Unlock Leaders come together for the Leadership Programme’s first residential retreat

In late June, nineteen Unlock Leaders gathered at Brandon Hall Hotel and Spa in Coventry for the first residential retreat of the Unlock Leadership Programme 2026. What happened over those three days was more than any of us had dared to plan for.

The retreat was built around the programme’s central theme ‘We Know What Change Looks Like’ and from the moment people arrived, it became clear that the most important content was already in the room. In the sessions, over dinner, in the corridors late into the evening, and in the quiet moments between, something was forming. A community was finding itself.

Participants heard from Dr Gill Buck on the history of the movement they have inherited. They heard from Anne Fox, incoming Chair of Unlock’s board of trustees, in a keynote that held the room in a kind of awed silence. And they heard from Kofi Danso of the Incarcerated Nations Network, joining virtually from South Africa, on the global scale of the change they are already part of.

Between those moments came workshops that crackled with energy, laughter that carried across the whole building, and conversations that went on long after the programme had ended for the day. People who had never met found each other. Stories were shared that had never been shared before. Connections were made that will outlast the programme itself.

On Sunday morning, every participant wrote a personal leadership commitment and read it aloud to the group in the grounds. The space was very still. It was one of those moments you do not forget.

The Unlock Leaders are on their way.