The Edith Kahn Memorial Lecture was founded in the memory of Edith Kahn, an innovative and dynamic headteacher of Fleet Primary School in Hampstead for 22 years.

After retirement she organised, amongst other things, the celebrations for the Hampstead Millennium and those for the CSV Silver Jubilee. Latterly she became the first organiser of CSV’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme (RSVP). After her untimely death in 1988 the Edith Kahn Memorial Lecture was founded in her memory, the first delivered in 1990 by Dr. Alec Dickson, the founder of CSV.

The 2011 Edith Khan Lecture - Geoff Mulgan (NESTA)
"Giving, Sharing and looting: the challenges of community in hard times"

1 November 2011, House of Commons, London.

In this year's lecture Geoff Mulgan, the Chief Executive of NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) will consider the challenges facing communities in the face of tough economic conditions and civil unrest.

Previous lectures

2010 - Rt. Hon. Tim Loughton MP, Minister for Children
Is a Big Society a Good Society?

2009 - Rt. Hon. Hazel Blears MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
Is the active engagement of citizens in their local communities possible in an age of globalisation?

2007 - Shadd Maruna, Queen’s University Belfast
Why Volunteerism “Works” as Prisoner Reintegration:  Rehabilitation for a “Bulimic Society”.

2006 - Jeff Swartz, CEO, Timberland Group
Justice and Commerce: the Timberland way

2005 - Rt. Hon. Paul Boateng MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Think Global, Act Local in the Year of the Volunteer 2005

2004 - Rt. Hon. Dr John Reid MP, Secretary of State for Health
Peoples potential - strengthening the NHS

2003 - Rt. Hon. David Blunkett MP, Secretary of State for the Home Office
Civil Renewal:  A New Agenda

2002 - Dr. Christopher Ondaajte CBE OC and Dr. Charles Saumarez Smith, Director, National Portrait Gallery
Philanthropy in the 21st Century

2001 - Professor Robert Putnam, Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard
Bowling Alone

2000 - Professor Roger Graef, Films of Record
Ordinary Citizens Cutting Crime

1999 - Denise Platt, Chief Inspector, Social Services Inspectorate
Volunteer Potential in Social Services

1998 - Rabbi Julia Neuberger, Chief Executive, King’s Fund
Volunteering in the NHS

1997 - Professor Brian Edwards
Transforming Volunteer Involvement in the National Health Service

1996 - Andrew Rowe MP
Changing Images:  Volunteering into the Next Millennium

1995 - Professor Lord Desai
The Costs & Benefits of Citizens’ Service

1994 - Professor Jane Lewis
Older People: Does the Communty Care?

1993 - Professor Elaine Murphy
Ageing:  The Forgotten Good News

1992 - Rabbi John Rayner
Work, Leisure and Purpose

1991 - Professor Heinz Woolf
Tools for Living

1990 - Dr. Alec Dickson
Active Citizens: the Retired