Highlights from Voicebox's 2025

This year was a BIG one. Like many of our readers who work in education, we will be welcoming the Christmas break with open arms (and maybe a mince pie or two).

So as 2025 draws to a close, we’ve been reflecting on what has been our busiest, most ambitious and wide-reaching year yet. 

We started Voicebox in 2019 with a simple mission: to help boys and young men build healthy identities and contribute to safer, more compassionate communities. This year, that mission took us into new spaces, new regions and new countries...

Below, we'll share some of the moments that defined our 2025.

Andy Hill, Fredi Monk Porcel & Jack Tricker

Exploring healthy masculinity in Merton

In March, we hosted a major knowledge-sharing event at Merton Council Chambers, Exploring Healthy Masculinity in Merton, in partnership with Community Safety Team (formerly Safer Merton). Over 70 teachers, parents, youth workers and council members came together for an open, practical conversation about supporting boys to develop healthy identities. The event featured talks from Voicebox co-founder Jack Tricker and lead facilitator Will Hudson, a Q&A with our core team, and opening and closing remarks from Councillor Edith Macauley MBE and Councillor Usaama Kaweesa.

It marked the culmination of our 2024/25 work across primary schools, secondary schools and youth centres in Merton, unpacking what’s working, what’s not, and co-designing next steps with those on the ground. It also landed us two exciting press appearances on Riverside Radio and in South West Londoner.

We're so grateful to have continued working with Merton Council throughout 2025 and look forward to continuing our partnership into 2026.

Will Hudson, Merton Council Chambers (c) Allen McGlynn

Voicebox in the press

2025 was a huge breakthrough year for our media presence. Our co-director Andy Hill appeared across multiple national and regional outlets, including BBC Radio 5 Live, LBC, The Independent, Riverside Radio and South West Londoner. 

These conversations helped us bring healthy masculinity into the mainstream - as more and more people are discussing how to promote healthy masculinity & change misogynistic cultures - and highlight actionable solutions available to schools and communities.

Our first free staff training webinar

In November, we held our first ever free training webinar for staff working with children and young people. We were blown away by the demand for this type of resource - over 200 sign-ups from teachers, youth workers and safeguarding leads across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. 

The session explored practical tools for promoting healthy masculinity in school cultures and provided a space for staff to share real-life concerns and successes. It’s clear the appetite for this work is only growing.

Collaborations with thought leaders in Healthy Masculinity

We continued to deepen our connections within the gender-based violence prevention community by writing articles in collaboration with Everyone’s Invited, White Ribbon and Equimundo. 

Each partnership allowed us to amplify evidence-based strategies and contribute to wider conversations about how boys can be meaningfully supported. It also welcomed new connections from people who'd read the articles, expanding our Voicebox network even more.

Our first international project

Another milestone of 2025 was our first international project. In October, our co-founders Jack, Andy and Fredi travelled to Frankfurt to work with an international school on a whole-community initiative involving students, teachers and parents. 

This holistic approach, tailored to the school’s cultural context, strengthened relationships across the school's community and demonstrated that the challenges and opportunities around healthy masculinity are truly global.

Jack said that the trip "was one of those real pinch me moments. Seven years ago, the idea of working internationally would’ve felt almost laughable. But here we are, doing the work we always dreamed of, and having the most fun while doing it".

Growing local partnerships across London

As well as Merton Council, we also strengthened our ongoing collaborations with Croydon Council, Lambeth Council and Harrow Council. Each London borough has committed time, budget and strategic focus to promoting healthy masculinity among their children and young people. 

Their long-term investment in us and this type of work reflects a shared understanding: building safer communities starts with supporting boys early, consistently and collaboratively.

Working with 57,000 students (and counting!)

Perhaps the most staggering achievement of 2025 is that we passed a major and unplanned milestone of working with over 57,000 students since Voicebox was founded. Just two years ago, that number was 11,000... 

We've now also worked with over 220 schools and organisations. This growth (which we can't quite believe) represents the thousands of moments where the boys we've worked with have felt listened to, challenged, supported and inspired to be the best versions of themselves. 

We are beyond proud with these numbers, and more determined than ever to keep going.

Welcoming new facilitators

This year marked the first full year of our biggest (and most talented) facilitation team yet.

Their experience, energy and commitment have strengthened our capacity to support more schools, respond to more demand, and continue delivering high-quality, relational work that young people genuinely connect with.

Shoutout to Will, Benjie, Sibylla, Lewis, Samantha, Anuli, Joshua, Sam, Tom, Jay, Pepa, Julian and David - we really couldn't do it without you.

Jack Tricker, Julian Spooner, Fredi Monk Porcel, Samantha Streibl, Andy Hill & David Woolcott

Looking ahead

If 2025 was about expansion and collaboration, 2026 will be about deepening our impact - building on our learning, scaling what works and continuing to work closely with schools, councils, parents and practitioners.

If you’re interested in booking workshops, assemblies or longer-term projects for your school or organisation, we’d love to hear from you. You can get in touch via our website.

Coming up in 2026...

In January, we'll also be delivering two free events in Merton focused on supporting boys and young people around healthy masculinity.

The first is an open, in-person training session on Tuesday 6th January at AFC Wimbledon’s Cherry Red Records Stadium, delivered in partnership with Merton Council’s Community Safety Team and the AFC Wimbledon Foundation; it is open to anyone working with young people, including teachers, sports organisations and youth workers, and will explore the pressures boys face today, the influence of social media, how to model healthy masculinity, and practical strategies for addressing harmful behaviours.

Later in the month, on Wednesday 28th January from 6–7pm, we'll be hosting a free Zoom webinar exclusively for parents and carers who live in Merton or whose children attend school in Merton, helping them understand and respond to messages about masculinity and support young people of all genders to grow into confident, caring and emotionally resilient individuals.

👉 Sign up to to the in-person training on 6th January here.

👉 Sign up to the online parent session on 28th January here.

As we wrap up this year, we want to thank every student, teacher, parent, practitioner and partner we worked with. This work is only possible because so many people care deeply about helping boys grow into the best versions of themselves.