George O’Shaughnessy

George O’Shaughnessy

““WYSE taught me to look after myself first. It taught me to delegate and be honest with myself”

George has directed and co-founded Populate Co-operative for over a decade, leading creative, community-driven projects across UK cities. A participant in the WYSE International Leadership Programme in 2011 and the Advanced Leadership Programme, George is passionate about co-operatives, grassroots organising, and community empowerment.

Inspired by Scottish campaigner Laura Beveridge, he went on to co-found The Oxfordshire Kindness Wave—a community-led initiative enriching lives through creative challenges, workshops, and parcels filled with comforting items. Originally launched as a rapid COVID-19 response to support isolated 16–18-year-olds, the project expanded quickly, delivering over 6,000 parcels across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Bristol, and Scotland.

Populate Co-operative is a UK based organisation creating and facilitating events and projects in UK cities. The Oxfordshire Kindness Wave’s mission is to facilitate opportunities that can enrich and empower our children whilst supporting the arts & cultural projects.

The project is a collective movement that produces parcels filled with goods sourced from local businesses,

The parcels contain soap, chocolate, sketch book, fluffy blanket, teddy bear, bed socks etc providing love, hope, comfort and kindness to the recipient (someone who is experiencing loneliness during isolation or experiencing anxiety).

More recently the parcels have been used as a Covid Level Rapid Response aimed at 16-18 year olds who may be isolating from Cornavirus.

4000 parcels have been sent throughout Bristol & Scotland in 8 months.