Jo Cox’s amazing legacy for thousands
Foundation changes lives
A FOUNDATION set up in honour of murdered Labour MP Jo Cox has helped 162,000 people in the five years since her death.
Mum-of-two Jo, 41, was shot and stabbed by a white supremacist on June 16, 2016, in her West Yorkshire constituency of Batley and Spen.
Ahead of the fifth anniversary of her murder, four women have shared their stories of how the Jo Cox Foundation has transformed their lives.
Widow Julie Murphy was helped by the foundation’s Community Makes Us campaign, which connected people remotely during lockdown.
Julie, 69, said: “I was in despair, depressed and isolated when I joined.
“Meeting people allowed me to have a voice again. They made me feel that I mattered – and would call me after meetings if I sounded upset or quiet.”
Julie has been shielding in Mirfield, West Yorks, since March last year and has been unable to see her disabled son.
The retired social lecturer turned to the weekly Zoom meet-ups for help and said: “I felt people actually cared about me, which is everything Jo stood for.”
Since the foundation’s launch in 2017, 35,720 women have benefitted from grants that tackle gender-based violence and boosted social and economic opportunities overseas.
TRAINING
The charity has helped 1,223 women into politics and provided 558 female leaders with assistance and training.
Its annual Great Get Togethers have also spurred 18 million people across the UK to join in with community events.
Inspired by Jo’s first speech to Parliament – in which she declared we “have more in common than that which divides us” – the events are among the initiatives to tackle hate and loneliness.
Brexit-supporting neo-Nazi Thomas Mair is serving life for the politicallymotivated murder of Jo, a fervent supporter of the Remain campaign.
Her words also inspired Phillippa Scrafton, 52, to launch Darlington’s More in Common along with pal Peter Greenwood, 72, supported by the foundation.
Human rights worker Phillippa said: “We have around 800 supporters and push Jo’s message of being kind and focusing on what we have in common.
“As a trans woman and activist, I’ve faced some hate, both verbal and physical. I know what it is to feel ostracised.
“We bring together LGBT people, many struggling with gender and sexual identities in hostile environments.”
The group also publishes local hate crime figures and organises gatherings for people from a range of backgrounds.
Another woman who the foundation has helped is Emily Baldwin.
She says she struggled to imagine a future for herself as she returned to sixth form at the age of 17 after a year out battling depression and anxiety.
Emily, from Basildon, Essex, secured a month’s work experience helping with event planning through an outreach programme in 2019.
Now 20, she said: “Everything seemed bleak, I didn’t expect to make anything of my life – but the placement changed everything.
“I went there and my confidence blew up.”
After carrying out her work experience, Emily – who says she was “really
We push message of focusing on what we have in common PHILLIPPA SCRAFTON ON GROUP SHE FORMED
CHAT’S BETTER Laura’s Chatty Café is a big draw
BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER Laura, left, and Julie
into politics” and had “always admired Jo” – was inspired to return to her A-levels. She is now studying English and History at Birmingham University. Mum-of-two Laura Henderson was also inspired by the
foundation’s
Loneliness Commission, which led the Government to put up £20million to tackle it.
Laura, 50, has co-ordinated 30 community events in Llantwit Major, Glamorgan – including a Chatty Café where locals meet monthly for a chat.
The university worker said: “The Loneliness Report Jo had worked on made me reflect on my own experience as a young mum and how isolating it can be.”
Former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who chairs the foundation, said she is “immensely proud” of its achievements.
She said: “Jo had success both creating a vision and taking action. These people are the proof of what she’d have wanted.”