Let's Be Blunt: Making Kitchens Safer and Communities Stronger

In this episode, Simone Roche MBE sits down with Leanne Lucas, Founder of Let's Be Blunt CIC for a powerful conversation about authenticity, purpose and turning lived experience into meaningful change.

Leanne shares her journey from the classroom to founding Let’s Be Blunt CIC—a campaign with a simple but transformative idea: redesign everyday kitchen knives to help prevent lethal harm, without changing how we cook or live our daily lives.

This is a conversation rooted in empathy, evidence, and action. From navigating people-pleasing and finding her voice, to building a movement grounded in care and prevention, Leanne shows how small, thoughtful changes can have life-saving impact.

In this episode, we explore:
• Growing up and finding your authentic voice
• Leanne's story about teaching in the UK and China
• Founding Let’s Be Blunt CIC and finding purpose through loss
• The hidden risks around kitchen knives and what the data tells us
• A simple design shift: removing the tip while keeping functionality
• Community action
• Practical steps: pledging, auditing your kitchen and safe storage
• The power of collaboration and why cultural change is possible

This episode is a reminder that change doesn’t always start big. Sometimes, it starts with a conversation and a simple idea that could save lives.

Find out more about We Are PoWEr here.  💫

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, hello, and welcome to the We Are Power Podcast. If this is your first time here, the We Are Power Podcast is the podcast for you, your career, and your life. We release an episode every single Monday with listeners in over 60 countries worldwide where you'll hear personal life stories, top-notch industry advice, and key leadership insight from amazing role models. As We Are Power is the umbrella brand to Northern Power Women Awards, which celebrates hundreds of female role models and advocates every year. This is where you can hear stories from all of our awards alumni and stay up to date with everything MPW Awards and We Are Power. Never implicated, never implicated, singularly wonderful. Everybody's wonderful. Well, hello, and today we are joined by Leanne Lucas, primary school teacher, yoga teacher, and newly qualified counsellor. Thank you so much for joining me today here on our beautiful teal couch of calm. And I'm grateful for the time that you're given to us today. And I want to get to know you today because your passion, your commitment is totally incredible through the work that you're doing. And let's be blunt and we'll get into that a second. But I want to acknowledge that your work comes and your drive comes from the lived experience that you've been through. For your co-worker, the families affected in Southport in 2024. But our focus today is on the positive change that you want to bring around and how you are creating that movement and how are you creating the opportunities. And we want to make sure that our listeners and our viewers today know what they can be part of. So, Leanne, thank you so much. Now, just before we were recording here, um how would your friends describe you?

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Um I think my friends would describe me as um I I almost want to say like a ray of sunshine, like um almost like I I bring along the fun. Um but at the same time, like I'm the person my friends come to when they've got something going on. So, you know, I I have that vulnerable side, empathy. Um, but you know, we have a great laugh together, and um my friends have been absolutely fantastic this year. Um and family. You know, friends and family have really got me through. Um the stable friends that have been there all along, but friends that have popped up from new connections. So there's people I've met this year now who are in my inner circle that I'd I just never would have thought I would have met or um be working alongside. And I just think um that brings me hope and that brings me positivity for the future of, you know, um there are great people out there and thank goodness. Yeah, there are some there are some really lovely people out there who just are selfless and passionate and you know want to empower others and want to make a difference, and and you know, they've brought a bit of joy back to my life.

Growing Up Female And Finding Voice

SPEAKER_00 3:09

And you have that mantra about being true to your authentic self, don't you? That's in you. That's always been in you, that's not a new thing. Why does that matter so much? And and what does it actually look like like in practice?

SPEAKER_01 3:21

I think why it matters is because um I guess growing up, um it's quite difficult to be a girl, isn't it? You fit into certain categories, um, you know, you get praise for being a people pleaser and for being a perfectionist and for following the rules, and you almost dampen down your wild side, or you, you know, like you do like uh, you know, the stereotypes we have for boys and girls um are very different. Um, the expectations are still quite different. The pink and blue jobs, right? Yeah, so you know, the it's um I learned that as an adult to be yourself and to, you know, to embrace parts of yourself and you know, your tribe will find you and the these types of things. And I'm quite a creative person now, and I think I'm creative in the way I see things and the way I think and um the way I go about things. But maybe if I as a child, if I had opened a few more doors into that side, like maybe I'd now I'd be able to play an instrument, or you know, I'd I'd be a dancer, or I'd you know, there's all sorts of things where I think maybe I held back because I didn't think I could step out of the norm. And whereas now as an adult, I'm thinking, let's give it a go, like let's have a try. And um, so you know, going out there and public speaking and and um things like this, it's like this is the way I can show my almost creative out outlet and sort of making these partnerships and relationships with different people across the country. That's where I think my sort of creativity and authenticity comes from. It's and I think people know if you're authentic or not. For sure. Um and I think what we've done over time is we've stopped trusting our gut feelings and we've stopped we've stopped uh all that sort of like um human side of us that we have. And I think if we tap back into that, you know who who you connect with, you know who you um so yeah, as I think as an adult, I'm realising like, isn't it just great to be authentic and just you know sit comfortably within yourself? Like wear the clothes you want to wear, uh, say the things you want to say, and I just think that's something I think we still need to work on with younger girls throughout the education system, is just like l giving them some space to find out who they are.

Teaching, China Move, And Joy Of Play

SPEAKER_00 5:38

It's that yeah, be curious and have that belief, right? Yeah what got you into being a teacher and a yoga teacher?

SPEAKER_01 5:45

Um teaching, I think um I just love being around young children, like the fun, the spontaneity, the light bulb moments they have, like the way like um they're not they're not afraid to like show their passion or um say what's on their mind. Like, and I I love being in that space and I loved thinking I had a part to play in sort of creating the next generation, um, and also like making sure that well-being was there, making sure that you know every child was seen. And this is something I say like as a human, we just want to be seen, heard, and validated. And I I would hope that I played that role in the classes I had as a teacher. Um, so I just sort of stumbled into it through um college, then to uni, and then straight into the classroom. Um, and yeah, I decided to be a yoga teacher when I came back from China. So I worked abroad.

SPEAKER_00 6:42

Two and a half years you were in China, weren't you? Yeah. How where did that come from?

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Do you know what I don't I don't mind sharing this story is um after so many years working in primary school in the UK, uh I had a bout of depression. And it really threw me because I just felt so lost and didn't really know what to do with myself. And um through therapy and all sorts of things, I started to look at me and what I was doing and what I was up to. And um, I started thinking, if a door opens, I'm gonna just step inside and see. And for peek. Yeah, and and my friend was working in China and she said, Do you want to come over here? I'm gonna start up a new bilingual school. Would you like to come and help me? And I just said yes. And I was like, Oh my god, I didn't do that. I'm like a homebird, like I never leave home. Like, um, and then all of a sudden it's like, Do you know what? I'm not gonna continue with this job anymore. I'm gonna go to China. So like my family were literally like, what are you doing? Okay, and that's the spontaneity side of like, okay, then. Um, so I went over to China and we, it was so good because we started up a school. So we could pick the curriculum, we could pick the books we were reading, we could pick the topics, obviously, alongside uh the Chinese curriculum as well. Um, but you know, we introduced um our staff to funny things like Bongo's bingo as we had at the staff meeting. So me and my friend were like, we're gonna try out. That translates into it.

SPEAKER_00 8:07

Actually, it's probably brilliant surprised if Bongo Bingo's not in China already. They don't like gambling and stuff, so I don't think they do that, but we did it in a inflatable unicorns.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

We didn't know the dance offs were insane. Um, but it was it it was really interesting seeing them let loose and go, oh, I'm allowed to be myself. Because uh what I found in China is women like conform. So um that was lovely to see personalities shine through and to start saying to them, what do you want on the curriculum? What do you want?

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Bongo bingo on the curriculum? Is that I was gonna actually that's one of my questions was what would you add to the curriculum? No, you know, but starting up a school in China, how amazing to have been to have impacted young people's lives as a primary school teacher. Um, what would you add on? Um I now can't ask you.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

I've got to give credit there to my friend Trish. Um, she's the one who encouraged me to get over to China. And Trish has been uh one of my best friends for a very, very long time. Um she's worked all over the all over the world. Um, but yeah, she um she's the one who encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone. So um, yeah, I'd give her a bit of credit there.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

I'm trying, I'm now thinking of that kit bag when you went to you suddenly went right, family. I'm off. I'm off to there. And did you actually you must have packed some bongo bingo accessories to go in the in the in the hole with the Do you know what?

SPEAKER_01 9:24

It was it was just a conversation me and Trish had one night of how are we going to have some form of staff well-being? Like, what can we do? And we started putting loads of ideas and we were like, bit of karaoke, bit of dance, bongo bingo. So it went out really well.

SPEAKER_00 9:40

What did that teach you in that sort of two and a half years out there? Because that, I mean, for literally just to say, I'm I'm often a fan of going, say yes, work it out later.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Yeah, oh gosh, it was I I think I learned so much um because as well I was over there throughout the pandemic. Um good. Yeah, it was just it was really interesting. Um and it's good it's good to see different cultures and also to see how they're navigating the new world, you know, and um what their aspirations are, and and it it was just it was just a joy to be. And I think through that experience I learned the value of play. Um, and I know some people might think, oh, in China it's they're really competitive for stuff, but for young children it's all about play, and it's all about being creative, and it's all about learning in in different ways. Um so you know, I went into year one in China, and you know, just being able to learn through sand, water, role play, outdoors, like, and it made me realise that that should be accessible for everyone at every age because that's where we learn what we can do and what we're passionate about. And be curious, like you said before, is we need to provide them opportunities where we can just be curious and be like, and and find out things about yourself. Um, so that's uh what I would put into the curriculum. I would take some stuff out and I would put in some more space to be curious because I don't know anyone who can be curious in a set amount of time of 60 minutes, and then you have to move on to the next thing that we're gonna do. And the next minute and the next so we are on um this it's a rush, the curriculum at the moment. It's such a rush, and I know it would be much more enjoyable for not only the children but the staff who put their role into it.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

But it's the I think the play side is key actually, because you talk about, you know, our young emerging talent being work ready, career ready, building self-belief, confidence. That can come with eye contact and a conversation, not just these things, can it? You know, yes, we can get a lot of fun and swipes and goodness knows whatever our fear. I still can't get bongo bingo out of my head. Today's episode's sponsored by bongo bingo. No, not so but you know, I just there's something in that create in that.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

But just giving children scenarios where they can mm experiment with regulating.

SPEAKER_00 11:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

And having that modelled next to them and seeing how other people respond and looking at things from other perspectives, I think that's sometimes rushed. And I think um there's a lot of advocates in the UK at the moment looking at, you know, where is the moment to sort of model behaviour and where are the moments where we actually really dig into teaching well-being, not just quickly throwing in a 60-minute yoga session once a week and ticking the box. Like, unless you talk to children about why they're doing yoga and how they feel while they're doing it, and putting vocabulary alongside that, it's really hard to instill that and then to keep that as a life skill moving forward. So I didn't have yoga growing up, um, but it started to become, I'd say, trendy. So there's trendy yoga, and then you learn about it, and there's a million different forms of yoga. Um, and I started to look at children's yoga after I came home from China. So I came home from China and I signed up to a counselling course, and I was like, I'm gonna try something else. One thing I learned is we're not meant to have one career in our life. And that wasn't that wasn't something I was really taught at school. It was go find a job and stay in it. Like that. One path, one door, off you go. Yeah, and I think I've always lent more towards the entrepreneurial side, but I haven't really known how to do it on my own. I wanted to stay in a box, but it's really hard for entrepreneurs to stay in a box because you have all these ideas, and um, you know, people come back at you and go, Oh no, not here. And then you do feel a bit disheartened, you're like, oh, right, okay, my idea is not good enough. It's not that, it's just that you're in you're trapped. So um I went away and I learned uh counselling, and alongside that, so that was a three-year course. I started to learn children's yoga, and I realized I could have the joy of everything. So the education, the well-being, the working with young children, I could have all of that together. Um, so that's where all the sort of yoga and well-being sort of came into my job there.

Yoga, Counseling, And Multi‑Path Careers

SPEAKER_00 13:45

And I think there's this there's something, like you say, we we are careers guidance can be so challenging because our our education system is so stretched, hence why we need to put more, shift the curriculum, etc. But that whole sort of self-belief, but we are told do that, do that, and then that's the path that we'll follow. And that's not we're all different. We all have we're authentic. You can't do that, right? Yeah. But you said earlier you talked about um, I want to talk about let's be blunt, but you talk about you're doing a lot of public speaking now and you're out there, but did you not consider you were doing that when you were teaching? Did it feel different? Um, it it it is different.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Um And you're always trying to engage with the children when you're teaching, whereas what I'm doing now is I'm trying to I'm trying to share my ideas and thoughts with maybe people who are already set in stone with their ideas and thoughts where children are quite open to like because those stereotypes are not formed, are they? Yeah, so they're quite open to like, can we learn a bit more about that? Or what do you mean about that? Or um, I've had a thought about this, like um Yeah, so it's I find it more challenging speaking to adults. Um, but obviously I've found myself in this position now of you know, we can stay stuck and we can um something bad can happen and you know we can do nothing about it, or we can sort of look at well, how can this be different for the next generation? You know, in 100 years' time, what will things look like? Like, could we have had an impact on that? And I think every single member of society can have an impact, can have a voice, and I think that's something we need to empower more is actually nobody's more important than anyone else. Um it's everybody's voice should be heard, and I think people need a little bit of encouragement to be like, so what do you think about this? And you know, and that's where you every day's a learning day, isn't it? And you know, that's something I'm um I'm quite keen on, is like I always learn something new from every single person I've met, whether it's the language I use or the a different perspective, or um so that's something I've taken on board for each thing I've done this year is what have I learned from this interaction? Um, and that's sort of maybe where I've got a little bit more confidence in what I'm doing. I'll ask you about this later on, eh?

SPEAKER_00 16:09

So let's just talk. So you are now you've created and launched Let's Be Blunt, CIC. Um you're now unleashing you and and what I can see, what I'm observing is you're doing this with entrepreneurship, if you like. Yeah. If you're like behind it, being you're being brave with it, you're going out, making connections, talking about it. But just talk us through Let's Be Blunt and where this came from and why you are changing, changing the world, changing the perception of it.

Speaking To Adults Versus Children

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Yeah, um, so let's be blunt came about because um I just felt this an inner desire to have a purpose, and I felt like that had been taken away from me. So everything I knew and thought was Leanne sort of was shook in that moment um of what happened to us. And um it's really hard to find a new purpose and to really dig your heels in and be like, how do I move on from something so horrific? Um how can how can I carry on living um without being stuck in that space? Um and when I looked into other people who have moved on, there's many different things they've done. And there's you've had some people on your sofa who have gone down the route of let's look at what changes we can make, or let's look at advocacy, or let's look at what we can learn from things. Um so that's sort of the route that I went down, and I started to look into um some of the specifics that had happened and potentially like with my teacher hat on, like, okay, what went wrong there, or what could have happened in that these scenarios. So um I saw a clip of Hugh Fairley Whittingstall and a clip of Idris Elba, and they mentioned about taking the tip off a kitchen knife. And it led me into some research around actually, what is the most lethal weapon we have in the UK at the moment? I don't know anything about this. Um, this was not part of my world. Um I felt quite naive going into it because I didn't know anything about it. I s I pr I presumed these things happened in inner cities, um maybe in gang culture, sort of whatever the media had portrayed to me. Um I imagined it was with the with the biggest weapons. Um and actually what came about was um 42% of deaths by a sharp instrument are from the average everyday kitchen knife.

SPEAKER_00 18:47

In plain sight.

Launching Let’s Be Blunt CIC

SPEAKER_01 18:48

In yeah, just and then it was spiraled into 76% of domestic abuse homicides is from a sharp instrument, which in the house, what would that be? A kitchen knife. And I was like, I can't believe that. I thought it was zombie knives, ninja swords, and I was I was 42% is a is a big number. Like um, and then I started to think of all the scenarios where we just leave kitchen knives out, or and I and I just once it's in your head, you can't unsee it. And once you've changed your mindset, um, it's really hard to to go back on that. So once I'd looked at this um design and I'd found Vinus, which uh a company in Liverpool, um, and they create a range that doesn't have a tip on it. Now, a blade is extremely sharp. That is what a kitchen knife is. Any chef, any cook, anyone will say we need a sharp, a sharp blade. We can't get away from that. Um, but what we can do is we can quietly reduce the risk of that creating a fatal injury. So, you know, the blade is still sharp, but the point is taken off the top so that it doesn't then become used in a stabbing motion where it then penetrates your clothing, your skin, and goes into an internal organ where then the trauma surgeons are trying to fight for your life. Um, that's the sort of risk you can reduce just from a design. And when I looked into it, I thought every single thing we've got in the house in society has changed in design over time. Um, but the design of the kitchen knife's really changed only cosmetically. Um we haven't ever looked at, you know, in a domestic setting, do you use the point of a knife for the right reason? Or do we use them out of bad habits?

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Um because we created to, as we were talking about before going on air today, creating to gut fish and decocers animals, weren't they?

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Yeah, so they're the when you speak to a chef, they're the only two reasons. The point is on the knife, and they say they could still do that job with this smaller blade, as long as that's got a point. Um, but all the rest of them don't ha need to have a point. Um and then I started to think about, well, what are we cooking in our houses? We're actually not cooking these some people are, but we're not all cooking these elaborate meals. We're not doing that in school canteens, food technology, um, we're not doing that in in in a major in a majority of settings, we're not having these elaborate meals where we do have to de-fill it a fish or decarcus an animal. And if they're the only two reasons that you need a tip on, that's not a good enough reason for me for why we can save lives. So when people say to me, how will I decork my apple? How will I marinate my meat? There are many other utensils we have. There are many other ways we can slightly shift our daily pattern that could potentially save a life. And I say this is in a moment of crisis, impulsivity, and dysregulation. It's nothing to do with a premeditation or some I'm not looking at that. That's that's where the trauma comes into it for me of I'm not looking at people who are already on the on the list for to be watched. I'm looking at the everyday scenarios that people are emailing into me on the regular, um, telling me of moments. Where potentially someone's held a knife up at them in an everyday setting, or there's been a moment where they've been scared and they've had to hide their knives in their own house, and this design allows you to just take a breath and be able to enjoy cooking at home.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

This is and this is literally just by taking the we just get so used to it, we're so used to that, the pointy knife right now.

The Kitchen Knife Problem And Data

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Yeah, so it's it's we're just used to it. Um, and that's something I'm trying to look at is over time, where has society played a role to look at things differently? And I'll give you some scenarios. Seat belts. When I was a child, you could put your seatbelt on or off, you could drive through Blackpool lights, you could stick your head out of the top of the car, you could do all of that. Um now, I don't know parents who would drive off without saying put your seatbelt on or we're not going. And it's not because we are reckless drivers, it's because we've learned and we've seen the evidence. And, you know, in that moment, if an accident did occur, you know the seatbelt would help you. So I'm not saying everyone's going to be injured by a kitchen knife. I'm just saying in them accidental moments or them moments of crisis, impulsivity, or dysregulation, would you prefer to have something that wouldn't cause you a fatal injury? Yes, I would. Um same with um medicine bottles. We now children now can't get into them because we've learned that that's potentially dangerous. Um, you know, smoke alarms in your house, changing the gas supply in the homes, that was a huge change in the UK. Rates of suicide went down when the gas supply was changed. People didn't then go and find another way to do it. It it just prevented it because it's in that moment when you're not quite thinking straight. You have a moment to regulate, you have a moment for someone else to intervene and to talk to you and to help you. Um, so that's the sort of thing this fits into them categories of where we've changed with society. Think now. Ages ago you'd go out and everyone would be smoking indoors. Now, would you allow that to happen? If especially if you're around your children, would you allow someone to light up a cigarette? You wouldn't, because you've learned the damage it does to your lungs, and that might happen to you or your child. So this is sort of the same scenario.

SPEAKER_00 24:17

So you're if you like, you're taking your education um talents, if you like, skills, and educating again. But this is educating now to the masses. This is educating ultimately globally, isn't it? Because you're working with or you've been um, I know you recently were at De Montford University, and that's one of a number of universities that are um safe knife.

Design Solution: Removing The Tip

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Um so De Montford University just changed in Leicester to a safer knife campus, and they're um they're part of like the United Nations hub. So, you know, that message is getting out there, and that's because of a forensic scientist. She's called Leisha Nichols Drew, and she did some forensic work on testing knives that were pointed and knives that didn't have a point and looking at the damage that can be created from them knives. So she is now travelling the world sharing her research because that is where research sits well. Research should be coming into the real world and we should be using it.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

What has surprised you the most since you've set up the CIC and become a campaigner?

SPEAKER_01 25:24

Um I think it's I think what's surprised me is there's so many people out there who want to help. Um sometimes people aren't sure what it is to do. Um and I think it's the time people give for me to be to be able to explain it and sort of sit with it, and then um what I love is them light bulb moments where people go, oh my god, I've never thought about that. And it's like You're the person educated. Yeah, and it's you know, I'm not trying to tell anybody what to do. I'm just creating awareness. So if people go away and change what they do themselves, they've done that themselves. Um and so it's it's just this awareness around, you know, um, you can smoke, you can not smoke, you can drink, you can not drink, you can have a knife with a tip on, or not have a knife with a tip on. Everyone, you know, has their own responsibility, but it's just one thing that has come to light is people say to me, I never knew about this. And I was like, that that's absolutely fine. I didn't either. So it's sort of like, how can we create this awareness? How can we bring the kitchen knife into the limelight, take it out of um where it's been hiding, and be like, this is the everyday thing that is actually quite a problem in the UK? And here are some people who are doing innovative work, whether it's a manufacturer, a forensic scientist, someone in a violence reduction unit, um, because they're playing a pivotal role right now of um they have a safer knife replacement scheme. And some places across the country are going into vulnerable homes or homes of um somebody who's been found carrying a knife or a domestic abuse scenario and saying, Would you like us to help you swap your knives?

SPEAKER_00 26:56

So there's practical intervention. And you've also had, I think up until a few weeks ago, you were about just short of a thousand pledges.

Everyday Cooking Without A Point

SPEAKER_01 27:02

Yeah, and I do think it's a lot more than that because we don't factor in any of the numbers from the violence reduction unit. So uh Kaylee in Kent VRU, she has taken out 718 knives from vulnerable homes and swapped them um with um the knives with no tip. Um, we've had swaps in pupil referral units, alternative provisions, uh, colleges, high school food tech. So, you know, every food tech department has pointed tip knives that the children learn to cook with. Wouldn't it be good if they just have the option of seeing a safer knife and seeing how they can use them to cook in their lessons and then potentially when they go and be a homeowner, that they then will think, which knife am I going to buy for my new home? So it's just creating the next generation. This isn't an easy win or an easy fix. Or and what I say is we are one part of the puzzle for knife harm and knife crime. We will not tackle everything. So we are one part of that puzzle, you know. We need the youth mentors, we need the violence reduction units, we need everything altogether.

SPEAKER_00 28:00

It's a jigsaw, isn't it? It's a total jigsaw. So for anyone who's watching or listening, um I've talked about the pledge. I know there's also donate, there's so much information on your CIC website as well. But how can they get involved? Because, like you say, this can be for the personal in the business, in the school, wherever you work, in the community. It's this is not just a one shout out, is it? How can people get involved?

Public Health Parallels And Mindset Shift

SPEAKER_01 28:22

So people can take the pledge, and what taking the pledge means is a personal commitment to exchanging your knives in whichever setting it is you choose to do, exchange your knives from a pointed tip to a blunt tip knife. Um checking how many knives you have in your kitchen, being accountable, knowing how many you've got. And if you've got a lot, then can you reduce that number? Do you use them all? Um and making sure they're stored correctly, you know, and you know where they are at all times. Because we it's not just about you and your family. Um, in a workplace, in a venue, you don't know everybody else. You don't know everyone coming in and out, you don't know who's stressed, you know, you don't because people can be dysregulated for many, many reasons, but there's that, and there's also um coming on board and sort of supporting us as a CIC. And I don't know if people realise it's really difficult being a charity in a CIC. Um, you know, so anyone out there who who sees this as something they think, actually, I've got a personal passion for this. It's you know, uh sponsoring us um and sort sort of sort of helping us get the message out there. And at the minute we're working across many different regions. It's just sort of flown. We're working in many different regions across the UK, working with lots of violence reduction units, local authorities, educational settings, working with youth justice services, social services, uh foster carers, children's homes. There's just it the list is endless because you will find passionate people in every single different walk of life.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

It becomes almost like magnetic, I think. If you if you what you put out, people will go, I'm attracted to be part of that because something's gonna happen. And to finish with sort of optimism, what is your hopes? What do you see as that real hope for the future? Because what strikes me is that the the joy that the kids brought to you when you were teaching is now gonna be a ripple effect movement of every every person you can convince, every person on that camera that you can get a lot differently. But what hope do you, what are you hopeful for?

SPEAKER_01 30:26

I just hope we have a change in mindset. So, you know, there's so much going on in the UK at the moment, there's so much going on in the world, and I just want to say to people you can empower yourself to have your own thoughts, your own feelings. You know, people can like or not like this campaign, that's that's their personal choice, but it's just could we look at things slightly differently in a diamond in a creative way and say, okay, this is how it's worked in the past, this is potentially how it could go moving forward. I would like to see this as a moment in history. I would like to see in 100 years' time, you know, there's a lesson in school about the time the design of the kitchen knife was changed and what sort of inspired that and and and and not just a focus on me, but on every single sector in the UK who are coming forward right now, and we're all collaborating. And I think that's something that is so powerful about this is that collaboration and that partnership that we're creating across across the UK at the moment.

Research, Universities, And Evidence

SPEAKER_00 31:25

So it's restaurants, it's uh travel sector, it's all of the different in the in the culinary sector. I have one sort of cheeky thing to finish on. This is a question left by a previous guest, okay? Read the question, answer. It'll be fun.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Oh, okay. What TV show or film is your ultimate comfort watch? Oh. Um, I've probably got lots, but at the minute I'm really loving Eat Pray Love with Julia Roberts. I don't know why. I don't know if it's the travel aspect and the finding herself and you know, um, just that empowerment, but eat pray love is just something I would advise everyone to just have a little watch if they haven't watched it so far.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

Happy little eat pray love moment, a bit of self-care, a bit of a human hug. Leanne, thank you so much. Please get involved, back the campaign. This is a moment in history. This is a moment that could change such that whole education piece for the world. Lianne, thank you for being your authentic you, and thank you for joining me today on the pod. Thank you. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Amazon Music, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review or follow us on socials. We are power underscore net on Insta, TikTok, and Twitter. We are power on LinkedIn, Facebook, and we are underscore power on YouTube.