Archives for May 2020

Handling Covid19 – Reaching Higher

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This week we are spotlighting Reaching Higher, a youth charity based in the London Borough of Croydon.

Reaching Higher has been known to The Rank Foundation for a long time, recieving their first grant back in 2013 to fund a YAP apprentice. Since then, Reaching Higher has hosted GAP apprentices, Time to Shine Leaders, and Community Action Placements. A previous Reaching Higher employee won the Rank Memorial Award back in 2016, and Jordan Ignatius, current Strategy and Operations Manager at Reaching Higher, was recently appointed as a member of the RankNet Leaders Action Group.

We spoke to Jordan about the trials and tribulations of managing the Coronavirus pandemic in youth work, and how Reaching Higher have adapted their services.

At Reaching Higher, their vision is “to see a wider community working together to best serve young people” by drawing synergy between schools, community and home life. Their mission is to “challenge young people to be leaders of their own lives”. They employ eight members of staff and engage with approximately 250 – 300 young people per week.

In a usual week, Reaching Higher are visiting schools delivering their transferable skills programme, running their Football and Drama Academies and Leadership Programme in the community, as well as doing home visits and parent induction meetings. However, during the pandemic Reaching Higher have had to drastically adapt their programmes and services.

With the help of some of their service users, Reaching Higher quickly developed Isolation < Aspiration, which is an initiative designed to raise the aspirations of each young person and provide a catalyst of hope for them and their families during these uncertain times. The main objectives are to provide young people with high quality, fun and meaningful activities in their home, support families by providing them with practical tools and resources to use whilst at home with their children and to sign post young people and their families to organisations that can provide them with the support they need.

Reaching Higher has committed to building their online communities via interactive workshops, youth-led content, hosting competitions and engaging with young people across their social media platforms. They know their audience, their needs and how to keep them engaged and inspired.

There has been so many positives and learning opportunities since Reaching Higher had to digitalise their service delivery. The team have sent out educational and community resources to parents and carers, offered Drama related activities (tangible advice about how to develop acting and writing skills), run football skill workshops, match review sessions, fitness workouts and online FIFA tournaments, and they have held mentoring sessions on CV and Personal Statement writing as well as timetabling.

Although this has been hugely successful, Jordan explained that lockdown has come with some very real challenges. Maintaining contact with young people and their families is a delicate art; they are very conscious of overwhelming and alienating their service users. A lot of their youth have shared a lack of motivation to get involved in online activities and are bored of staying at home. Jordan explained:

“There’s no blueprint for times like this and a lot of what we do is face to face youth work so we are really figuring out how things work as we go. Working face to face is what makes our jobs feel so rewarding, so working virtually makes it difficult to measure our impact in the same way“.

If you have any questions for Jordan or the team at Reaching Higher, or want to know more about their programmes or services you can contact them at info@reachinghigher.org.uk or visit their website at www.reachinghigher.org.uk

Resilience Fund: CHAC and HYST

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On 3rd April 2020 The Rank Foundation launched the Resilience Fund in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Applications are open to all RankNet members, and the fund has been implemented to cover cashflow, fundraising and loss of income challenges relating to the current covid-19 related climate. This includes those facing significant, unplanned demand on services. Within hours of opening, applications were received and the Grants Manager and Foundation Executives began processing the applications, assessing management accounts and cash flow forecasts, knowing that access to this type of funding was a priority.

We will be looking at some of the Resilience Fund grantees each week, starting with Hull Youth Support Trust and Cleveland Housing Advice Centre.

Cleveland Housing Advice Centre

Organisation Overview:

Cleveland Housing Advice Centre (CHAC) was opened in 1992 and provides one to one advice, lay advocacy, and representation in all aspects of welfare benefits, housing, and debt issues along with the various spin-off problems arising from them such as repossessions, evictions, domestic violence, poverty, and distress. They offer their services to their local community in Middlesbrough, currently ranked as the eighth most deprived local authority area in England.

Difficulties due to Coronavirus:

Due to the high demand in applications for universal credit, CHAC are unable to reduce the numbers of staff or take advantage of the Government Job Retention Scheme (JRS), as all of their staff are needed to deal with the surge of Universal Credit advice and assistance on completing forms.

They are also unable to provide their Job Training programme for prisoners and young people at risk which means that the charity is losing an average £6,000 per month, an income which contributes directly to staff wages.

What will the Resilience Fund grant be used for?

CHAC will be able to continue providing telephone and online advice on welfare and debt, and assisting in completing Universal Credit applications. They deal with 105 clients per day and issue an average of 30 food vouchers per day. Due to the increased demand on their services, CHAC has had to consider using some of their small reserves to pay staff. The Resilience Fund grant of £20,000 will allow CHAC to pay their staff salaries for the next 3 months without accessing reserves, which may be needed in the future.

Hull Youth Support Trust
Organisation Overview:

Hull Youth Support Trust (HYST) first came to Rank’s attention in 2016 and were part of the second phase of Place-Based funding in Hull. Since then, they have been significant and engaged members of the Rank Network.

HYST provides young entrepreneurs (aged 18-30) with heavily subsidised office space for a two year period in order to make those first few years as comfortable as possible. Together with dedicated one-to-one business advice and personal support HYST aim to give every young person the fundamental skills to succeed in business. HYST look to work with young people who have previously been; unemployed, under-employed, disadvantaged in some way or totally new to the world of business.

Difficulties due to Coronavirus:

HYST have a 23 office incubation centre where their businesses (during normal times) work out of and use meeting facilities.

The biggest concern is ongoing cashflow if the tenants are unable to pay their rent due to the downturn in work within their own businesses. A loss of 60-70% of HYST’s rent (on average) coming in would result in a significant loss per month to the charity.

What will the Resilience Fund grant be used for?

“We would hope that with a support package to help our cashflow over the next 6 months we would have what we require to not only support us as a charity get through the downturn but to offer our tenants the support they need to get back on their feet and start trading effectively again”

The Resilience Fund grant of £15,600 will cover 6 months of predicted office space rental losses, allowing HYST to help their tenants get back to usual or adapted business.

Handling Covid19 – Khulisa

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This week, we are shining the spotlight on Khulisa, a charity based in London providing mental health and wellbeing support to vulnerable children and young people.

Khulisa first came onto our radar back in 2013 via The Rank Foundation’s Major Grants scheme, and they have also benefited from a Time to Shine Leader twice, back in 2016 and 2018.

We picked up on what Khulisa has been up to via their Twitter (@KhulisaUK), where they are addressing the ups and downs of the current lockdown and what they might be able to do to help.

Before the Covid19 pandemic Khulisa’s team of highly qualified art and drama therapists were working with young people in schools and prisons to build their social and emotional skills. Khulisa also recognises how important it is for young people to have positive relationships with trusted adults – particularly for children who do not have supportive parents or carers at home. As such, the team also delivers training and self-care support to professionals (primarily teachers, social workers, prison officers and police officers).

With schools closed and social distancing rules in place, the team cannot work with young people in person and so have moved their programmes online.

A new suite of digital toolkits, group webinars and virtual 1:1 support sessions have been developed and will be delivered until schools can safely reopen for all children. The digital programmes replicate much of the same content in our face to face programmes, and provide young people with a trusted person to talk to, qualified therapists and access to a safe space.

Their partner schools are relieved that Khulisa can work more flexibly and support them through this difficult period. As a result of the pandemic, the number of ‘vulnerable’ children they’re supporting has increased significantly.

Young people have told the team that they feel relieved to know that they have Khulisa’s support to process their feelings of fear, frustration and anger. One young ambassador said:

“A lot of young people are feeling angry now in lockdown – they don’t have anywhere to put that anger.  For a lot of young people in alternative provision, their home life is not great – spending so much time at home with all this stuff going on. They have nowhere to escape.”

Khulisa told us that the biggest challenge for them during this period was accelerating their digital programmes. It had always been part of their longer term strategy, but they were forced to make rapid changes with relatively little resources or prior experience.

If you’d like information on wellbeing and mental health support for young people or professionals and parents, please email  info@khulisa.co.uk, visit their website (khulisa.co.uk) or send them a tweet @KhulisaUK .

Time to Shine Newsletter 2020

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We are celebrating the current Time to Shine Leaders by sharing the Time to Shine 2020 Newsletter.

The current Covid19 pandemic has meant that lots of the Time to Shine Leaders have had to be resilient, adaptable and reactive and we wanted to celebrate them and their achievements so far by introducing readers to all 54 participants. We are so proud of their vision and perseverence, and you will see how determined many of them are by reading their contributions.

We can’t deny that 2020 has bought many challenges to the sector, but these Leaders tell us their dreams and their plans, and we have no doubt they will succeed.

For all Time to Shine related queries, please see our Time to Shine page or contact timetoshine@rankfoundation.com.

Read the Time to Shine Newsletter in magazine format here or click here to download a copy.

Our Plymouth: Working Collaboratively During Covid19

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During the Coronavirus crisis, Our Plymouth has partnered with POP+, Together for Devon and Plymouth City Council to help with the Good Neighbours Scheme. The Good Neighbours Scheme is a space for volunteers, community groups and charities to come together and help some of Plymouth’s most vulnerable residents throughout this difficult time.

By Emma Ridley
Plymouth Project Officer

In total, 700 people have stepped forward to volunteer, however, the scheme currently has more volunteers than it does opportunities; this is something that is being mirrored throughout the country. And although this is really positive and a great position to be in, it also has its own frustrations.

People who have been offering to volunteer are being kept on a database. The elected councillor of the volunteer programme has been writing to them to thank them for their service and to also keep them in the loop, so they are aware of what is going on. If there are no available opportunities, they aren’t just being ignored, they receive regular updates and are notified if any positions become available.Our Plymouth volunteers are helping with a mixture of services, including Age UK, British Red Cross, as well as providing welfare checks and doing food deliveries. Other members of the Good Neighbours Scheme are doing prescription collections and deliveries. Organisations that usually work alone have come together with a collaborative approach, which has been really powerful in the city.Our Plymouth are now focusing on how they manage this moving forward; they are mindful that a lot of people currently volunteering will eventually return to their normal jobs. Martin Mills from Our Plymouth said: “We are hoping that when this pandemic comes to an end, there will be more citizens in the community who notice the positive impact of volunteering. People are starting to realise the benefits of their own happiness by doing something good for someone else.”The Covid-19 pandemic created some massive challenges for Our Plymouth, as well as many other organisations. However, because of the RISE Trade Up programme, they have had the opportunity to re-visit their business plan, which has allowed them to re-direct funds online to help with their volunteer programme. Martin said: “The RISE programme has made it easy for us to pivot, because we have been able to adapt our cash flow and business plan. We wouldn’t have been able to do this without the support of the Rank Foundation.”

Handling Covid19 – Kissing it Better

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We caught up with Kissing it Better, a charity who became members of the network back in 2017 due to their Major Grant. They have subsequently had a Time to Shine Leader, Hannah, who is in the middle of her employment year with them.

Simply, Kissing it Better’s mission is ‘to end the isolation of old age by bringing the generations together.’ There is a key team of 5, with 7 additional self-employed team members. The main bulk of people at Kissing it Better are the fantastic volunteers from schools, colleges, universities, and teachers, as well as musicians. There are around 800 of them!

Ordinarily, Kissing it Better has contracts with large hospital Trusts. They also work with care home groups and those in the community. Some of that work is funded by local councils as well as other funding groups and individuals who donate money to the organisation, either directly or through fundraising activities.

Kissing it Better are also starting to teach students in secondary schools, colleges, universities and those completing ‘Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards’ about their work through a regulated and accredited course called ‘Creative Thoughtfulness in the Care of Others’. They also run workshops for primary school children called “When great granny came to stay’, to teach them how best to engage with their older relatives, neighbours and friends.

Those who sing or offer other performances that demonstrate their skills (drama, dance, magic skills, hairdressing, beauty therapy etc.,) are learning how to adapt a performance or experience for those who may have dementia, hearing loss or poor sight. In return, Kissing it Better will offer master classes on how to work in challenging environments, train them in dementia awareness, write references for them.

During this pandemic, Kissing it Better has had to adapt its services to facilitate social distancing and the ensure the safety of their staff and service users: from making regular phone calls to elderly service users, to making goodie-bags for hospital and care staff. One of their adapted activities has received a lot of publicity. This is their ‘outside the window’ campaign – an initiative that enables Kissing it Better to continue to bring music and other gentle entertainment to those isolated in care homes and hospitals by performing at a safe distance outside their windows.

They are also working with The Duke of Edinburgh Award to enable students to continue their volunteering experience by connecting them with older people in the community, by giving them ways to continue that connection from their own homes.

We asked them how their service users were responding:

“We work with older people in hospitals and care homes and many are feeling so lost and alone at this time. Unable to see their relatives and friends, we believe they are not just thrilled to get some gentle entertainment, they are also touched that someone took time out their busy lives to think of them”

How to contact KIB or get more information.

The best way to contact KIB is by emailing mail@kissingitbetter.co.uk or by calling 07831 136152 or 01789 488018

You can visit their website here.