Archives for January 2024

Community Action Placement: Discover your Ability

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We were really excited to welcome a new host to our Community Action Placement programme last summer. Able2B, based in Norwich, is a community interest company set up to develop services that help improve function for children and adults with a disability. Their headline, ‘Discover your ability’, perfectly summarises their positive and inclusive approach.

With seven of the School Leadership Award class of 2023 considering applications to study medicine, Able2B seemed an ideal location for their summer placement. Four award holders were made very welcome by the team in Norwich. In this blog post, Mirabel, one of the award holders, reflects on her placement.

I had rarely been in a position of care for people with disabilities.
Therefore, initially I aimed to learn about the way that I would respond to being in a completely foreign situation – faced with a variety of different verbal, physical and emotional barriers.

My only experience of disability was a family member who was diagnosed with dementia and is in a persistent vegetative state. I subconsciously associated the term disability with suffering and exhaustion – I aimed to have personal interactions with the clients at Able2B and explore how my preconceptions would change.

They did! I had not expected to see brain injury survivors who had been told that they would never stand, let alone walk again strolling alongside me due to the work of Able2B. Whilst I did find myself tearing up occasionally, it was not due to feelings of sadness but sheer admiration and joy for both clients and the work of those at Able2B.

My time in Norwich helped me to focus on qualities needed for leadership which I now see as:

Enthusiasm: Regardless of whether it was 9am or the last 5 minutes of the day, the leaders put the same level of energy into every client and were always present – regardless of the client’s response.

Communication: Some clients were hard of hearing or sight and some could not communicate entirely – teaching me that communication is personal. As a leader, it’s my job to adapt my message to ensure that everyone hears it.

Knowledge: The leaders could scan a person for 5 seconds and identify exactly what they required – more importantly, had the courage to employ innovative ways to aid them in achieving it.

Empowerment and Patience: When taking 1-1 sessions, encouragement always produced the most results. Sometimes I’d find myself repeating words of encouragement or reassurance 4 times and instead of getting frustrated, repeating it a 5th empowered the clients to keep going.

Self-belief: I was bewildered by the relentless perseverance of the clients. Throughout the sessions, I saw some whispering “you can do it” to themselves and they did not allow their impairment to limit their potential which I hope to use when approaching obstacles as a leader.

Bearing: With clients, if I appeared exhausted and disinterested, they would too. The clients taught me that through life, everyone will encounter different obstacles; however, it is the way you carry yourself through these that will determine your success.

Bhabishya’s Time to Shine Journey – Ending

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The Rank Foundation’s very own 2023 Time to Shine leader, Bhabishya Paudel, reflects on her year of incredible experiences in her role as Brand & Communications Assistant, as part of the Time to Shine leadership programme.

As my Time to Shine journey comes to an end, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Rank Foundation for giving me this incredible opportunity. The journey has been a rollercoaster of nervousness and excitement, but it was all worthwhile.

This is my third and final blog. If you’d like to read my first and second blogs the links are below.

Blog 1 – Time to Shine Leader and her journey

Blog 2 – Bhabishya’s Time to Shine journey

How it started
I still remember it like it was yesterday. It was end of January, clouds were hovering over the sky making it a cold and freezing afternoon. I arrived for the interview and Caroline – Deputy Chief Executive, Sonia- Assistant Director of Operations and Louise- Comms Consultant were waiting in a nice open-plan kitchen area of the office. I said ‘hello’ and I could hear my voice shaking.

I believe the key to success in an interview is showing your true colours. In other words, just be yourself. I kept telling myself ‘I can do this’ because I really wanted to work and what is more thrilling than working in charity like The Rank Foundation?

My confidence was low and I didn’t believe in myself, but Rank saw something shine inside me. I now know this little spark was there all along. It was just hidden as time went by.

The Rank Foundation hired me as a Brand and Comms Assistant under the Time to Shine leadership programme. This experience has given me a great insight into the Rank Foundation’s work, Rank’s Network, and their support. It has helped me enormously to build my confidence and my career.

During the programmes, I attended Action Learning Sets, which have been instrumental in my personal development. Action Learning Sets are peer to peer learning experiences. We listen to our peers and ask them with open questions, which will help them think about and tackle any issues they may have.

What I’ve achieved
As a part of my role, I handled an artwork competition from beginning to its completion, which was an excellent learning experience for me.

Responding to a call for artists, the Network submitted some fantastic artwork, which made it very difficult to judge. It also made me realise the level of engagement from Rank’s Network. The winning artworks are now proudly displayed in Rank’s coworking in London.

I also made a video for the coworking space, which was a success on Rank’s social media channels. The list goes on, I was involved in several other tasks and projects, but these are the projects I am particularly proud of.

The Rank Foundation’s annual conference was a nerve-wracking experience for me, as all the Time to Shine leaders had to present a showcase in front of 350 people from Rank’s Network. I wrote and read a poem as part of my showcase, it was a fantastic feeling, and I felt a sense of achievement. This made me realise that I want to continue writing poetry!

What’s next?

It feels a bit surreal now, looking back from the time I started to where I am now.

This programme and opportunity have opened many doors for me. I am confident that this working in the social sector is a career path I want to pursue.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the Rank Foundation for acting as a stepping stone in my career and helping me to achieve my personal development goals.

Ripples Story: “Enterprise on the menu”

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In this article, Neve Howells-Aitken, a Rank Fellow, shares her experience of being part of a management team that ran a successful student social enterprise at a South Wales college, which provided sustainable, inclusive, and affordable meals for the student body.

Hot to Go (HTG) is a student-run social enterprise based in UWC Atlantic College, which serves as a restaurant for the student body. It was founded by a student in 2019 and has been dedicated to fulfilling its three core values on campus and in the wider South Wales community: charity, community, and sustainability.

HTG attempts to emulate a working restaurant as closely as possible; we have a head chef, sous chef, and head pastry chef who lead a team of more than twenty people in the kitchen weekly. The front-of-house team has bartenders, baristas, head waitresses and a dedicated team of over 20 rotating waitstaff. I got involved in HTG in August of 2022 and worked as part of the management team until March 2024, when I passed down the position as my time at the college ended.

Charity, being one of the core values at HTG, means our impact on the community is always at the forefront of events and services. This year, we have successfully donated over £3,500 to scholarship fundraisers at the college to directly impact our college community. This will help future students by contributing to the financial aid required to attend UWC. Additionally, we strive to make HTG as inclusive as possible. This is vital as we aim to serve all students, who are a highly diverse group of people in many ways. The gap between the socio-economic backgrounds of Atlantic College students is relatively large; however, we never want this to stop people from affording our food and enjoying themselves with us. Because of this, we offer a free dining experience for those who qualify for the school’s ‘Student Financial Services’. This has sometimes been challenging, as the costs we incur have risen dramatically over the last two years due to the cost-of-living crisis. First and foremost, we are a charity, so our aim to serve all students on campus has been unwavering.

Our efforts to be sustainable have also proved challenging; however, they have been a brilliant endeavour for growth and learning. HTG has always been vegetarian to minimise emissions and make food accessible to as many people as possible. At the beginning of the year, I completed a research project analysing the impacts of only using hyper-locally sourced ingredients on HTG.

The limited produce we would have access to, with the infrastructure and resources available, would negatively impact our desire to share global culture and possibly limit the menu, which would restrict customers and our impact on the charity.

We are able to serve an extremely diverse menu because of our collaborations with national groups on campus and the unique background of every chef. People love to come and enjoy the delicious dishes we prepare. We can unite our campus community as a team, serving between 50 to 100 students and staff weekly.

HTG has been an incredible experience that I will value for the rest of my life. Not only has it taught me the intricacies of running an enterprise, ignited a passion for food and helped me nurture personal skills surrounding finance, leadership, and organisation; but it has allowed me to enjoy making a positive impact on my community

Neve Howells-Aitken

Rank Fellow

Ripples Story: “Committing to values that help leaders make good decisions”

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In this blog post, Mark Herbert, a Fellow (Class of 2003) and Co-founder and Director at Salt & Light Leadership Coaching, shares his journey of joining forces with his best friend, Jon Bircher, to equip leaders with better decision-making skills based on true Christian values.

I’m Mark Herbert, a Fellow (Class of 2003) and Co-founder and Director at Salt & Light Leadership Coaching. Our company helps leaders and leadership teams make better decisions.

I benefited from Rank’s School Leadership Award during my time at Monkton and have spent the last 20 years in education and not-for-profit leadership, including 10 years in church leadership. Each of these different contexts was rich with opportunities to develop my leadership skills and help release the leadership in others. I learned more about effective communication, managing conflict and motivating teams.

I published a book, “I’m Not a Leader”, in 2021, and began an entrepreneurial journey into leadership coaching. In 2023, I co-founded Salt & Light Coaching Ltd with my friend Jon Bircher, and we work in various sectors, equipping leaders to make better decisions. As we worked with leaders, we realised that navigating the dynamics around decision-making was a common challenge. Our world needs better leaders, and quality decision-making is one of the marks of outstanding leadership. For us, this is rooted in leaders doing better thinking and asking better questions. We strive to create organisational ecosystems that support a thinking environment, empowering leaders to make better decisions.

Our world is volatile, and leadership is complex, especially when the stakes are high. Decisions matter because our leadership is visible in our choices and how we make them, demonstrating who we are, how we think, and what we value. We are convinced that every decision has a ripple effect and that our life story unfolds one decision at a time.

Choosing to step away from a familiar career in my mid-thirties and embark on uncharted territory was daunting. The journey involved a steep learning curve, asking hundreds of questions and building a network. I made mistakes and had to dig deep into reserves of resilience, especially with the additional pressures of supporting a young family while starting a new company from scratch. Looking back, the leadership foundations I have drawn upon daily were founded during my time at school. The opportunities that Rank gave me to develop my leadership as a teenager started the ripples that continue to spread today.

People often ask us – “Where does the name Salt & Light come from?” Salt and Light are Biblical metaphors. We work with leaders from multiple faiths or none, but as Christians, Jon and I are committed to being Salt and Light as Jesus encourages his followers. For us, this means adding flavour and value to our coaching conversations, spotlighting the genius in others, and shining a light on a clear path ahead.

At Salt & Light, one of our core values is to walk alongside our clients, nurturing lasting relationships and offering a mix of challenge and support.

Mark Herbert

Co-founder and Director at Salt & Light Leadership Coaching

Ripples Story: “The language of heritage”

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In this article, Mariama Techie-Afful, a Rank Fellow (Class of 2009) and a first-generation Briton born in the UK to Sierra Leonean parents, shares how she developed a deck of cards to help Africans learn their native language and stay connected to their cultural roots.

I’m Mariama, from the Fellowship, Class of 2009, a first-generation Briton born in the UK to Sierra Leonean parents, married to a Ghanaian, mother of two and the founder of Nafolan (pronounced Na-foh-lan). My parents did a fantastic job instilling a sense of cultural pride in my siblings and me. Although our ability to have conversations in Krio is questionable at best, it’s a skill we possess, nonetheless.

Many Africans living on the continent are multi-lingual. Meanwhile, those born outside of Africa to African parents tend to only be receptive to bilingualism; that is, they cannot engage in active conversation despite being able to understand the language.

Nafolan (which means ‘You should learn’) was birthed out of the desire to see more learning resources for my son in Krio and Twi so that he will be connected to his cultural roots, especially as English is the default language in my home. There are limited resources on the market for parents of African heritage who wish to teach their children their native language, something I discovered in 2021, shortly after my son was born.

With this in mind, I created a deck of 25-27 cards containing words and phrases commonly used in everyday speech and a pronunciation guide. I launched the business in 2022, and with just over two years of experience, it is still in its infancy. The reception so far has been overwhelmingly positive, and whilst I am no marketing guru or know every supporter personally, it has been important from the onset to ensure I share the brand’s vision with simplicity and clarity.

I have been able to leverage the power of community, a lesson I first learnt during my Community Action Placement at the Arun Community Church; it is to this that I accredit my success. Currently, we have four languages spoken by communities across Africa’s Western and Eastern coasts (Krio, Twi, Yoruba, and Swahili). We are working on a series of audio guides to supplement the cards. There are more than 2000 languages spoken in Africa, so the long-term goal is to be able to provide comprehensive language resources for as many of these languages as possible.

Mariama Techie-Afful

Rank Fellow (Class of 2009)

Ripples Story: “Overcoming inequalities”

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In this article, Varsha Parmar, Chief Executive of Equality Action, writes about how the organisation has embedded equality, diversity, and inclusion in service provision across Leicestershire and Rutland with help from our Profit for Good Programme.

Equality Action applied for Profit for Good in 2021 because we wanted to set up a trading arm that would generate unrestricted income. Historically, we heavily relied on grant funding to deliver much-needed services to people from vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds in Leicestershire. Over the last few years, the challenges everyone faces have highlighted the need for equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) to be embedded in service provision across all sectors. Through our work, we know health and well-being are vital areas in which to embed EDI so that people marginalised by society are less reluctant to access health services.

Our charitable aim is to build EDI capacity within communities. We do that by offering training to grassroots organisations, youth groups and the NHS. We work with them to ensure EDI is at the heart of whatever they plan and deliver. This includes ensuring they consider cultural and other barriers in service delivery. Course content includes things like:

  • EDI terms and sensitive use of language
  • Bias and microaggressions
  • Equality Act 2010 and the nine protected characteristics.

Since our Profit for Good funding, we’ve helped embed EDI in many of the services and support provided here in Leicestershire and Rutland. The funding has enabled us to create a flexible pricing strategy so smaller organisations aren’t excluded, and it has covered the costs of some casework. It’s a tough sector to work in, but our relationship with Rank is fantastic. They understand the reality of being a small charity. With Rank’s support, we’ve strengthened our team with a Time to Shine leader, which has set us up for growth. Profit for Good has helped us open doors we didn’t think possible. Last year, we had seven commissions for our EDI training, and we’re aiming for 10 this year.

A significant achievement was reaching hundreds of local people by working with the Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR-ICB). We helped them identify ‘connectors’ with lived experiences of cancer, hypertension, respiration and long-term COVID-19. We work with connectors to support them in sharing their experiences and any barriers they may have faced in accessing services, raising awareness, and encouraging others to take up early interventions and manage their health.

We’re delighted to have seen an increase in the way service providers and professionals, particularly those in the health sector, take feedback from service users and incorporate it into their service delivery. Putting EDI at the heart of their service enables providers to better understand the needs of their target audience, address barriers around culture, language, and digital access, and tailor their services.

Listening to people share their experiences, both negative and positive, and listening to suggestions on what can be done to improve their services is making their services more accessible and increasing their use. It is a slow process, but we are seeing service users’ confidence grow, and they are now less reluctant to see health specialists. They are also more confident in self-care, spotting signs of health issues, and taking early interventions. More are now regularly checking their blood pressure etc., and staying on top of cancer screening, etc.. They can see that the professionals are tailoring their services to address cultural needs and sensitive matters in a more inclusive manner.

These results show how an enterprising approach can help increase social impact.

Varsha Parmar

Chief Executive of Equality Action