Archives for November 2016

Charity of the Month – November

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Essex Boys and Girls Clubs

Who are Essex Boys and Girls Clubs?

Essex Boys and Girls Clubs was set up in 1939 and works with young people across Essex and East London and at their adventure centers in Essex, Wales, Cumbria and Birmingham.  The charity helps young people to develop, by supporting 140 independent voluntary youth groups, which provide more than 15,000 teenagers with activities. The charity supports clubs which include activities such as cricket, boxing, football and outdoor activities, in the hope that this will provide teenagers with self-discipline, a ‘can-do’ spirit and a safe place to learn skills that will aid their future. In addition, Essex Boys and Girls Clubs run a range of projects with partner organisations, in order to help young people develop skills and confidence. These include The Duke of Edinburgh Award, National Citizen Service, The Arts Award and The John Muir Award.

What is our Relationship with Essex Boys and Girls Clubs?

Essex Boys and Girls Clubs, our longstanding grantee, have been highly supported by The Rank Foundation over the years due to their fantastic work. As they are a reliable and trustworthy charity, we have provided them with a number of Leadership Award students on their CAP placement, individuals on our YAP initiative and participants on our GAP program.

How does The Rank Foundation’s Placements Benefit the Charity and Individual?

Our placements are beneficial to both the charity and the individual, as the charity is provided with an extra helping hand and the individual receives relevant work experience and training. Sue Pell, the Fundraising Officer at Essex Boys and Girls Clubs, further explains:

‘’Having a Rank CAP student with us for two weeks helps us to give the young people we work with added support and encouragement, and in return, we are able to help the Rank student get a better idea of youth work and some of the challenges and adventures it can bring. Often the Rank students come to us from different backgrounds to the young people we work with, or have never had the opportunity to encourage and support other young people in the activities we offer.  Helping the Rank student to step up and take a level of responsibility within a group and watching them grow and develop is a privilege.  Many of the Rank students keep in touch with us after they have completed their placement.’’

Our 2015 Leadership Award Holder, Ishaq Raheel, spent his CAP placement at Essex Boys and Girls Clubs. He told us how his placement benefited him:

‘’Personally, I really enjoyed my placement. I met some really lovely people and learnt a lot about working with young people. For example, during my placement, I had to work alongside people with different severities of autism, which provided me with a developed understanding of how to work with people who have the condition. Furthermore, through observations of the site managers, I learnt how to manage a large number of young people.’’

Trieu Ho, from our 2013 Leadership Award cohort, explained how he overcame the challenges he faced during his placement at Essex Boys and Girls Clubs

‘’The biggest challenge I encountered during my placement was leading a group of young people during a crucial time, when they had to plan their social action project to give back to the community. There were individuals that were reluctant to participate, but I had to pull the team together and eventually they came up with a good plan for the project. I am proud to have assisted young people plan methods in which they can give back to the community and I am looking forward to seeing them execute their project.’’

Contact Details

If you would like to find out more information about Essex Boys and Girls Clubs, they can be contacted through their website here.

Alexander Peter – T2S and Conference Review

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My Dear Time to Shiners, Class of 2016,

What a year we’ve had! From that trepidatious first encounter in the bitter month of January up in Morecambe, to the serenity of Lake Windermere and finally on to the buzzing and blustery city of Blackpool (it’s a wonder people only chose to sample the night life of the first of these three and not the last), our tour of the ‘Hotels of the North’ is complete.

Over the past nine months we have all had the opportunity to engage with a sector of society that strives to support marginalised people. From film making and fundraising, to events management, being the ‘Jack of all trades’ and the start of a hopefully illustrious career as a chimney sweeper! We have, thanks to the Time to Shine Programme, each contributed to the important work that our organisations undertake on a daily basis.

This last conference in Blackpool brought our Time to Shine programme to a close in the best possible way. By gathering together the whole Rank Foundation family we were able to meet with the people who make up the Rank network (now helpfully available online through their new initiative RankNet). At the conference we: received mentor training; learned, through our respective showcases, more about the work that the Time to Shine programme has enabled each of us to do; attended informative workshops which gave us further insight into matters of importance to the social sector such as fundraising, pitching, and social media to name a few; and we met some of the inspiring people from across this country who are driving social change and championing a vision of Britain that puts mutual understanding and support before self-interest and disunity.

At the heart of this vision of Britain is empathy. Empathy is the driving force of the social sector. It is certainly the reason I applied for Red Balloon; the reason I have, at times, worked late into the night; the reason I fill in fundraising application after fundraising application after fundraising application. As we watch the run-up to the US elections, a race that has been marked by its distinct unempathetic rhetoric, I thought I would turn to the thoughts of the incumbent President, Barack Obama. In the chapter entitled Values in Obama’s book The Audacity of Hope, he mentions the importance of empathy in today’s world. There is a line that I think resonates particularly well with my experiences in the social sector. Obama writes, ‘Talk is cheap; like any value, empathy must be acted upon.’ Taking action is key to the work we do and the purpose of each organisation. As Siobhan said in our mentoring session, it is no wonder that there are so many ‘Activists’ amongst us! And based on what I have heard from everyone about their year, we have all been very busy getting stuck in, organizing events, activities etc.

But, alas, all good things come to an end and so must our journey as ‘Time to Shiners’. It has been a fantastic year and, like I said last Thursday night, one that I shall not forget. Thank you to each and every intern for being brilliant and a barrel of laughs (see you at Blackpool next year for T2S 2K16 reunion?); thank you to the Rank Foundation (in particular Helen and Caroline) for your tireless work and support throughout the year; and thank you to the line managers for initiating us so well into this world.

As we all move on either to pastures new or to a permanent position in our respective organisations, I should like to leave you with a quote from ‘Little Gidding’, one of four poems comprising T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets:

For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.

Whilst this year of the Time to Shine Programme is over, we now pass the baton on to the next crop of ‘Time to Shiners’ who will bring, in another voice, new and innovative ideas that will support their organisations, enabling them to address and fill development gaps, and have a fantastic time doing it.

We, my friends, are the future of the social sector. We are the leaders who, thanks to this year, will be able to carry forward what we have learned and ensure that, wherever we end up, the disadvantaged people whom we have supported this year will always have their voices heard. The Rank Foundation has supported us thus far; now it is up to us.

Alex Peter (Time to Shine Intern, 2016)