About progress today

Welcome

Our mission at Progress Today is to equip people from all walks of life to think critically, collectively, and positively about the future. We believe in the power of intentional action backed by conceptual and creative exploration. We also have a firm conviction in the importance of connecting with people from different backgrounds. We have seen firsthand how powerful it is to combine diverse life experiences, allowing a fuller understanding of the world today and of how we can drive progressive change that includes everyone.

Progress Today is a space for critical, creative thought and progressive collective action. We empower, advise, explore and generate in personal, educational, professional and societal settings.

As the name suggests, we’re committed to enabling and promoting progress

We believe that progress is an incremental process driven by new conceptual frameworks and paradigm shifts. Our central conviction is that progress happens when we can truly embody philosophical knowledge and implement it intuitively in day to day life. To live differently, we must think differently. We therefore seek to explore and share frameworks that can fundamentally alter how we, as individuals and as communities, exist in the world.

Our approach to progress is closely linked to the concept of praxis which, across the history of philosophy, has been used to describe theoretically informed action that drives progressive change. We are also inspired by Existentialism, a philosophy that explores the freedom of humans to create their own meanings and ways of living and by Pragmatism, a school of thought that values ideas according to how practical and effective they are in producing desired outcomes.

The ‘today’ in Progress Today recognises the urgency with which life needs to improve for so many people. We believe there is no time to waste and action must begin right now. We are committed to facilitating positive changes for individuals and communities sustainably but also immediately.

In sum, Progress Today, as an ethos, believes that progress towards happier, safer, more secure and more enriching lives for everyone is possible if we use critical and rigorous knowledge to inform and guide action.

What is progress today?

What we do?

  • Drive personal and collective growth by offering workshops, talks and programmes in schools, organisations and communities as well as for individuals.

  • Offer research and consultation services to anyone with an issue, challenge, or ambition that aligns with our values.

  • Conduct our own desk-based and empirical research to inform our projects.

  • Produce critical and creative content to stimulate and communicate ideas that drive positive change. You can find these on our blog!

Where do we do it?

  • We offer resources and programmes for individual personal development.

  • We run programmes in schools, produce resources for young people, teachers, and school leaders and deliver motivational talks, assemblies, and workshops.

  • We offer workshops and developmental programmes and activities in organisational settings.

  • We work with community groups to conceptualise challenges, raise engagement and drive durable, positive changes.

Meet the Team

  • Dr Ella Harris is a theorist, researcher and writer with expertise in ‘crisis cultures’, creative methods and inventive knowledge exchange. She has a PhD in Cultural Geography and has worked on diverse topics from housing crisis, to lockdown, to storytelling as a driver of change, to access to art education for minority groups in schools. She publishes widely on her research, including her book Rebranding Precarity (2020, Zed Books) and also makes and writes about creative, interactive documentaries.

    Ella also competes internationally as a boxer. She is the London Champion at 48kg and a member of the England Boxing Squad.

  • Kheron is a motivational speaker and community engagement specialist. He works in schools, pupil referral units, prisons, local governments, the police service and community settings as well as with corporate partners to facilitate meaningful dialogue and engagement.

    Kheron also achieved international success as a boxer including winning national titles in England and Jamaica, boxing for England, and being selected for the Jamaican Olympic Boxing Squad.