Introduction: Key details about the trip

Hello! Our names are Waithira and Sacdiyo and we live here in Feltham. On the 30th August, we visited the Tate Modern and the Houses of Parliament with other young people who participated in the FCP Summer Research Programme. One of the most exciting things about this trip was we got to meet Seema Malhotra, the Labour MP for Feltham & Heston!

Recently I attended the Strive Together conference in Chicago: a convening of Cradle to Career (C2C) non-profits from across the US.

The StriveTogether conference was a fantastic opportunity to learn from some of the experts in collective impact work, connect with a wide range of sites doing this work across the US, and sense check how our collective impact partnership is doing in relation to all the other inspiring partnerships we heard about. It was also very helpful to have time and space to come together as a team to reflect and learn.

I’ve been working with the Feltham Convening Partnership for over six months now and getting the opportunity to attend the Strive Conference in Chicago made me reflect on what led me to apply to work with the Feltham Convening Partnership in the first place. Why am I so invested in this work? At first, I thought it was because I wanted a job that made me feel good, that made me feel that I was making a difference.

Last month at the Strive Together annual conference in Chicago, I remembered what it’s like to physically be in a space with 500 people, listening to someone share their story, their experience, their knowledge - and it was wonderful! The spontaneous and unexpected moments when we all held our breath as one, or were compelled to get up on our feet as a way of showing respect and support, the palpable energy… what an absolute joy not to be on zoom!