Activate: New Fund Launches for Fellows
In April 2026, we will re-open the Activate Fund to award grants of up to £30,000, helping Churchill Fellows turn their brilliant Fellowship ideas and learning into practical action.
The Churchill Fellowship
A community of changemakers
About usLearning from the world. Inspiring change in the UK.
We are the Churchill Fellowship: a UK charity which supports individual UK citizens to follow their passion for change, through learning from the world and bringing that knowledge back to the UK. Together our community of Churchill Fellows use their international learning to lead the change they wish to see across every area of UK life. We were founded by public donation in 1965 as the living legacy of Sir Winston Churchill for the nation.
Discover upcoming events from Churchill Fellows
Join our Fellows at events happening across the UK and online, where they share the global insights and learning gained through their Churchill Fellowships.
New Advisory Council Member
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Noel Nelson to our Advisory Council – the expert body that helps shape the direction of our Fellowship.
New Trustees and Chair Designate
The Churchill Fellowship announces it has appointed Marina Brounger and Mark Damazer CBE to its Board of Trustees. In addition, Mark Damazer has been named Chair Designate and will formally take up the position of Chair of Trustees on 1 January 2026, when The Hon. Jeremy Soames concludes his tenure after nine years as Chair.
Connect and Inspire 2025: Welcoming our New Fellows
We were thrilled to welcome our 2025 Churchill Fellows to London for their first in-person gathering, Connect & Inspire, to support them to begin shaping their Fellowship journeys.
Celebrating 60 Years of the Churchill Fellowship
60 years since the launch of the Churchill Fellowship, nearly 6,000 Fellows have been pioneering change across the UK. To honour their work, we’re launching a £10m Appeal to fund the Activate Programme, empowering Fellows to turn their ideas into action.
Learning from the world
Ideas & expertsChurchill Fellows are a unique source of ideas from around the world for a range of issues across all areas of UK society. Read some of their latest below or head to our News and Views section to find out more.
Mark Damazer: Stepping into the role of chair
Mark Damazer reflects on his first weeks as Chair of the Churchill Fellowship, from reading and scoring this year’s applications to engaging with the scale, diversity, and generosity of ideas coming forward from across the UK. He shares how the Fellowship connects people rooted in communities nationwide, what he has learned from seeing the process up close, and his ambitions to build on this work – including through the Activate Fund – as the Fellowship enters its next chapter.
Following the questions: a Fellow's journey
From an off-the-cuff question as a teacher to lasting change across policy and practice, Sarah Beresford traces how curiosity shaped her Churchill Fellowship and everything that followed. She reflects on learning from other countries, turning insight into action, and how asking the right questions has helped centre children’s voices in the criminal justice system.
By Sarah Beresford, 22 January 2026
Supporting adolescent mental health in schools
Through his Churchill Fellowship, Charlie Samuda explored how schools in the USA, Canada, and South Korea are responding to the adolescent mental health crisis. Visiting over 30 organisations and schools, he examined how independent guidance, curriculum design, counselling, and safety systems can help schools support students more effectively. He reflects on what England could learn from these approaches as pressures on schools continue to grow.
By Charlie Samuda, 15 January 2026
Reflections from Jeremy Soames
As he steps down from his role as Chair, Jeremy Soames looks back on our 60th Anniversary year and his thirty-year involvement with the Churchill Fellowship.
In Conversation with Sophia Alexandra Hall: Empowering care-experienced voices in the media
We spoke to Churchill Fellow Sophia Alexandra Hall about how her Fellowship helped shape her trauma-informed interviewing toolkit, now used across major UK newsrooms. Drawing on her lived experience and 50 interviews in the USA, she reflects on the need for safer, more empowering media practices for care-experienced and other under-represented people. She also shares how this work has grown through training, conference speaking, and an expanding public platform at Big Issue.
By Sophia Alexandra Hall, 4 December 2025
Featured Fellows
Fellows Directory
Paul Ricci
Empowering boys to understand, express and regulate their emotions.
2024
Zara Todd
Supporting disabled people to take up high-level positions in organisations through leadership programmes
2016
Leah Macaden
Improving dementia care through new teaching models for nurses
2019
Kenny Imafidon
Engaging young people in politics through innovative social action campaigns
2016
Daniel Grant
Engaging deprived urban communities in handball sports
2020
Our impact
The Fellowship inspires change at many different levels. Fellows combine their personal vision and experience with their global learning to strengthen UK communities and sectors and influence services and policies locally and nationally. Many also tell us about the transformational impact of the Fellowship on their own lives.
Learn moreSupport us
We welcome support for our unique programme of Fellowships, which transform lives, communities and professions across the UK. You can help our work through donations, partnerships and legacies, which are vital for growing the impact and the opportunity we offer. We are always pleased to discuss ways to get involved.
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