Sonia (Bath, UK)
My name is Sonia, the picture above is from my leaving card after working as CEO at the Carers' Centre. I chose this because I often joke about having a super-hero complex as I want to change the world. This often leads to grand claims which I cannot validate in my research. My Living Theory research is currently focused on what I can claim and how I can show evidence and validate my claims.
The context of my Living Theory research is that between 2009-2018 I had the role of CEO at a local charity which developed from a small charity supporting 900 carers when I started to over 4,500 carers when I left in 2018. Over the last two years I have been working in various leadership roles in charities to lead on increasing funding and improving charities by helping them run in line with charity legislation and guidance. I have been doing this by using the learning I gained from my time as CEO of the Carers' Centre to influence the strategy development of the charities in line with their charitable purposes in order to improve the lives of those they have been set up to benefit. I have been researching how my practice has developed by looking at what use I made of my childhood experience of being in care which provided me with a consistent style of life and my values of love, hope, justice and participation. Since I gained the role as CEO I have been researching how I am improving my practice using my values as standards of judgement. Whilst my roles have changed I continue to research how I can improve my practice in my various charity leadership roles which is being influenced by the learning I am gaining from looking back at my childhood and earlier career. My aim is to create my own Living Theory as an explanation of my educational influence in my own learning as I have been researching it, the influence I am having and have had on those I work with and the influence I have had and am having on the charities I work with. I have decided to answer my questions by undertaking a PhD to give me the focus to improve my practice and the opportunity to find an explanation for how I came through my childhood unhindered by the terrible statistical outcomes usual for children in care and instead with a clear sense of my values that have helped me to keep my integrity and improve my practice in my roles in charity leadership. As I have come to answer my question about my childhood I think it has had an iterative effect on helping to improve my practice in the present. I am currently working on creating a unified explanation that can validate my claims.
You can find out more about my research over the years at the following websites:
https://cumbria.academia.edu/SoniaHutchison
https://soniahutchison.wixsite.com/website
Coronavirus
As with many people, my time is now consumed with preparations relating to Covid-19. I have been reflecting on what skills I have to bring to these unprecedented times. I have been putting a lot of energy into developing a digital support planning tool for gaining factual information and coping in social-isolation. I came up with the idea of the tool in 2014 and gained funding to develop it in 2015. My partner Ben developed the tool and I set up a social enterprise with the help of some talented people. However, it has been hard to sell the tool as charities have been struggling to take the cultural leap to move things online and off of paper. However, this crisis shows the potential benefits of digital support, whilst we are all facing social isolation now, many older or disabled people experience being alone for much of their time. I am hoping our learning from this time is to have more empathy with those who often experience many of the problems we are all now facing and take that learning to improve society in the long-term.
The coronavirus tool is easy to use, you can skip answering questions on areas you are not interested in. Once you complete all the questions you want to answer and have chosen all the support you want from the resources you have been offered, a support plan will be sent to the email address you gave at the beginning. Please share far and wide and use yourself, I will be updating it during the whole pandemic, so you can revisit and answer new sections to get more support.
Access the tool here: https://www.assessme.uk/welcome/covid-19
On top of developing the tool, I have been connecting with my neighbourhood via Facebook and an app called Nextdoor. I have connected with a lovely older woman and her daughter with learning difficulties and am doing shopping and picking up prescriptions for her. The outpouring of offers of support online has given me great hope that society can come together for those who are at risk. I have been active on social media trying to reassure people with factual information and sharing the resources I have been gathering for the tool. Finally, I have been reaching out a lot to friends and family and enjoyed my first video conferenced dinner party on Whatsapp for mother's day with Ben's mum and sister and partners, catching up and laughing together was a great tonic for us all.
Workwise, I will remain busy as the charities I work with become more reliant on Trusts and Foundations as fundraising events have been cancelled. The creativity of writing funding bids will also be important to look for new solutions to supporting people when we can't do that face to face.
Research-wise, the Skype groups I am members of are so important to keep me motivated and continuing to research how to improve my practice in this new environment. Those that were face-to-face have moved to be on Skype and ensure that those connections and conversations continue.
