A rich mix

People inspire me. I am not suggesting I am unique to this, but it energises me when people get together: conversations happen, and ideas spring from ideas.

To me, this marks the start of change. Although change can be daunting, it is also exciting, hopeful even. And, it's what's needed if ingrained social problems are going to be tackled.
Today, I have been privileged to spend time in a room with twenty inspiring individuals at a JRF event. It's been a rich mix of topical issues, twenty different approaches with a shared vision: to inspire social change.

An onlooker could comment (incorrectly I hasten to add) "clever chat for the sake of clever chat". But sometimes 'chat' is just what's needed. Perhaps we don't make sufficient time in our daily grind for meaningful chat? Often it’s conversation that frees us from the mental boundaries within which we too often confine ourselves. And mental freedom is the point from which incremental thought starts. By incremental thought, I mean new ideas and new approaches, emerging from the old.

As we enter a time of potential political uncertainty, it's probably more important than ever that we make time to talk. The issues discussed today – poverty, inequality, housing, climate change – are not going to miraculously disappear. The Standard's week-long campaign on The Dispossessed highlights this. But talk can help, and I hope that today's event will lead to further conversation, careful reflection, new ideas and a change for the better.

Footnote:

Today's event, held at RichMix in London was a follow-up to JRF Sessions 2009. JRF Sessions is a diverse programme of events that aim to:

• inspire individuals/organisations by showing how JRF uses a wide range of impartial evidence to inform policies and practices to improve the lives of disadvantaged and disempowered people and communities;
• generate debate on how to inspire social change; and
• encourage delegates to establish good business relationships with each other and JRF so that, after the sessions, individuals and organisations can work together to make positive changes to vulnerable people's lives.