Leadership

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

Rank Memorial Award 2019

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Memorial Award 2019

Today we launch the Rank Memorial Award 2019, which was established in 2010 to commemorate our former Chairman, Mr. Fred Packard.

The aim of the Memorial Award is to create an opportunity to travel and explore a specific area of personal interest, relating to our work that will serve to inspire, educate or promote the interests, values or ethos of the Foundation.

The 2019 programme is open and available to anybody associated with the Rank Foundation and RankNet, through our range of initiatives and programmes. There will be one award of £8,000 which may be shared depending on circumstances. Applicants must be 18+ to apply with no upper age limit.

We are looking to support an individual who has designed their own programme of learning around one of the Foundation’s key areas of interest: leadership or enterprise in place.

For more information and application forms, please head to RankNet.

Meet some of the past Memorial Award winners…

Lydia
Award Winner, 2018

Lydia applied to travel to Detroit, USA. Her hometown is Belfast, where the city’s current social challenges have strong parallels with those present in Detroit. Both Belfast and Detroit suffered from their decline as industrial powerhouses and this resulted in city-wide rioting, tensions between ethnic or religious groups, extreme economic challenges and increased derelict spaces.

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.

Lydia is currently in Detroit, embarking on her Memorial Award adventure, and she recently gave us as update:

“I’m currently dividing my time between a few different social ventures from community art to seed funding to neighbourhood gardening. There is loads going on here and the city has experienced huge change in the last five years. I’m particularly enjoying listening to the experiences of people who have been part of and witnessed the change. I know I will go back to Belfast having learned a lot from this city and its citizen led initiatives”

Viccie
Award Winner, 2018

Viccie’s interest is in the integration and application of Mindful Practices within educational and clinical settings supporting young people’s sexual health and health and wellbeing.

Viccie applied for a Rank Memorial Award to support her travel to Kathmandu, Nepal, where she intended to visit the Kopan Monastery. She planned to attend a 5 day course there which provides an overview over Tibetan Buddhism, and introduces its fundamental principles. It introduces meditation and mindfulness techniques to improve life by enriching it with a greater sense of balance, compassion and freedom. Viccie then planned to spend 3 days within a community group exploring how this learning transpires into everyday life in Nepal.
The next stop on Viccie’s trip would be Emeryville, California, where she would visit the Mindful Schools organisation and would spend time learning from the course trainers how mindfulness techniques can be embedded into school curriculums across the world and what barriers people have faced and how they have overcome them. The final stop would be to visit the Carver Centre in Port Chester, New York who have completed a yearlong course with Mindful Schools. Viccie’s plan was to spend 3 days there, gaining tips on how similar can be implemented within the area and organisation she works.

Jenny
Award Winner, 2017

Jenny applied for the Rank Memorial Award just as she completed her Time to Shine internship year, to travel to India to learn more about human trafficking – why it happens, how it can be prevented in Northern Ireland and globally and how business can play a part in that. Upon looking into a few organisations, Jenny applied to visit Freeset for two months as fair trade business offering employment to women forced into Kolkata’s sex trade through human trafficking or poverty.

Jenny planned to travel to Kolkata for two months, learning from Freeset and taking part in a training programme in called “Freedom Encounter” followed by 4 weeks of “on the job”.

Michaela
Award Winner, 2017

Michaela applied for a Rank Memorial Award in the hope to gain a deeper insight into how a successful national organisation can combine all sectors together – private, public and voluntary to create a more playful thriving community for children and families. Michaela identified that kids in the UK are playing less than any previous generation. Because of this, children are increasingly unhappy, unhealthy and falling behind: one in three kids is obese or overweight and one in five kids has a mental illness. Moreover, kids are not developing critical 21st century skills such as collaboration, creativity, problem-solving, resilience and empathy that they will need to succeed as adults in the global economy.

Michaela travelled to the United States for six weeks, and planned to shadow a charity called KaBOOM!. To enable kids and families to play more, KaBOOM! aims to address structural barriers to play by continuing to lead Build it with KaBOOM! playgrounds and provide grants.

Time to Shine Launch 2019

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Last week, 31 brand new Time to Shine Leaders and their managers were at The Midland Hotel in Morecambe for the 2019 launch. The cohort was split into two groups: Group 1 who attended from Monday to Wednesday, and Group 2 who arrived on Wednesday afternoon, leaving on Friday.  The managers joined their respective Time to Shine Leaders a day after their arrival. This meant that each group of leaders had 24 hours to get to know one another, participate in ice-breaker sessions, and engage with their Action Learning Set groups.

There were sessions were run by our very own Caroline Broadhurst and Kai Wooder to introduce the programme, a ‘Leadersmithing’ session was run by the fantastic Eve Poole (whom many of you will have engaged with at our Annual Conference in October 2018), an introduction to Action Learning Sets was delivered by RankNet Leaders Action Group member, and CEO of Blackpool Carers Centre, Michelle Smith, and a ‘Leading through a Growth Mindset’ session was run by Jen Mackay. The groups were engaged, willing and ready to dive in, which was a joy to witness.

The launch was also a fantastic opportunity for new Time to Shine Managers to meet other managers in the same situation, but also to meet with those who had managed a Leader in previous years. There were some guidance sessions for the managers, with time for questions to clear up an uncertainties.

The Rank Foundation team had a wonderful week meeting the new Leaders and their managers, and we are looking forward to watching the leaders, managers, and their respective organisations develop and grow over 2019.

40 Years: The Rank Foundation Leadership Award

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On Friday 23rd November, The Rank Foundation celebrated 40 Years of the School Leadership Award, as well as the 15th Anniversary of The Rank Fellowship.

A celebratory dinner was organised by our Director of Education, Tim Young, and the Chair of the Fellowship, Lindsey Clay, to be held at Inner Temple Hall in London, and all beneficiaries of the School Leadership Award (dating back to 1978) were invited to attend.

Over 190 guests attended, including current beneficiaries of the School Leadership Award, Fellows, Headteachers, Trustees and both current and past staff who administered the award.

Tim Young had created a ‘rotating’ place setting arrangement, to ensure that current Leadership Award Holders were able to network with members of the fellowship, which meant that much career advice was given, stories of Community Action Placements were exchanged and old acquaintances and friendships were rekindled.  The room was filled with sixth formers, University Students, service men and women, doctors, actors and actresses, economists, scientists, lawyers and photographers, just to name a few.

The Rank Foundation would like to thank everyone who attended, and hopes that old connections have been revitalised and that new friendships and associations will be successful!

Community Action Placements 2018

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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.

Max

Ykids

“I have had non-stop fun throughout the entire time I’ve been in Bootle and the whole experience has been truly unforgettable. I’m honoured to have been able to act as part of such an amazing team of youth workers who have allowed me to develop my leadership qualities and contribute towards making a difference to the lives of a group of amazing young people. The variety of opportunities I was able to help out with was incredible. I experienced bee-keeping for the first time, helped decorate the community garden ready for a competition and even ended up putting my carpentry skills to the test by building props for a jungle themed holiday club for which I was part of the team that ran the programme. I truly couldn’t have wisher for a better time on my community action placement.”

Tasia

Khulisa

“I went into this placement with an open mind and no specific expectations, as I had not heard of Khulisa before and was excited to see what they entailed. Regardless of my limited knowledge on the charity I wanted to utilise this placement opportunity to nurture my leadership skills.


My time at Khulisa was amazing, there was always something to do; a way for me to contribute, meaning I never found myself bored. Every member of the charity’s team was welcoming and it was clear that they believed in the work they were doing in order to help overlooked groups in society. I found myself participating in taster sessions, writing articles for their newsletter and watching spontaneous live TV interviews of the charity’s CEO. I am appreciative of this experience and will certainly keep in contact with Khulisa as it is an exceptional charity, with equally integral people behind it.”

Bharath


PEEK (Possibilities for Each and Every Kid)

“My two week placement at PEEK has been an extremely enjoyable one. The children at each school for my placement are very kind, enthusiastic and brilliant and I am very grateful to PEEK for the opportunity they have given me to work with so many incredible people from a wide spectrum and to learn about different cultures and backgrounds. The staff have been amazing; they are welcoming, friendly and very passionate about their work. Each day has been wonderful, there is always something new and the children are so eager to get involved. A highlight for me would be the day that I went on a trip with a primary school to Glasgow Green as every single individual was just having a blast, every parent and child were having the time of their life. Even people that were not with PEEK were getting involved with all the activities. It was the most energetic and vibrant day for me.”

Jesse

Maundy Relief

“Observing people and giving advice to clients about benefits has helped to open my eyes as to how difficult it is for those who need to claim benefits to be able to figure out which ones are best for them and then how to apply for those benefits. I also attended training on Universal Credit which showed me how complex the system actually is. The second piece of training that I undertook was some first aid training which was very useful as it is transferable to any workplace. In addition to shadowing people and giving advice I also did some volunteering in the drop in which included preparing food parcels for those in need, preparing and serving a hot meal to people who wouldn’t be able to access it, as well as working behind the desk which included taking phone calls and assessing clients for food parcels and taking details for future appointments.”

Memorial Award Winners 2017: Update

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Last Wednesday The Rank Foundation launched applications for the Rank Memorial Award 2018. This is open to all members of the network and opens up an opportunity to embark on an adventure exploring an area of personal interest relating to our ethos. You can read more about the award and how to apply here: RankNet Blog – Memorial Award 2018.

This presents a great opportunity to take a look at the progress and travels of the 2017 Memorial Award winners: Sian, Michaela and Jenny. The prize grant was split between three of the applicants, and each have been planning and embarking on their trips over the past 6 months.

Jenny Geddis

At the time of appling, Jenny was a Time to Shine Intern at Giving Northern Ireland.

Jenny applied to travel to Kolkata, India to visit and learn from a Freedom Business called Freeset, as a social issue she is interested in is human trafficking, why it happens and how it can be prevented in Northern Ireland and globally.

Freeset produces and exports clothing and fabric globally while using an “upside down” model that turns the normal principles of running a business on their head. At Freeset, women are employed on the basis of their need for freedom, rather than their qualifications – many have had little or no schooling. They are trained and then paid well above the going market rate. The women actively engage in running the business. All profits from Freeset in Kolkata benefit the women (salary, health insurance and retirement plan) and are used to grow the business. Meaning more women can be employed and experience freedom.

For the first three weeks of Jenny’s stay in Kolkata, she took part in a programme called “Freedom Encounter” which involved learning more about Kolkata’s culture, how to set up a business with the purpose of freedom and also with an ethical supply chain along with finding out more about all things fabric, bags and t-shirts including the processes behind cutting, weaving, sewing and printing.

Read More

Sian Howarth

Sian is employed by Blackpool Carers as a Fundraising Executive and travelled to South Africa this Spring.

Sian flew to Johannesburg to an organisation called Spark International, who also operate in Australia, Bangladesh and Kenya. Spark International recruits and supports local leaders with solutions to local problems in some of the world’s toughest communities. Spark runs 3 accelerator courses per year where entrepreneurs apply with their start-up business ideas.

Sian had initially planned to spend her time with the entrepreneurs, however it soon became evident that Spark South Africa were in desperate need of advice and help with their social media, and also with their funding proposals. Using her skills from Blackpool Carers, Sian decided to divert her attention to their needs.

By week 3, Sian was able to get more involved in the accelerator course and meet the delegates. This proved to be an eye opening experience.

Despite saying goodbye and returning home, Sian has agreed to continue supporting Spark with her grant writing skills.

In her time off, Sian told us some highlights for her was visiting a game reserve and seeing ‘the big 5’, and visiting Cape Town and seeing Table Mountain.

Read More

Michaela Collins

In a world where imagination and creativity is becoming more stagnated and with technology taking over every part of our lives – Michaela believes that we all need more Play!

Michaela will be going to visit Kaboom! an amazing charity based in Washington DC, U.S.A, who support communities all over America to design and build their own playgrounds and make their communities more playful. You can read more about Kaboom! here.