Archives for July 2019

CAP: Joel and Emily

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We are now mid-way through our annual period of Community Action Placements, hosted by organisations known to, and funded by The Rank Foundation.

Our School Leadership Award Holders are required to do two Community Action Placements (CAP), learning how charities work, volunteering their time to get stuck in and hands-on with their programmes. Every year, The Rank Foundation organise between 30 and 40 placements with charities and organisations who are members of RankNet. Some placements are residential and some are commutable, and for two weeks the Leadership Award Holders gain experience in the Third Sector.

We will be sharing the reports written by our School Leadership Award holders and their CAP hosts throughout the summer period.

Joel
YKids

YKids have a passion to see lives changed – for young people given the best life chances and opportunities. They believe that regeneration and better futures can come about by encouraging young people to become resilent, confident and happy; providing opportunities, training and employment; raising aspirations and dreams for the future; offering exciting and creative projects, and creating a sense of local pride and community.

“By working alongside and observing Claire Morgans, CEO of YKids, and the whole team, I have gained an insight into the qualities of  good leaders. I’ve learned that being organised, ensuring everyone on the team knows their role and feels they are contributing, and creating an atmosphere of camaraderie and collaboration in the team in which people feel appreciated are all important aspects of being a leader. This is something I will take on board and attempt to incorporate into my leadership style in future. Moreover, witnessing Claire’s empathy towards others and her passion for what she does has made a lasting impression on me; I now believe that passion and empathy are qualities that any good leader should have.

The placement with YKids has reinforced my belief that anyone can use their life to make a difference to the world in some way (and that we all have a moral obligation to do so) and strengthened my desire to do this, perhaps by getting involved in the voluntary sector or politics.”

“Joel threw himself into the crazy business of the end of term at Ykids. He helped young people on work placement, completed a huge variety of tasks enthusiastically and willingly and showed a grace about all he did. Joel learnt a few new skills such as badge making, laminating, bee keeping and Barista skills (he can now make a professional latte, cappuccino and flat white!). We particularly enjoyed conversations which showed insight and understanding of a wide range of political and economic issues and an understanding of the world around him that is missed by many young people his age”

Emily
Blackpool Carers Centre

Blackpool Carers Centre provide an extensive range of age specific services and support for carers from the age of 5 to 105 and their families, in order to fulfill their purpose which is to make ‘A Better Life for Carers’.

“The placement improved my leadership qualities as I worked as a team with individuals older than myself who work slightly differently than what I do myself, so I had to adapt.

My overall experience was really enjoyable, everyone was extremely welcoming and I learnt a lot. I found going on home visits really valuable as I could apply my prior knowledge of psychology which helps me with work experience, as it’s difficult to gain work experience for psychology due to confidentiality issues. I picked up how to use the database quickly which meant that I could help with admin which was good as I could gain an insight into what has to be completed for each case.”

“Emily showed confidence and passion throughout her placement here. She participated in dementia awareness training and wellbeing training, and during the second week of placement Emily assisted in supporting individuals with dementia showing passion and respect throughout. During Emily’s time here on placement, she attended a variety of home visits covering; physical health, mental health and dementia”

Lydia goes to Detroit: Memorial Award 2018

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Who?

Lydia is one of two Memorial Award Winners, formally announced at the Enterprising Leadership Conference in 2018. Lydia originally came into contact with the Foundation back in 2016 as a Time to Shine Intern with Student Hubs, and then subsequently as a Time to Shine manager. The internship was based in Oxford, but Lydia originates from Northern Ireland.

What?

Lydia had identified similarities between Belfast and Detroit. Both Belfast and Detroit have suffered from their decline as industrial powerhouses, resulting in city-wide rioting, tensions between ethnic or religious groups, extreme economic challenges and an increase in derelict spaces.

Why?

Lydia was interested in exploring these similarities further by visiting Detroit’s social enterprises and community led initiatives with the view to bring her learning back to Belfast and implement it in her community.

“The whole time I was in Detroit was a huge listening exercise and I wanted to take in as much as possible from as many different people and places as possible. I was reminded about how important it is to keep listening when working on something, even if you are hearing the same message time and time again”

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE

Update: Accelerator Winners 2018

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On the 19th June The Rank Foundation launched applications for the Accelerator Event 2019. Every year we invite the Network to apply to pitch an Enterprising idea at our Annual Conference. This year, the Conference (and the Accelerator Event) will have a particular focus on ‘Valuing Place’. For more information on eligibility and how to apply, please see our latest post on the Accelerator Event 2019.

We wanted to update the Network on the success of the 2018 winners: Nudge Community Builders and Compass Advocacy Network.

Nudge Community Builders

What did Nudge pitch?

Local people need extra support, encouragement and financial backing to take a space at Nudge’s monthly markets. By providing this support, Nudge can enable local people and young entrepreneurs to be at the heart of the markets. This funding would enable Nudge to offer spaces for free or on a commission basis if they have a good day.  Alongside this, Nudge will provide bespoke mentoring support before, during and afterwards. 

Update Spring 2019

“The Manor Street Market started this year on 31st March and is becoming a much loved date in the diary in our local area. Each market has had live music, at least 12 stalls and we have really improved the food options for people by working with local businesses.

We’ve had two markets so far this year with 5 more planned up to September and hope to invest further in the infrastructure to make it suitable through the winter. The market is improving in quality and feel. We used materials from the Scrapstore and volunteer help to make yellow decorations that have had a really good impact and have also had some promotional photos done by FotoNow.

We have had 5 young people participate to run stalls and sell from suitcases, and have 7 more booked in for upcoming markets. This has included selling sweets, popcorn making, hand drawn cards, pottery and running challenges or competitions. We have seen some of our regular community who come to our free Soup sessions now feeling brave enough to take a stall. This has been really challenging for some of them as they have complex needs and mental health issues. They have needed support to feel confident and mentoring to keep trying and to develop their offer. We have spent time promoting the opportunity to local young people at careers fairs and through the local foyer and groups. It is taking time for people to feel confident. So we are noticing that they need to come along to a market first to see how it works and tend to pop in at least twice to talk things through.

From this learning we are developing some more support and resources for young people to use around budgeting, selling techniques and pricing.”

Community Advocacy Network

What did CAN pitch?

CAN’s Social Enterprises enable them to generate their own funds and are all environment/service-based. CAN want to take waste plastic and do something meaningful with it, via a ‘Precious Plastics model’. They wish to purchase the equipment to create a new processing facility with the aim of re-purposing the 17 tonnes of waste plastics they have at their disposal. The Precious Plastic model will create beautiful products, made by adults with learning disabilities for local shops and online.

Update Spring 2019

“Since becoming an Accelerator prize winner we have been extremely busy with the Research and Development stage of our “Precious Plastics proof of concept” initiative, in partnership with Dr Dorian Dixon Msc, Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering at the Ulster University. We have now completed sample stress testing of various different types of plastics and now have a significant body of research as to the particular properties and potential product applications of our recycled plastics. We have also carried extensive research into types of equipment and machinery required to enable us to produce products with production methods that enable our members here at CAN to be fully involved, so that they can learn new skills and be fully integrated into the production process from start to finish. This very important phase of our initiative is now complete and we are now forging ahead with phase 2.

As part of phase 2 we have now taken delivery of a more industrial plastic shredder following experimentation with a small bench top machine and have also ordered our 1st Plastic injection moulding machine which should mean we will start full scale production of our 1st product made from recycled plastic before the end of May.

We already have customers lined up for our 1st product, which is a tourist related item that lends itself to other applications which is part of phase 3 and we hope to showcase this later this year at one of the Rank Foundation’s events.”

Announcement: Time to Shine partnership with The National Lottery Community Fund

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The Rank Foundation

We are delighted to announce that The Rank Foundation has partnered with The National Lottery Community Fund to co-fund the Time to Shine Leadership Programme over the next three years.

The programme has been running successfully for nine years, and aims to address organisational development gaps within charities, as well as enabling a leader with the right skills mix, talent and work ethic to experience a 12 month Living Wage paid position in a meaningful work role.

The programme aims to bring about sustainable improvements to a charity’s performance, improve employment prospects and build interest in career opportunities in the social sector.

Applications will open in early August here on our website, so please check back here for criteria and more details nearer the time.

Caroline Broadhurst

“Our partnership with the National Lottery Community Fund is a great boost for the Time to Shine Leadership Programme.  We share a passion for bringing new talent and skills into the social sector and future-proofing the role of small and medium-sized charities. This grant will help scale Time to Shine across the U.K.” 

– Caroline Broadhurst, Deputy CEO at The Rank Foundation