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Bonus: Anthropy26 with Rosie Jones, Founder, The Rosie Jones Foundation and Kim Samuel, Founder, The Belonging Forum - Who Gets to Belong?
310 Plays14 days ago
Anthropy UK is described as the UK's largest gathering of future makers - inspiring a better Britain.
Held annually at the Eden Project in Cornwall, Anthropy brings together leaders from civil society, business, academia, and government, to re-imagine how the country can thrive.
This year (2026), I was invited to participate in Anthropy, and it was a real privilege to moderate a session with Rosie Jones, Founder of The Rosie Jones Foundation, and Kim Samuel, Founder of the Belonging Forum.
Recorded at Anthropy26, this powerful conversation examines what it means to truly belong in today’s society, disrupts assumptions around disability, and challenges all of us as leaders to reflect on how our organisations can actively enable inclusion and belonging.
Recorded March 2026.
Correction Note: 8% of disabled people in the UK are wheelchair users, not 3% as stated in podcast
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Transcript
Introduction to Anthropy UK and the Charity CEO Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Anthropy UK is described as the UK's largest gathering of future makers, inspiring a better Britain. Held annually at the Eden Project in Cornwall, Anthropy brings together leaders from civil society, business, academia, and government to reimagine how the country can thrive.
00:00:17
Speaker
This year, I was invited to participate in Anthropy, and it was a real pleasure to moderate a session with Rosie Jones, founder of the Rosie Jones Foundation, and Kim Samuel, founder of the Belonging Forum.
00:00:29
Speaker
Recorded at Anthropy 26, this powerful conversation examines what it means to truly belong in today's society, disrupts assumptions around disability, and challenges all of us as leaders to reflect on how our organizations can actively enable inclusion and belonging.
00:00:45
Speaker
Enjoy the conversation.
00:00:55
Speaker
Welcome to an exciting new season of the Charity CEO Podcast, where we bring you the stories and insights of remarkable leaders who are changing the world for the better. We talk to the movers and shakers who are driving positive social change, inspiring you to think big, act boldly, and make a difference.
00:01:12
Speaker
A huge shout out to our incredible global community of listeners spanning over 55 countries. Your thoughtful comments and feedback continue to fuel this growing movement, and we couldn't do it without you.
00:01:23
Speaker
To all of you who pour your hearts and souls into making the world a better place, especially those of you in the charity and nonprofit sectors, thank you for the tireless passion you bring to your work. This podcast is for you.
00:01:35
Speaker
I'm Divya O'Connor, and here's the show.
Exploring Belonging, Voice, and Power in Public Life
00:01:39
Speaker
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you all for joining us for this session on belonging, voice, visibility, and power in public life. I'm Divya O'Connor, and I am joined on stage by two founders who it is my pleasure to introduce.
00:01:57
Speaker
Now, some of you may recognize one of them as a famous comedian, and Rosie told me to say that if you don't know who she is, you can leave the room now. Get out!
00:02:12
Speaker
In all seriousness, I am delighted to introduce Rosie Jones, who's here in her capacity as the founder of the Rosie Jones Foundation, which is focused on closing real gaps in support for people with cerebral palsy through lived experience-led mental health support and peer connection. She is, of course, also a disability rights activist, as well as an award-winning comedian and writer.
Belonging Forum's Insights on Social Connections
00:02:42
Speaker
I am equally delighted to introduce Kim Samuel, founder and chief architect of the Belonging Forum, a global research, advocacy and action organization working to combat social isolation and build belonging.
00:03:00
Speaker
So, what is belonging? Belonging isn't a slogan. It's about whether people feel heard, valued and able to influence the world around them.
00:03:13
Speaker
The Belonging Forum has just launched its 2026 Belonging Barometer, which is its third annual report examining belonging in the yeah UK. And this looks at people's connection to others, to the places they live in, to the institutions and systems that shape their lives, and to meaning and purpose this in everyday life.
00:03:35
Speaker
The findings draw on a nationally representative survey of 10,000 adults conducted by Opinium, and the polling analysed figures from the general population broken down by demographics including gender, age, disability, tenure and working status. And I'm just going to share a few key statistics that the belonging barometer this year found. 42% of the respondents said that they mostly feel that they belong.
00:04:09
Speaker
But 22%, which is around 12 million people in the UK, say that they feel that they don't really belong or indeed belong at all. And this rises to 34% of people who identify as having a disability who feel that they do not belong. So the data is showing that belonging is present, but it is fragile and uneven.
00:04:34
Speaker
And aggregated since 2020, 39% feel less connected to Britain. And this rises to almost half or 47% of people who reported having a disability. So the point I think that the data is trying to show is that social connection is an abstract. It really directs our daily life, shaping who feels heard, who feels safe. who feels able to contribute and who feels they must adapt in order to fit in.
00:05:08
Speaker
The intention of this session is to move belonging out of the realm of sentiment and into the realm of leadership to examine how voice, visibility and power are actively designed to the choices that leaders and institutions make every day.
Rosie Jones on Personal Experiences of Exclusion
00:05:25
Speaker
And on that note, Rosie, coming to you first, Can you describe a moment where you were technically included, but you didn't actually feel that you belonged? And how has your personal lived experience shaped what you're building through the Rosie Jones Foundation?
00:05:43
Speaker
Yeah, and so as you said, I'm not here a if I'm funny at any point, don't laugh.
00:06:02
Speaker
naughty. But obviously, I've been working for on and off screen. I've found that We may progress, not progress enough in terms of disability and diversity. And I'm going to try and be quite ob abstract, but if you want to see me later, I'll ask you. dissed the dirt.
00:06:57
Speaker
But I remember being a guest on one particular panel show was a big deal for me. I was...
00:07:14
Speaker
their first disabled guest and like I said, I think they were very happy peter include to me. They thought by booking one disabled person they were solving diversity. Dick!
00:07:41
Speaker
move on and I got to the set and there was a step onto the stage and in order for me to use a step I need a rail. So I said, oh, um what are we going to do what about that?
00:08:11
Speaker
Step. Have we got time to take it out? I derail. I don't mind someone helping me and they shat themselves.
00:08:29
Speaker
Stop laughing. And they said, oh, don't worry, you don't need to do that part of the show.
00:08:45
Speaker
And they thought the answer they get around was to to me from the most important part of that TV show. And luckily, I know where I am. I'm very confident in my abilities. So what was I able to say no.
00:09:18
Speaker
now No, don't exclude me. Just saying don't do it isn't acceptance. It isn't making me feel like I belong here. I'm absolutely gonna participate in that part of the show.
Understanding Inclusion vs. Belonging
00:09:49
Speaker
you need to get your finger out your ass and you need to make it more accepting for me and they did but
00:10:10
Speaker
and me being like, you're doing this.
00:10:25
Speaker
If they're booking disabled person, they should be the one going great, perfect. How do we change what we do in the order to make Rosie feel accepted for like she belonged to itself. Yet unfortunately, especially in the comedy world, it still takes me to be quite
00:11:21
Speaker
Thank you, Rosie. That's such a great practical example of where oftentimes somebody is invited to have a seat at the table and then they're perhaps given a microphone that doesn't work. but Luckily, these mics are all working here today. So, Kim, drawing on your experience and particularly the research from the Belonging Forum,
00:11:48
Speaker
Tell us about what separates what we call inclusion from belonging in practice. Thank you. Having heard the story that that you just told, Rosie, and going back to the beginning, the way you framed our session about moving belonging from sentiment, which I would define if that's so nice that you care about people, into belonging. leadership, perhaps the most important thing that I can say, although I suspect most of you know it, is that we're looking at leadership right now with Rosie not in the way of, and for anyone with disabilities, feeling that they need to fight to be in any room, whether they're a speaker or not, but in order to be able for people who are non-disabled and disabled to be able to see that the that the leaders are people most generally who have had the the experience and not the victimhood, the resilience.
00:12:58
Speaker
And thank you for what you shared because it makes it somewhat easy for me to to weave these these two things together. Inclusion is is vital.
00:13:09
Speaker
And i I would say it's not so much about inclusion as is defined. It's about inclusion as practiced. And inclusion in the world of belonging, which I frame, we frame as the connection to four Ps.
00:13:26
Speaker
four words that begin with the letter P and its connection to people, which I think we've all experienced a good measure of these last few days at Anthropy. ah Connection to place, which which isn't only places that are provided for people to convene, it's really about what happens in those places and knowing the history of the lands that you're on, nature and and in terms of architecture and design. It's about universal design and principles, which doesn't mean we have to do something special for people with disabilities or any mobility issue or any number of other ah disabilities that that could affect someone's experience. It's about this is good for everyone. And I feel like that's a point that needs to be stressed. Okay, so that's all inclusion. and What's the difference between inclusion or really belonging?
00:14:24
Speaker
I think that we come into two more of the letter P's and round it out. Power. People ask sometimes, could they just talk about the other three without power? Power vital. Who decides what gets researched? Well, at the belonging forum, we decide to research belonging. We can do that. In government, who decides what gets researched? Is people in power?
00:14:50
Speaker
Who's in power? And I don't mean who's in power, this country, another country, wherever we go. It's about what are the priorities and who is being looked to not only to give input but actually to lead. And that activism part to me really extends there. And the fourth one is about purpose, our greater our greater sense of why. But inclusion, i used to have to explain inclusion as opposed to social connectedness. And I would answer, and I'll do it now, inclusion means that I can, if it's within my purview, I can give you a seat at the table.
00:15:30
Speaker
Well, that's not very much a seat at the table because what we're doing in the belonging forum. and And by the way, I think many of you are working on belonging and building belonging and you may not know it, which I think is also part of our job.
00:15:47
Speaker
But it's about, for me, I'm very happy to have a seat at this table with you, with both of you today and to talk about this. But with me, it's not about my seat at the table. It's about holding up this space and working at it every day for those, the leaders, the warriors, compassionate warriors, which is how I see you to come in. So when we come to belonging, it's it's not a judgment about who belongs and who doesn't. Everyone belongs, period, by simple virtue of the fact that we are born. We all have a birthright of belonging.
00:16:24
Speaker
And yet, and and as we see, and I guess for me, everything is personal for all of us, so I should i should say that. And a lot of our stories come from kind of what's happened in in your family or your friends or or where you journey in your life. And so so for me, all this work started about three decades ago when my late father had a brain injury, was in a coma for three months. And i I was sharing with you, Rosie, I got aware very quickly about ageism first because he had just turned 65. And when he awoke very slowly, he had acquired a lot of disabilities.
00:17:02
Speaker
And we did have insurance, that was really good. Comprehensive policies, we thought. Not one dollar for his rehabilitation. Why? Because he had reached his sundown years. Sundown years meant 65 and older. If he were 95, I would have been just as angry because these are these are not even decisions. You know, sometimes when you when decisions aren't made, bad ones come up in their place.
00:17:30
Speaker
and And so that that to me seemed an issue of justice. And then we got him, we were fortunate, we could we could get rehabilitation. And i that kind of woke me up to, well, what's going on with him? Most people couldn't do that. So this is this has got to work on this, got to work on this. And the disability part, it came to me where I kept seeing, and still do every morning, a figure sitting alone at the bottom of a well.
00:17:56
Speaker
outside of all circles of concern, quite often no one there to sit by them. And I don't mean sit by them in a way of, poor you. That victimhood part has to go. But it came to me as, i was going to work on this for the rest of my life, and a couple of other things pointed me to that.
00:18:15
Speaker
But it's about... not the disabilities, it's the way people treat and their attitudes and perceptions and frankly lack of education about people with disabilities. And I looked at, well, what about poverty? And I work on, and some of my colleagues that are in the room on poverty in its many dimensions, multiple dimensions of which income poverty is one.
00:18:39
Speaker
but looking at poverty, however you come to it, I looked around and looked at sort of travels and have ever since where I've met people. It's not the people that are experiencing poverty. And mostly, whatever we're talking about, you don't often know if so you know what someone's challenges are unless they tell you. And you...
00:19:02
Speaker
We all come with multiple identities. It was the way that they were treated and perceived because they were poor. And then I looked at people that were experiencing homelessness.
00:19:13
Speaker
It's not the homelessness. It isn't. It's the way homelessness is perceived. So I want to say your question was a really great question. But it's not this or that to me. you know but Belonging is the thing that lifts up all of the others and then becomes really nuanced. And to make it simple, to make it simple, I ask that everybody treats me with respect.
00:19:42
Speaker
When I tell them who I am, they believe me. I wish that for you, for you, for you know for all of you. We want to be seen and heard. Those words have come up through this gathering. But I want to add and punctuate seen and heard for who you say you are, how you show up, and to be respected and supported and vice versa.
00:20:05
Speaker
And it sounds so simple. i just hope I live a really long life because I know I'll be doing this until the day that I die. yeah
00:20:17
Speaker
ah think before I say this, I'm going to caveat it with.
Comedy and Attitude Change Towards Disabilities
00:20:32
Speaker
great week.
00:20:34
Speaker
But for me, on this panel.
00:20:48
Speaker
But if I really look into it, no shade to anyone in the room but somebody.
00:21:03
Speaker
I thought, oh, Rosie's disabled, we'll put a ramp in, even though because of my disability I can't use ramps, I can't use so sta all night it I need either a rail or I need a person. So, as I said, very happy to be here, but let's
00:21:52
Speaker
like I belong here because some monsters are shit We've got a disabled person put a ramp in quickly even though ramps are for wheelchair users and no need.
00:22:20
Speaker
3% of disabled people are Real-J users. Is that catch-all things? Have we made it accessible? Yes.
00:22:36
Speaker
We've got a and that My disability literally does not stop me doing anything apart from wearing high heels.
00:23:11
Speaker
But I wouldn't wear high heels because I'm gay. So I'm okay.
00:23:23
Speaker
But what does stop me doing things is attitudes, it's structures, it's non-disabled people designing buildings that don't make me feel welcome.
00:23:48
Speaker
So in order to fundamentally make disabled people and other diverse people feel like we belong in society. We need to start changing. other people's attitudes. We are not the one with the problem. It's up to non-disabled people to be better allies and start thinking about us.
00:24:39
Speaker
Thank you You both so beautifully articulated the point about belonging is being seen and heard for who you are as an individual and how you show
Agency, Choice, and Systemic Change for Inclusion
00:24:52
Speaker
up. And Rosie, your point that it's only 3% disabled people who are wheelchair users. I think so. Don't quote me on that.
00:25:04
Speaker
ah my ah I have absolutely bullshitted. but a schel ah A smaller percentage and just ticking that box of having a ramp actually doesn't serve every individual within that category.
00:25:25
Speaker
So Rosie, comedy often disarms people and it also gives you access to rooms and audiences that you may not have otherwise.
00:25:38
Speaker
How has that perspective and your experience with comedy shaped the work of your foundation? Yeah, but it's interesting and I'm just gonna quickly scan the room. now No one in here has been a dickhead to me this week.
00:26:05
Speaker
I've really had a great week here because, as I said, I'm not here as comedian. I'm here as a founder of my own foundation and all my life.
00:26:28
Speaker
I have used comedy. I remember one of my first memories is knowing that when I smiled,
00:26:44
Speaker
I made my mum happy and I was three years old so I did not have the cognitive understanding of it yet.
00:27:01
Speaker
But at three years old, I couldn't walk. I couldn't be on understood by anyone but my mum and dad. Obviously, they were worried about me. They did not know.
00:27:26
Speaker
what kind of life I would lead. But I knew that if fire were happy later on, if I made them shi smile, if I made them laugh, that was good.
00:27:50
Speaker
Now, Not in a bad way, but I think a lot of you had just heard that and thought, oh, that's lovely.
00:28:08
Speaker
That's very for a three year old. but because I was a disabled one. I was a child and it was all to me to show my parents and later to show my school friends and my teachers.
00:28:40
Speaker
Don't worry, I'm disabled, but I'm okay, I'm happy and it really took till I was 30 years old to go. Yeah.
00:28:59
Speaker
Sometimes I'm fucking angry. Sometimes I don't want to explain myself. Sometimes I don't want to make you oh okay with my disability because I'm not okay with my disability.
00:29:30
Speaker
Tongue in tea, carry all my sex. There's only one thing worse than a disabled person, and that's a I I'm really sad today. You could see them go shit and they know what the day wo were broken a to happy lady.
00:30:22
Speaker
And back to your question, it's now knowing. that comedy is a choice.
00:30:35
Speaker
I choose when I want a years to use comedy. I choose when I want to be happy. And I think if I were to go to my foundation,
00:30:56
Speaker
Things really shifted for me. When turned 30, really looked into ableism and realised that I had been experiencing abeligen for three decades and it wasn't my fault. but I was able to shed that load. I was able to enter therapy. I was able to say
00:31:40
Speaker
I love me, I love who I am, but sometimes it's okay to be really fucking angry with the world because I am disabled and I think especially when you've got A thing to say. I am struggling with my mental health even though it takes so much more.
00:32:27
Speaker
for people like me to with with guardrails at and time again, so you well are not welcome.
00:32:53
Speaker
in this space. So something that we do at the Foundation is called Disability Plus that links disabled people with counsellors and I pay privately for myself and I've been seeing a therapist now for the year who has the same disability as me and for me every week to talk
00:33:54
Speaker
candidly with a person who gets it, who gets the anger, who gets the sadness, is an absolute absolute game changer. So am I gonna quit my career in comedy? No, because I still love making people laugh, but it's now just happening.
00:34:32
Speaker
the stillness and the power for me to go. I will be funny when decide to. am the one in control of my power.
00:35:02
Speaker
Thank you, Rosie, for highlighting that happiness is a choice and that it's okay to be angry with the world or injustice, but you can choose, and that is your power, you can choose how you show up in the world.
Identity and Belonging in Societal Ecosystems
00:35:19
Speaker
So we are here at the wonderful Eden Project, and i would like to use the analogy of a rainforest to frame my next question.
00:35:31
Speaker
So in a rainforest, you have myriad, multiple, individual flora and fauna. And all of them uniquely contribute to a much bigger and broader ecosystem and together work in a symbiotic way in order to create a healthy and thriving rainforest.
00:35:56
Speaker
And with that analogy and context in mind of the individual within the bigger ecosystem, Kim, could you please share some thoughts on identity and belonging?
00:36:11
Speaker
I like the analogy of the rainforest. And this is a wonderful place, Eden. And i had dinner and in the rainforest last night, and it had never occurred to me that I could i could walk from Cornwall to Malaysia in about 500 steps. it was a Malaysian hut.
00:36:32
Speaker
But since you brought up this beautiful analogy, I want to say something about the rainforest and then about belonging, how easy it is for something that is intricate and in many places, symbiotic relationships that we see in trees and elsewhere, how easy it is for all of that to be destroyed. And it may start with the species, it may start with denying the people whose whose land, whose rainforest that is, I'm thinking in the Amazon, for example, their belonging.
00:37:11
Speaker
And then we can see how quickly that relationship between people and ecosystem can be broken down. And the interdependence that that you are pointing to, Divya, can all just literally or figuratively go up in flames. So I want to bring it back to talking about, i guess, identity, but but really what are the conditions for belonging and something that I've heard in different conversations, different sessions that I've gone to here to to bring it right down to this room, which is safety.
00:37:49
Speaker
And I would like to just take a moment to stress the importance of not only being safe, feeling safe, feeling supported. I wanted to go back, if i if I might, Rosie, just to when you were talking about, I think, comedy more than happiness is your choice.
00:38:12
Speaker
and And happiness can be defined in a lot of different ways. But I feel that Belonging is really important to happiness because if you don't feel that you belong and you can choose whether or not you belong, that you can choose, you can choose not to belong. It's important.
00:38:30
Speaker
But there's certain basics and one of them is safety. Be safe, be physically safe is something that we take for granted depending on where we live and sometimes even in what neighborhood we live.
00:38:47
Speaker
And in terms of feeling safe, I really want to point that out too, because my person, who I first started to see representing my dad at the bottom of the well, it was not his disabilities.
00:39:01
Speaker
His identity never changed. A lot of people thought it did though. That's the misconception. So he was treated as less than, and I came to see that that can happen with people with disabilities, but also with just about every one of us. No one's immune to this, what we're talking about.
00:39:21
Speaker
If we don't have the feeling of safety and physical safety and in terms of our mental health and in terms of you know the the term safety net, that each of us can be there and it's reciprocal. And one day you may be part of ah the safety net for another person. you You may be the only hand in that moment they can hold onto. And next time it'll be reversed.
00:39:49
Speaker
But I think that the the issue isn't identity, although it's really important what you're talking about, but it goes back to, you tell me who you are, and you tell me what your identity or which identity are you showing up as today, and I will, that's my responsibility, to honor that and to but to believe you. But I think about going beyond the rainforest and all of us, we are nature too.
00:40:19
Speaker
we're we're not very safe right now. We don't feel very safe right now. Even being around Anthropia or any gathering that that is really positive in spirit and what can we build together, it's going to put us in in kind of an up mood. It's about what happens when we go home or read the paper or, you know, I spend a lot, really fortunate, I get to spend a lot of time with students. And students coming, graduating, you know be say beginning of your life or younger, you know people teenagers not wanting to go to go out, and not really feeling, knowing how to connect or spending a lot of time with digital media, which could be a whole other day. But I think we've lost the
00:41:05
Speaker
not only the the practice, but also the the art and the the spiritual component, whether you are religious or not, of what it is to connect. And it's kind of like you know a muscle. But when we're talking about, and I'll use using your foundation, Rosie, and I think that As I see, i have lots more to learn. But the vision the vision behind this is not to simply say, we need to get someone something for their mobility, or we need to get school to say, we you know we will ah
00:41:42
Speaker
take you at our school at our school, which everyone has a right to that anyway. It's about how are you inside? And how are you inside? We know mental health is health. But the fact that you've identified for and really younger people that your foundation is supporting, not treating as victims, they're the experts about their own health, and they can choose what they what they do, but I want to say, like everybody else, and at a time when our safety, our well-being, our getting scared in the night, seeing what's happening in the world, and we don't really know what's around the corner, and we're looking at climate devastation, ah want to point out that Rosie and I are, and all of you, we're not
00:42:28
Speaker
Different because Rosie's a comedian and Rosie, which is a rare gift, and Rosie has disabilities. it's Again, it's not the disabilities, it's the resilience, it's the strength, it's the warrior in you. So into that ecosystem.
00:42:44
Speaker
It only works in the rainforest and with us if every single person is valued. We all come into this world equal. I mean, how how odd does that sound today? And it's like like the muscle in your arm. The thing is that the rehab here, is it's not just about a cast. It's about what is it that we see as opportunities? What are the assaults?
00:43:12
Speaker
that really happen in in the quiet places where nobody can see? What does bystand or apathy mean today when we see someone's hurting? And if we can take that time, and that's what you're doing, no one is the same, but we're all equal, then then the answer's here, but but it's not easy. I think that's the thing. And I would just say that when we look at differences, we shouldn't look at polarities or wide gaps. And this goes to the geopolitical realities that we're in now. Let's and not just simply say it's important. you know We're more together than we are alone. We have more in common. That is really true. But what we're doing, it doesn't square up that way. And we all when we all leave here,
00:43:59
Speaker
I think it's worth thinking about not just what can I do for others, but how's my own situation looking? And to be really honest about how vulnerable we are. And then like the rainforest, and for me, i always talk about the trees and the roots of trees. It's on the cover of my my book. They're only going to be as strong as how we care for them.
00:44:22
Speaker
And maybe that's most what we can learn as part of nature. Back to the forest. I think more and more we are told to be proud of our identity and I am so proud of my identity but if I tell you who I yeah i am, ah
00:44:52
Speaker
proud, disabled, gay, in London, often so... till I die.
00:45:16
Speaker
um Obviously I've never been met anyone that I can relate to on every single level. That means every space I enter I feel like they're all drawn out and I nothing think before
00:45:48
Speaker
Meeting Kim and finding out about the belonging for them. I thought belonging was one thing. I thought I had to find a person, a place of a feeling where I go, yeah, you're one person, you're one place, you're one community, you get all of me. I'm not going to find that. And for me, belonging is much smaller and I find places to belong depending on
00:46:45
Speaker
who I am, how I'm feeling, what I need that particular day. So it's just accepting every single part of your identity and being okay with the fact that you can find your different places, people and communities. thinking about leadership responsibility to design and create the conditions and the avenues and the options for people as individuals to choose and have agency to the extent that they want to belong. i'd like to pose a final question to both of you.
Creating Inclusive Societies Without Conformity
00:47:41
Speaker
How do we build a society where people are not asked to make themselves smaller, quieter or more acceptable in order to fit in and all belong?
00:47:55
Speaker
I think it's simple. I think it's get out there. It's talk to the people. Let's talk to different people. Don't make decisions for a group person I do not speak for all disabled people because disability isn't a person personality type
00:48:41
Speaker
when you consider that 24% of the UK have a disability, no one person can speak for a quarter of the population. So it's just leading by example, focusing on the best.
00:49:11
Speaker
needs for someone on and it's not assuming that one and type of person needs one particular thing.
00:49:28
Speaker
I would add to that that we need to think about leadership much more in terms of of service. It's a thing, service leadership.
00:49:41
Speaker
And that when we have opportunities to be in leadership positions, that we don't think in four-year cycles or election cycles for those in in government, but instead we think for for the next generation and use indigenous principles of, for example, seven generations forward and seven generations backward, not not just how can it be good for me right now.
00:50:13
Speaker
I think that we need to go to leaders that are in government now from wherever we are and talk about belonging along with or maybe start with what what you're doing, what your organization's doing, what your DPhil thesis is about, where you want to work.
00:50:36
Speaker
Go to your members of parliament and connect it with belonging because I really believe that this is the you know the rising rising tide lifts all boats, yeah? I think that's extremely important.
00:50:50
Speaker
And just one last one last thought. need to go to we need to go back to looking at faith in each other, not to assume that that everyone's moving too fast. I think everyone that was moving too fast, maybe I don't have a, I wouldn't want to be wrong on a number, but a lot of a lot of people are now asking the same questions. What is it to be human?
00:51:19
Speaker
What am I doing? What is my identity? Where does that common ground lead to care? And I think that the the matter of trust we see so much now, and there's conferences about trust. But I would go even down back to the rainforest or any trees, the roots of the tree, is that will also lead us to having faith in ourself and our ability to see a better future for everyone. And last, be a warrior.
00:51:56
Speaker
And if you're not a warrior, get behind warriors and be really bold. And here's one right here. Thank you.
00:52:12
Speaker
Rosie Jones, Kim Samuel, thank you for those wonderful insights and for sharing your personal experiences. You've made very clearly the point that belonging is not about making everyone comfortable. It is about, as we've heard through the conversation, creating the conditions where individuals can fully show up and influence the systems around them.
00:52:39
Speaker
It is about giving agency, voice and choice. And so the closing reflection is to invite you all to consider this question.
00:52:52
Speaker
Where in your organizations are people present but not powerful? And what would it mean to design for belonging intentionally? Thank you.
Closing Remarks and Engagement Encouragement
00:53:06
Speaker
Well, that's a wrap on another inspiring episode of the Charity CEO Podcast. I hope today's conversation left you feeling empowered and uplifted. I know it did for me. If you loved what you heard, please share the joy by leaving us a quick review on your favorite podcast platform.
00:53:22
Speaker
Reviews really help us reach more listeners and grow this amazing community of change makers. Be sure to also hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode. And for even more inspiration and resources, head on over to thecharityceo.com.
00:53:36
Speaker
There, you can dive into our past episodes from the last five seasons and find valuable content to help fuel your impact. Thank you for listening. And remember, together, we're building a better world.
00:53:49
Speaker
See you next time.