin. I am nothing if not generous with the names.

He’s a very happy chap, with a expensive appetite for blueberries, impressive top speed on all fours and a growing repertoire of animal impressions – most of which sound like a growl. It’s been an incredible, at times challenging and utterly life-changing 11 months. I have discovered a lot about myself in the process and more than I ever wanted to know about baby bowel movements, which you’ll be pleased to know I have taken a vow never to disclose in the workplace.

Having spent a large proportion of my time at Future Foundations expounding the value of character education and the importance of developing grit and resilience I can report that becoming a parent has tested mine enormously. Sleep deprivation has not defeated me (yet – these are early days admittedly!) and I’ve discovered a pit of determination to persevere through pain and discomfort that comes from having a thing greater than yourself to care for.

One of the biggest changes in my outlook over the last year has been to understand now, more than ever the old proverb ‘we do not inherit the world from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children’. I feel a renewed sense of stewardship, a desire to speak up and make society better and push for a fairer world for Rory to live in. I have never felt more proud to represent an organisation whose vision is of a society where all organisations are led by socially conscious people, with every young person making the transition into adulthood with the foundations they need for their future.