Defining success

Weekly reflection

I've had a lot more opportunity to "share stories" recently, not something I've hugely had the opportunity to do over the years as there hasn't been enough platform for honesty. The world seems more aware of the symbiotic relationship of personal and work life.

I'm not sure if this is a pandemic thing, but I feel like there is platform now to share authentic stories of experience. Not just glory and sharing the wins and amazing things that happened, but that also share the warts and all version, the very true fact that actually life has a LOT of up and downs, that things happen that change us, that change our direction.

Life will never ever be a perfect ride. Even when we are doing something we love, it can also be incredibly tough and we make sacrifices.

People to Celebrate

It was an absolute pleasure to have the chance to share some of my journey at VarnFest Future Leaders, with a lens of defining what success means to you. This was such a brilliantly different event from the Varn team Tom Vaughton Vicky Walker - a conference in the outdoors - no place for devices, just sharing, listening and learning.

I wish now I'd shared what I feel have been the highlights for Dot Project. We were invited to join the Parliamentary Launch of a report investigating the funding landscape for victims and survivors of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), a report commissioned by London Councils, and delivered by the incredible AVA project Eva Kestner and the team. Our support role in this work was supporting the data mapping and making visible the situation as it stands today - fragmented, complex, inconsistent and with significant barriers for specialist VAWG services.

To be at the House of Commons as part of the presentation to Ellie Reeves MP and Cllr Jas Athwal, London Councils Executive Member for Community Safety and Violence Against Women and Girls was absolutely a highlight.

This is what success looks like. To have been even a very small part in the process that has surfaced this issue that will be pivotal in funding change to support women and girls in London is success.

Success isn't a badge you wear, it is rarely a title or award, or the case studies on your website. Success is a feeling. Success is evident in how you go about your every day, it is about how it feels to you.

What's coming up

The Bath Digital Festival has unwittingly taken over my life. My mission as a steward for Tech for Good South West was to activate the network to do more to address tech for good.

We are bringing a series of interactive, practical and mission-driven events to the festival which I fundamentally believe will demonstrate how we can take ownership for change. For those in Bath, or who fancy travelling to Bath, we welcome you to join our conversations.

• Addressing digital poverty :?Mapping the Bath Digital Divide
• Addressing digital poverty :?Community Tech Hackathon
• Young people’s digital learning environments | Imagining the future
• Digital Surgery Workshop for charities and community organisations
• Addressing digital poverty:?A city divided?discussion with Wera Hobhouse MP

Bringing people to together, organising events and generally convening folks takes time - time that has surpassed even my imagination. As a volunteer community we are hugely stretched, and any advice or guidance for organisations that would consider sponsorship to support us to bring these events together.

This is why we are also hosting a creative thinking session next week to consider how a Tech for Good South West community can be professionalised, and sustainable in its mission and ambition for strong tech for good leadership across the South-West. Please, join us.

And finally

Today my incredible mum's birthday. She isn't here anymore, and I miss her every day, I miss my parents and so many people we've lost over recent months and years - rarely is there a platform to talk about that. What did they all leave me? Their stories, their life stories.

I take the energy forward that only action creates change, that our own story is the greatest legacy we leave. This is what drives me, absolutely to over commit myself (for which there is a lot to learn), but having the confidence to own my own story makes the days far more nurturing and that, is what success means to me.

Until next time x