Many of us are pleased to have seen the end of 2020, with a hope that 2021 will be a better year. Yet if you ask people about their highlight of 2020, most people can think of at least one thing that they enjoyed.
One of the things that I enjoyed during the first lockdown, was the clapping on a Thursday evening for the NHS. It was a small way of being able to say thank you to each and every worker who had risked their lives to help others. I think though that we can all think of a person we know or who is in our community who have helped ‘the 1’ through this worldwide pandemic.
Through the work that we do with FREEDOM 2, we have our ‘For the 1 blog’ that celebrates stories from your communities where you help and support others, but we also have our Ambassador programme, which is called ‘For the 1 Ambassador programme’. This was created so that our beneficiaries who have attended our programmes could come back and help their peers who might be struggling in the same way that they are. There is something quite powerful about young people inspiring and encouraging each other and we wanted to give them a platform in order to do this.
I was asked recently what I would want people to say my legacy was, I took a minute to think, as I was a bit taken aback by their question. I replied that I obviously want to help as many girls as possible in the work that I do in FREEDOM 2, but my overarching drive is that even if I only ever had one girl come back to me and say that I made an impact on their life, so that they could go on and reach their potential that would be enough for me. It really is about helping and investing into the 1. I know that I am not alone and many people are doing this day in and day out in their communities.
I have been thinking about this more through 2020 and felt that I wanted to invest some more time and energy into exploring this some more. So, I am really excited to tell all of our supporters that this year that we will be launching our FREEDOM 2 Podcast, ‘For the 1’. This will be an opportunity for people to tell their stories from their communities about how they are helping the 1. I hope you are excited as we are and will join us on our journey through 2021. We will keep you posted on the launch date shortly.
If you have a story to share and would like to join us on our podcast then do get in touch with mel.manning@freedom2.org.uk
Mel is the founder and Chief Operations Officer of FREEDOM 2