I have been awarded a Churchill Fellowship to undertake a strategic 46-day research itinerary across North America. My core mission is to investigate best practices in the US and Canada to help the development of UK-based Standup Comedy Courses for Armed Forces Community Wellbeing and Recovery.
This project is grounded in clinical recovery standards. I am using two specific tools to measure every program I visit:
I am not just observing; I am reverse-engineering a specific model predicated on two interconnected components:
The Proposed UK Model
The Community: A financially self-sustaining, peer-led performance troupe to provide ongoing support for alumni.
The Intensive: A 5-day performance-based residential course designed to accelerate therapeutic change.
The Research Frameworks
- 1. The CHIME Framework: Validating the model against Connectedness, Hope, Identity, Meaning, and Empowerment.
- 2. Social Return on Investment (SROI): Mastering the methodology to measure and articulate the financial impact of arts-based therapy for funders like the NHS
The 5 Research Hubs
- Anchor: Vancouver. Deconstructing the “Stand Up for Mental Health” comedy model.
- Hub 1: San Diego. Exploring diverse community arts models (VETART, ASAP) and clinical integration.
- Hub 2: Chicago. Investigating improv at The Second City and academic research at Rush University.
- Hub 3: Washington D.C. Engaging with federal policy (NEA) and clinical leadership (NICOE).
- Hub 4: New York City. Researching sustainable revenue models and SROI methodology.
The “Bump in the Road”
While this mission remains my professional focus, the timeline is currently adapting to a personal challenge: a very recent diagnosis of Bowel Cancer. I am now applying the very resilience and humor I set out to study to my own “bump in the road.”
Churchill Sent Me & A Bump in the road 