We are excited to introduce our conference attendees to Sarah P Corbett, an award-winning activist, Ashoka Fellow, author and founder of the global Craftivist Collective. Sarah will be running a craftivism workshop at our conference in Leeds on 25 March 2026. Her form of gentle craftivism uses slow, thoughtful handicraft (like hand-embroidery and papercrafts) as a non-aggressive, compassionate tool to influence hearts, minds, policies and laws. We caught up with her about her plans for the day.

Hi, Sarah. What types of activities can our conference attendees expect to experience in the Craftivism afternoon workshop at our conference?

Sarah: Attendees will see some examples of craftivism in our cosy breakout room, which will have calm music playing and places to sit. In the workshop, they’ll be doing hand embroidery, which is accessible to everyone – you don’t have to have any prior skills! We’ve got kits for people to take home as well, so people can finish their craftivism object on their travel home, they can do it in their office or do it with their community. My hope is that they experience calm and solidarity with each other, as well as fostering hope for the future.

The theme of our conference is activism, welcome, and solidarity. How do you feel that your approach to craftivism helps us foster these?

Sarah: There are so many elements to handicraft that I think are powerful for social change. It’s slow activism, sitting alongside each other, creating something with your head, hands and heart together. And I love the fact that it can really engage people who are nervous of activism, who’ve never done it before. I see gentle craftivism as a catalyst for more conversation, more connection and positive social change. The imagery we’re using at the NACCOM conference is jigsaw pieces. I hope everyone will see themselves as pieces of the NACCOM mission: celebrating 20 years of positive action, showing solidarity with fellow members and sustaining members as positive changemakers.

How do you think that gentle protest can help with feelings of burnout in the charity sector?

Sarah: One of the reasons I started doing craftivism was because I was a burnt-out activist. I get really overwhelmed with divisive campaigning. Now, it feels like we’ve got to be even more careful to not fuel polarisation because we’re in such a divisive world.

The repetitive actions of hand embroidery can be meditative and help you to reflection on important questions such as: ‘How can I be loving to people who I disagree with or people who are being hateful to me? How can I try and make a healthier and more harmonious world as an activist, as a changemaker, as a constituent?’ Gentleness isn’t passive or weak. It’s really hard to be gentle and to try and see the humanity in people who are doing stuff that is harmful. Plus, if you’re gentle with yourself, you’re encouraging yourself to be part of the change you want to see in the world without causing burnout.

When it comes to migration policy, we’re always talking about facts and figures. But craftivism can be used to transform numbers into something more human. Do you think there’s an interesting relevance there?

Sarah: I always say that craftivism should be seen as one tool in the activism toolkit. It doesn’t replace lobbying, petitions and so on. But I think we should always remember that there are humans behind the numbers. This can be your neighbours and the people that your kids go to school with. All my craftivism is handmade. It’s all small, it’s often text-based. And people can see that another human has made it because often there are little mistakes and wobbles. Even just having a statistic or a fact on something handmade can bring balance.

Can you share an example of craftivism making a real political change?

Sarah: The Craftivist Collective delivered a campaign with ShareAction and the Living Wage Foundation which directly led to Marks and Spencer paying the real Living Wage to 50,000 staff. We made them hand-embroidered handkerchiefs as part of our yearlong campaign, acting as critical friends rather than aggressive enemies. The Chair of the Board very candidly told me that it was the most powerful campaign they’d experienced because it was so respectful, yet we had a robust argument for them to make real change in their company and sector. Since every craftivism gift was bespoke to each board member, handmade and using non-violent language, you could see the time, effort and love that’s gone into them – that gentleness is hard to dismiss.

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Book your ticket for our Annual Conference on 25 March in Leeds: For this week only (2 – 8 March 2026) we’ve got a special discount for conference tickets. All member (and non-member) tickets will be 15% off with the code NACCOM20TH until 11:30pm on Sunday. Click here for more info and to book your tickets.

We also have a limited number of free tickets for people with lived-experience to attend. Please email [email protected] for more details.