2025: The Year the Work Became Real

I’ve written year reviews before and they’ve usually followed the calendar. Month by month, momentum by momentum, trying to make sense of what moved and what didn’t.

This year didn’t move in straight lines.

2025 was a year of depth, not pace. Of staying with things long enough for them to push back. Of discovering that when work starts to matter to other people, it asks more of you than you expect.

This wasn’t a year of ideas. It was a year of consequences.

Staying when novelty ran out

There is a point in any piece of work where the 'new thing' excitement fades and what remains is responsibility.

This year, a lot of my time was spent showing up when there wasn’t a launch, a photo or a post waiting at the end of it. Conversations that didn’t resolve quickly. Decisions that didn’t have obvious wins attached. Being present in rooms where progress was slow, emotional and political.

I learned that leadership at this stage looks less like creativity and more like judgement. Less like vision and more like steadiness.

That’s not the work people applaud. But it’s the work that keeps things alive.

When Citizen Hub stopped being an experiment

Somewhere along the way, Citizen Hub stopped being something we were “trying”.

People didn’t talk about it as an experiment anymore. They talked about it as a place they trusted. A space where they could turn up without being judged or processed. A place where difficult conversations could happen safely.

That shift is subtle, but it changes everything.

One moment that grounded this for me was meeting a man who had just come out of prison. The day before he went inside, I told him that if he kept his head down and worked towards qualifications, I’d help him find work when he got out. A year later, he walked back into the Hub. That promise mattered more than any strategy document ever could.

When people rely on what you’ve built, the work becomes real.

Carrying the invisible weight

A lot of what filled my calendar this year doesn’t show up neatly as outcomes.

Mentoring. Translating between sectors. Holding space for frustration, anger and fear. Being the calm one in conversations where systems don’t align and people are left in the gaps.

This kind of leadership is invisible until it isn’t. Until something breaks. Until trust is lost.

The paradox is that the better things work, the more weight they carry. Legitimacy brings expectation. This year made that very clear.

There were moments this year where we needed things quickly. Not in a polished, planned way. Just honestly and urgently.

I put the call out and the response came back faster than I expected. Rooms filled. People showed up. Support moved without needing to be convinced.

That’s when you realise trust compounds quietly in the background. And when you finally need it, it’s already there.

Learning to let go without walking away

Growth isn’t always additive.

This year I stepped down from roles that no longer matched where my energy was needed most. I said no more often. I stopped chasing alignment where it wasn’t possible.

Not out of disillusionment, but out of respect for the work.

I’ve learned that focus isn’t about narrowing ambition. It’s about protecting the things that matter from being diluted.

There were points this year where I felt real frustration with how slowly systems move, how often people are consulted without change following, and how aspiration is offered without infrastructure underneath it.

I named that publicly, but carefully.

Not to rant. Not to posture. But to be clear that good intentions aren’t enough when people’s lives are caught in the gap.

That balance, between anger and responsibility, feels like part of the work now.

Convictions that were earned, not borrowed

There are a few things I now know because I’ve lived them, not because they sound good.

Community infrastructure works when it’s held consistently, not launched loudly. Trust compounds faster than funding ever will. Aspiration without delivery doesn’t inspire people, it exhausts them.

Systems don’t change because someone has a good idea. They change because someone stays long enough to deal with the complexity that follows.

This year gave me proof that infrastructure is the key to so much of what is in the way of those we love.

Looking forward without selling the future

I’m deliberately not setting out a roadmap here.

The work continues. The model is proving itself. Conversations about replication are happening, but they’re grounded in reality rather than hype.

What I’m committed to is doing this properly, not quickly. Building things that last, even when they’re heavier than expected.

2025 wasn’t about momentum. It was about meaning, responsibility and learning what it really takes to stay.

A huge thank you to the many people I have had the opportunity to collaborate with over the course of this year. Also, to the thousands of new people that I've met and are now following me on LinkedIn as a result. I'm constantly inspired and energised by what's happening in the market in the UK. It's a tough place to play right now, but impact, community, social infrastructure, these are all things that are at the front of everyone's conversation, which gives me a lot of hope that we've been working on the right stuff for a few years.

Look forward to scaling up in 2026 with you all.

Some of my favourite pictures from 2025 (In no particular order):