It’s obvious that well supported people, where barriers to opportunity are removed, will go on to live more fulfilling and productive lives.  Kindness is about removing those barriers.

I hold my hands up that public silence was not the right move. I hope I have conveyed why we took that stance and, more importantly, what we are doing as an organisation to create the deep change needed inside Platfform, the sectors we work in and wherever we can create change for the better with communities.

If a kindness lens helps us reflect more compassionately on our own motives for being and doing then that can bring enlightenment, which can, in turn, motivate change, it has for me.

Kindness on its own doesn’t quite cut it for me. It glosses over the really tough stuff. The pain, the poverty, the generational unemployment, abuse, violence and structural inequality that many people face every day.

We are used to life staying pretty much the same – doing the same things, going to the same places and seeing the same people. That has changed with Coronavirus; and we are all having to get used to life being very different.

Language is the most powerful tool we have. Let’s use it well.