My story of hopefulness is mediator Gabrielle Rifkind who specialises in conflict resolution with Oxford Process. She is a psychotherapist by training, but she has spent the last 25 years working on conflict resolution. Her idea is that, to make peace you really need to bring the differences of the people into a room and you need to have a way of resolving those differences with empathy allowing space for people to grieve and to express anger. Her work around the world is so inspiring to me.

Neil Pinder is my story of hope. A teacher who founded the organisation Homegrown Plus as a way of improving diversity in architecture. There's lots of people doing great work around the environment but the built environment has never been particularly inclusive. It's been very white, male and middle class. It's also a very expensive profession to train for so It's not been as inclusive as it should have been but things are really starting to change. I'm really impressed and moved by the work that Neil Pender is doing for Homegrown Plus, a charity that he has set up as a way of getting young people involved in architecture.

I had the privilege of being an ambassador for The Homeless Football World Cup which is my story of hopefuless. They bring over 40 teams together from around the world and create a tournament that embraces talent and says everybody can succeed with a little bit of help. I spoke to people from countries like Indonesia, Brazil and Colombia and all these people have got these mad stories. With teamwork, people's lives can change. I saw how football can make somebody so happy but not only that I saw how amazing it is to see people who have been in the same situation, connect with other people from around the world and share their stories. I'm so proud to have been a part of it.

I love the work of PEM (People Empowering People) who seek to be a bridge between the council, institutions and charities; enabling local residents the opportunity to showcase the wealth of talent that exists within the community, and creating opportunities for local people to initiate and develop solutions to local issues.

The Sekem School near Cairo in Egypt is my hopeful story. They are passionate about Sustainable development and serve Muslim and Christian children alike, encouraging them to live in harmony and have respect for the other’s religious practices.

Wangari Maath is inspiring to me as the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize and the founder of the Green Belt Movement. She was the first woman to have a PhD in Kenya, but her heart was always in politics. She thought that she wanted to build a movement for democracy but then she was challenged by the fact that many of the people were illiterate and she couldn't talk to them about democracy and politics and all these concepts. She focussed her energy instead to peoples passion and reality around restoring nature and taking care of seedlings and trees and restoring rivers in response to brutal development. This was the start of the Green Belt Movement.

My story of hopefulness, is a boat. And it's not just any boat. It's a Dhow boat made of plastic that's being collected from the beaches and oceans and clad in 30,000 flip flops, which is the footwear of 3 billion people and the most common item found on our beach cleanups in Kenya, The flipi floppy is an icon in East Africa, to advocate for ending single use plastic, and also for for reusing the plastic that's being collected. It is one of the most vibrant, optimistic, icons that makes you smile.

Hope for me is found in so many places. I see so many people using their skills, platforms and gifts to make this world a bit more beautiful. Female leadership, like Jacinda Ardern, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Kamala Harris, give me incredible hope, not only for speaking truth to power but also for young girls like the daughter of a good friend of mine to grow up and see incredible women in such leadership positions. In the investing space I'm given hope by the increasing movement toward impact and sustainable investments. In the arts, I'm given hope by the countless artists raising their voices to speak up about injustices and inequality.

A story of hopefulness for me is the charity Earth percent which was set up to unleash the power of music in service of the planet. They do this in a monetary way and in a community based way. Earth percent is engaged at all levels of the music industry, from artists all the way up to their management and production companies. Earth Percent help the industry to find innovative mechanisms to give back to the planet whether it's giving a cut of your touring income or choosing the earth to be a co-writer on a song and therefore earning a percentage of royalties. Earth Percent are here for the innovation and for the systemic change.

There is so much hopefulness for me as I look at the calibre of fashion designers across Africa. Lucilla Booyzen in South Africa, Adama Ndiaye in Senegal, Gloria Wavamunno in Uganda and Omoyemi Akerele in Nigeria are all moving the fashion industry forward in an exciting way.

The Sustainable Ocean Alliance which activates young people and mobilizes an ocean workforce to restore the health of the ocean. I just love the fact that they are able to pull in voices from around the world and really create a drive towards creating policy, attending conferences and being able to project their voices on these platforms.

My story is Cultural style week which is an event that enables everyone to embrace and share their culture through the power of fashion. A stand out moment for me was seeing a women whose mother was from Afghanistan and father from Russia. With both countries at war she wanted to wear something that she felt could bring her a sense of peace as well as celebrate where she's from in this difficult time for both countries. She was able to do this through cultural style week.

My hopeful stories are the people I have met in Sierra Leone, who run an amputee project out there. There's Pastor Finney, who looks after amputees and will get up in the middle of the night and get on his bicycle and visit amputees at the other side of town. The project is run by a girl called Anna who has given up her life to help child orphans in Sierra Leone, and she's just an incredible person. And I also met somebody called Miss Jane who lives with an amputee called Annabel who she found dying in a ditch. These are people that give their lives unconditionally and completely and are totally inspirational people.

My story of hopefulness is The million realities fellowship who believe that transforming society can only happen when people transform themselves first. They have brilliantly created a two-year fellowship programme designed to bring together, champion and support social impact leaders, who have a vision to bring about systemic social change.

Hope is found in Brighton in Ruth Anslow who co-founded the supermarket called HISBE (How it should be). Can you have a supermarket that honours suppliers well, pays employees living wage as a minimum and that only stocks ethical products?

my story of helpfulness is about all the people I know that have lived experience of the criminal justice system, and are now doing something phenomenal to make it better for other people. My friend, Tony was 15 years in and out of prison who has set up the charity hope and vision which is about housing people after they come out of intensive rehab. My friend Mandy has a long history of being in and out of prison but has gone on to become a drugs worker and runs housing projects for women. My friend Paula runs a prisoner Policy Network at the Prison Reform Trust and has gone down the more structural end of things like me, looking at how we can get the voices of people with experience of prison and of criminal justice to change the policy and practice in our system. These three people are some of the bravest and best people I know and they challenge me constantly to be better, to dig deeper to go further in the pursuit of real justice.

Atlas of the Future is my hopeful story. I think that so often the conversations we have centre around how bad things are and we aren't having enough conversations about what we're trying to build towards, the positive side. So Atlas of the future have all of these different ways to communicate a different type of future and they use media in a way that is, to me the future of media.

So my story for Hope is about a young person I currently work with who suffers from agoraphobia which is a fear of leaving a space such as your home. I began working with him and slowly over time I've been able to enter the house and take him outside for a walk. Over time he also started interacting with local clubs and with their friends for the first time in three and a half years. But the real hope is that this guy has taken his fascination in nature, and the environment and is starting a business creating biodegradable round circular seed bombs that contains wildflower seeds that when thrown down pops open and hopefully increases the amount of wildflowers in our communities. This guy gives me so much hope!

When I think of hope I think of collectives who we can look to as role models. For example, the Kayapo, which is an indigenous population in Brazil (around 9000 people) or other indigenous populations, in the Amazon forest who keep fighting big powerful lobbies, to preserve the natural beauty and importance and the biological richness of the Amazon forest. I find it so inspiring and challenging to see the courage it takes to speak up for their rights in countries where their voice is not welcome.

My story of hopefulness is an organisation called Lost stock. They were formed at the beginning of the pandemic, because when the pandemic was growing, 2 billion dollars worth of clothes were cancelled across the world. These clothes had been made already in countries like Bangladesh, China and India but the fashion labels just cancelled those order which meant that the people, mainly women who had made those clothes lost their jobs with received no pay for the work that they had done. Lost stock was created to try and help that situation, enable workers to be paid and prevent clothes from going into landfill. What they did was create boxes of up to three garments, made a website where you could tell this website whether you were into neutral colours or dark colours or bright colours. You put in your size, and also whether you like to wear baggy clothes or tight clothes and for 35 pounds for a box you got three tops in the post. Lost Stock worked with a foundation called the Sadija Foundation based in Dhaka in Bangladesh who have supported nearly 114,000 people. Lost Stock has recently been rebranded to Unfolded.

I relate to the work of clover hogan and what her and her team are doing. She creates a lot of work and makes a lot of content on social media around the issue of eco anxiety which is so important. I really respect the work and heart of the younger generation coming through who are having a voice like this and putting it out there.

As the former vicar at St Andrews in Abu Dhabi my hopeful story is the Islamic Scholar, Shaykh Abdullah bin Bayah who is bringing together people from all over the world to agree that our religions and law systems should make space for equality for all. At 90 years old he is still energetic and bringing people together on that mission to try and push back against the forces of distraction and hatred.

My story of hopefulness is the story of every refugee especially Syrian refugees. Being a refugee is very hard and Syrian refugees have suffered the most horrible situations losing everything, their home, their life, their loved ones. And yet despite all of this, they kept trying to go and find a better place, across the seas, across the borders to get a better life for their children. And they all faced horrible things and it felt as if the whole world was against them, but they didn't give up. They were the hope seekers. I believe that what refugees have done is amazing because they were able to start their lives from square one, they were able to learn new languages, to work and mix with new communities. We now see Syrian food in countries like Germany, UK, America and Canada. We now see Syrian culture all around the world, being celebrated. I have seen refugees who now have great jobs, who have been great in sport, in science and in the medical field. All of these people have been through so so much but they didn't give up. All refugees are trying to tell the world about how beautiful Syria is with a great heritage and a great history. It is one of the most beautiful places in the whole entire world.

Farm Africa are my story of hopefuless. They are revitalising African agriculture and breaking the mould which has often inhibited development. They like Comaco are working to support and improve the livelihoods of small holder farmers, and at the same time protect the environment. The problems that these farmers face are all too familiar with the lack of training, technology, finance, a vulnerability to climate change and poor links to markets. This is what Farm Africa is changing by empowering and engaging with local rural communities.

My story of hopefulness, is the story of Craig Hubbard who from a business background bought a farm in Australia, and called it Shambhala farm. He got himself right into it, threw himself into the dirt, literally, and became a farmer and learned by jumping in at the deep end. While I was working on systems for small scale food production he was just working in it and learning something very complex from scratch. After 10 years or more, he feels that the most valuable thing he has now is his experience that he can share with others. And so he's created a farming school where you can learn how to create your own farm, whether it's in your own backyard or whether it's pots on a balcony. He has built a comprehensive process of sharing all the knowledge that he's learned over that period.