I was energised and inspired by so many people during, but especially towards the end of 2024. It is meeting people with passion and energy for the work they do that drives me on and keeps me focused on being ambitious for the Mulberry Bush and the potential it has to improve the lives of people troubled and traumatized as children.
It was a year in which I feel so proud of the charity supporting the development of services across the UK, as well as in India, Latvia and Ukraine.
We have a new charity leadership structure in place to help deliver our 10 year plan and so will be developing a Learning and Research Centre at the centre of the charity, bringing together our Outreach, Research and Consulting services.
This will help us value and nurture the relationships we’ve developed and grown over 2024, and the New Year makes me think about new beginnings and what 2025 will bring.
Before I talk about the year ahead, I spent a bit of time in December, reflecting on my beginnings in this work. I came across this photo of me in around 1990, on my first experience of the work – a weekend ‘camp’, on a canal boat.
I was working for the Stepney Children’s Fund charity with one other adult and 7 children from a special school in Tower Hamlets. I met them under a canal bridge in west London, in the dark on a Friday night. I hadn’t met any of them before.
It had been a weekend of experiential learning for me and I remember at the end of Sunday’s journey being left in sole charge of the 72-foot boat, steering from the stern, whilst the other leader went to get the minibus. I was terrified, and the children I think, sensed my anxiety and decided to threaten to throw one of their number off the front of the boat. In panic, I ran to the front whilst the boat drifted towards a couple having afternoon tea moored at the side of the canal. I remember their look of horror, as I sprinted back to take the helm again and managed to avoid any collision or the child getting thrown in! How things have changed in the management of activities today! The management of anxiety, your own and those you’re working with are key skills you learn and develop in this work.
Bob Le Vaillant was the inspiring leader of the charity and the founder of Scoutreach. Running camps for Bob were wild, fun, scary, amazing, formative learning experiences and the children hung on to his every word. Thrown in at the deep end, I learned to love working with challenge, fragility, and vulnerability. I certainly remember feeling challenged, fragile and vulnerable in ways I had never experienced before or knew existed. But also, that sense of pride and reward when things went well. I started to learn so much at this time, – how to manage my own feelings, to remain calm and contained, – how to make spaces to think and reflect when under intense pressure, how to really listen to what the behaviour the children displayed was communicating and how not to just reflect back what they threw at me in their words and actions. These times lit a fire inside me for the work and a desire to learn more. They are what led me to The Mulberry Bush as a volunteer in 1993.
There are still moments in the work today when I am reminded of a specific learning experience, usually a powerful feeling, in a Tower Hamlets Special School, on a camp or with a particular child / young person or group. I have that sense that I have ‘been here before’ and I can now reflect on what I learned that day, in that moment and apply it in the present.
At the Mulberry Bush, we are navigating what growth means to us as a 76-year-old charity with a strong name, heritage and legacy. How you transpose and translate the golden threads of all that is valued in the work we have done till now. How we develop new relationships, into new sectors, new partnerships and collaborations.
As a charity we are also focused on finding a better balance between the ‘business of treatment and the treatment of the business’, ensuring that we deliver charitable purpose but within a strong / stable business frame. One of our challenges is that we have a general rule that if people can pay for our services, they should. That said, if they can’t afford to pay, but it delivers charitable impact, we should try and do it.
As a result, we are very proud that we have been training and supporting psychologists and social workers across Ukraine for two years now and delighted to be working with the Parikrma Humanity Foundation who provide schools for children from the slums in Bengaluru, India.
As a leader and manager, it has been a challenging but rewarding year and I have greatly valued the support I have had from advisors, mentors, supporters and colleagues. It reminds me of the phrase we sometimes talk about; ‘growing up is tough at the Mulberry Bush’, – whether you are 9, 29 or 59, child, therapeutic childcare worker, manager or CEO. The work is challenging.
For me probably the biggest challenge is how you take people in the charity with you on the journey that you passionately believe in. Our journey is one of growth, change and development. How you get people to step with you out of our comfort zones.
This year we have been engaging with more staff and hearing their voices, their thoughts and ideas about the strategic plans for our future. This reminds me of an excellent book I read when training as a family therapist called ‘Invitations to Responsibility’ (Alan Jenkins) which talks about finding ways of helping people take greater agency and responsibility for all aspects of their lives. We are inviting all staff to share responsibility for our journey.
So, I feel really energised and positive when looking ahead to 2025.
- The school now has 2 x 52 week homes and 3 x 38 week homes and we are excited for all to be working with as many children as possible.
- We want to develop new Specialist Therapeutic Services, adding to our amazing school.
- We will be opening a new Learning and Research Centre and head office in Witney, West Oxfordshire, between our therapeutic community, primary non maintained special school with children’s homes and the Mulberry Bush Third Space, – our residential training centre and research Planned Environment Therapy Archive.
- We want Research to underpin practice not just for us, but for increasing numbers of those that we work with, and the archive has so much to offer learning in the present!
- We are excited to be extending the range of providers we work with through our Outreach and Consulting services, – schools, social care settings, youth justice, prisons and probation.
- We are delighted to be working with the Children’s Homes Association co-chairing their training group, developing a proposal to professionalise the social care workforce and to develop research.
My next post will focus on the importance and power of relationships and why in this work, it is all about relationships!!!
