For over 9 years, I have been very proud to lead the Cardon Banfield Foundation from its inception as a one-man campaign to the organisation it is today.
Some of our achievements started as an idea or niggle, which turned into real action and change. The #JusticeForCardon campaign has been heavily covered in the media, but the impact it had behind the scenes maybe less so.
It took an immense amount of energy, time, money and emotion to fight on my own - but with support from Cardon’s family - the Cardon Banfield Foundation was created which meant a bigger team could help respond to homelessness.
I have worked directly with over 100 people in this role, each one strengthened our work and supported my mission. Each one brought their expertise and experience to an organisation that was making a new difference in the homelessness sector.
Throughout the last 4 and a half years, however, there has been one individual who dedicated a very large part of her life to helping me both professionally and personally.
Sophie Rieckmann led a lot of our policy and strategy work which helped lead to our successful legal challenge against Worcestershire County Council but aside from this, she became a close, loyal and trustworthy friend to me. Throughout the difficult times, Sophie was there to listen and constructively challenge my decisions as CEO and myself.
It is without doubt that the Foundation became what it is today because of the support and work Sophie did.
2 and a half years into our 5 year strategy it became apparent that we were off target to achieve our goals. 2024 was a transformational year for the Foundation as we restructured and streamlined our work.
I was mostly resistant to fundraising a lot during my time as CEO, because the people who worked with us were powered by the desire to make a difference. However in the reorganisation it became clear that people can only do so much as a singular resource.
As the Foundation heads into its fifth year and I entered into my ninth year of leadership, the reorganisation was a pivotal moment for me to reassess my time alongside changes in my personal life.
In September 2024, I decided to go into a career that has been largely inspired by the professionals who covered Cardon’s initial death nearly 9 years ago: Journalists. I now need to dedicate my time to the Masters Degree and my new partner.
As its Founder, I still want to make sure that the Foundation continues to respond to homelessness and therefore have agreed to take a different role under the leadership of my successor, the current Director of Operations Moybul Ali.
Moybul has personal experience of homelessness when he was younger and loves to advocate and create change for the difficulties marginalised communities face. Moybul has been a key component in the restructure and I am very pleased he accepted the offer to be the second Chief Executive of the Cardon Banfield Foundation.
Sadly, but truthfully, homelessness will always exist in some form but I hope the work the Cardon Banfield Foundation did under my leadership will help continue to tackle the issue that stains our society.
May Cardon Banfield, Remi Boczarski, Joby Sparrey in Worcestershire and the other people who died whilst homeless over this time - across the UK and world - stay in our thoughts.
In my last words as Chief Executive, I want to say thank you to everyone who supported us, worked with or alongside us, my friends, family and colleagues but the most important being Cardon Banfield’s family.
I have only seen from the sidelines what life changing and traumatic impact Cardon’s death has had on the family, but their love and courage has been and will continue to be a source of great inspiration to myself and the Foundation, in his name.
It’s been an honour.
Hugo Sugg
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