Chair’s statement

Imaginative approaches to intractable challenges

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation works with individuals and organisations often facing powerful challenges. Everyone involved with the Foundation is motivated by the belief that we can find different ways to face these challenges and help people fulfil their potential.

The challenges we are addressing range from mental health issues for young people to new ways of learning music in schools, community involvement in museums to women’s rights in India. Whatever the scale of the organisation we support, and at whatever stage in the trajectory of their work, they are all working to address difficult, sometimes intractable problems, and bring new opportunities within their communities. We are privileged to be able to support work which is often imaginative and productive and we are keen to help ensure that it is as effective as possible and shared as broadly as possible. Many of these challenges are being exacerbated by current financial circumstances, and the Foundation has responded by growing and extending what is working effectively into different contexts.

Some of my visits to grantee organisations this year have been truly inspiring. Along with fellow trustee Tim Bunting, I visited our partner Anandi, which works alongside marginalised people in eastern Gujarat. Remote from the thriving industry elsewhere in the state, Anandi has set up resource centres for women with trained support workers from the community. This helps women from marginalised groups to advocate for their rights to land tenure, protection from violence and employment opportunities.

For the last 12 years our work in India has been led by Ajit Chaudhuri. Ajit is now undertaking a PhD on the impact of the increasing responsibility given to locally elected democratic institutions in India to deliver services to the community which were previously mainly delivered by NGOs. We will greatly miss his spirit and tenacity and thank him for his very significant contribution to developing our work in India.

As always I am grateful for the time and energy which my fellow trustees and our programme advisors bring to the Foundation. Deeply involved in their areas of expertise, they bring to our work a nuanced understanding of the complex challenges and opportunities in these fields. Our trustees are often asked to take on important responsibilities elsewhere. This year, both Anthony Salz and Tom Wylie were invited to take on important responsibilities in Education: Anthony as the first senior non-executive member of the Department for Education’s Board, and Tom as an advisor to the Education Select Committee. We are delighted that Tony Hall has accepted our invitation to become a trustee. One of the most inspiring leaders in the arts, as Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House, Tony has championed the importance of training and development, particularly of young adults, and we look forward to his contribution to our work in the coming years.

At the end of 2011, the Foundation will move into new offices in King’s Cross which will make us more accessible to our partners, as well as providing enhanced meeting facilities to other charities and organisations. I am grateful to our Finance and Resources Director Lucy Palfreyman who is overseeing our move. The success of any organisation depends on the people who work for it. We have an excellent team of staff, advisors and trustees led with unstinting drive by our Director Robert Dufton. They would be the first to want to share any credit for what we have achieved with the many individuals on the ground whose tireless work does so much to change people’s lives.

Jane Hamlyn
Chair