Can ambition be bad for you?

With some annual leave and the extended jubilee celebrations, it seems like a little while since I've written an update and there is so much going on at the moment it is difficult to know where to start!

A recurring theme of my conversations over recent weeks has been about ambition; how it is perceived and how it is achieved. This applies to our beneficiaries and their families, as well as the Caudwell Children team and our supporters.

What I have come to realise is that, while I've always believed that ambition is a wholly positive thing, it also has to be put into perspective because, like everything in our wonderfully diverse world, we all interpret it differently.

Some people's ambitions are long term and far-reaching visions of the future, where as others are smaller (but no less meaningful) achievements that can be realised more quickly. The issues can arise when individual perception of ambition is not taken into account, or the intention is not clearly communicated, and differences of ambition are wrongly perceived as differences of opinion.

This is an area I have been working on extensively over the last two years by helping to create a bridge between differences of ambition through clearly communicated, practical strategy documents which incorporate the long-term ambition of the charity with the short term deliverables we need to achieve.

This began with the introduction of our 'Big Bang' document and will continue with a new Marketing & Communications strategy which will start to be implemented this summer. We've not named the MarComms strategy yet, suggestions welcome!

More specifically, this week I have been working towards lots of the charity's ambitions.

First of all, during my short holiday and in between my usual hectic diary of meetings, calls and events I have been finalising some of the exciting details for this year's Butterfly Ball.

For those of you that don't know, The Butterfly Ball is the charity's flagship fundraising event. It actually started back in 1999 when we used to deliver it on John Caudwell's estate in Staffordshire, and then it moved to London in 2007 in line with the charity growing its reach and impact.

From that first event in 1999 it has always been John's and my ambition to make it the biggest, most successful charity gala in the world. Fast forward to 2022 and we are not only recognised as one of the most successful fundraising events in the UK, but we have also expanded to include a Butterfly Ball, Monaco thanks to John & Modesta, and the Butterflies on the Lake in Portugal later this summer.

But next up is Butterfly Ball, London which takes place on July 7th at The Londoner in Leicester Square and in doing so is fulfilling another ambition to create a huge spectacle right in the heart of the West End.

As any event manager knows, the pace and pressure to deliver an event builds with every day that passes and as such I've been spending every available minute supporting our Director of Events and her team with artist negotiations, supplier contracts, marketing and sales. We also braved London on the day of a tube strike to finalise some production details.

With such an iconic location and the elegant luxury of the 'world's first super-boutique hotel' I'm confident that our ambition to deliver another memorable event will exceed our guests expectations, resulting in another successful evening of fundraising and philanthropy...I look forward to seeing you there! www.caudwellchildren.com/butterflyball

Another of the charity's ambitions is to influence the built environment to be more inclusive, creating a better world for people with different abilities and sensory profiles in the future. One way we are contributing to that change is collaborating with industry and public sector on discussions regarding design in mental health.

As a proud board member of the Design In Mental Health Network and one of the advisory panel of this year's Design In Mental Health Exhibition & Conference, it was a delight to attend the event in Coventry on Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Good inclusive design has many ambitions and influences, but my particular area of interest is the systemic use of meaningful stakeholder engagement within the design process. Therefore it really was a pleasure to host two successful stakeholder engagement interactive workshops at the conference, and I was delighted with both the interest and involvement of a diverse group of people with the differences of ambition that led to two productive sessions.

There were literally hundreds of great contributors and facilitators over the two days that helped the overall success of the workshops, but in particular I would like to thank and congratulate our experts by experience, David Parkin and Nick Smith who added vital real-world evidence to discussions; and our own Dr Louise Joy-Johnson, who as a Clinical Psychologist could and did provide both practical and clinical insight into the use of design in different settings. Thank you!

Work towards this ambition continues next Tuesday when Ben Sutcliffe and I will present some of our learnings from building the Caudwell International Children's Centre (CICC) at the Inclusive Learning Environments Show.

Finally this week, another on-going (and maybe obvious) ambition of Caudwell Children is to help as many children and families as possible, which means continually growing our reach and impact. Last year we helped a record 11,500 children and this week we delivered the most autism assessments in one week since opening the service in 2019.

It fills me with pride and joy that we are helping so many children and families get the support they need to fulfil their potential, or achieve their ambitions, however large or small they may be. And to do that takes a committed, passionate, skilled and caring team.

To each and every one of our Caudwell Children 'Purple Family', staff and volunteers, thank you for your ambition and continued hard work. x

Thanks for reading and see you all again next week.

Trudi x