Place-based News

National Lottery fund partnership to help Blackpool young people into jobs or training

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The Rank Foundation is celebrating with partners after being awarded £400,000 in National Lottery funding to help unemployed 18 to 25-year-olds in Blackpool to secure education, training or employment opportunities.

Our partnership including Freestyle Urban Soccer, Empowerment, Streetlife, Blackpool Football Club Community Trust, Groundwork, and Blackpool Coastal Housing will use the money to expand on  successful work with young people in Claremont to three other inner Blackpool wards – Bloomfield, Talbot and Brunswick. The programme of support will also continue in Claremont.

The partnership supports young people aged 18 to 25, classed as ‘economically inactive’, to move toward work, education or training. To date they have reached 278 young people.

The varied support on offer through the partnership includes access to health & fitness services, referrals into college, help to find better accommodation, mental health support and suicide prevention.

Claremont was chosen because our research revealed there were over 400 unemployed young people concentrated in just 10 streets between Westminster Road and Dickson Road.

Historically there has been a disconnect between what young people say they want and the predefined solutions on offer from local agencies. The partnership bucked that trend by working to understand what was preventing them accessing employment, education or training and asking them what solutions they would like to see.

The partnership established trust by sending workers out on the streets of Claremont to meet and talk with local young people in their neighbourhood.

For the majority of young people, unemployment was not a ‘lifestyle choice’. Most did want to work but they told workers they faced issues such as anxiety, unsuitable housing and a lack of basic skills such as English and maths.

One young person said:

“The support and guidance has made a great difference to my overall mental health as it’s not been easy to motivate myself and I’ve really struggled with anxiety. The Engage4Change team have been consistent, regular and non-judgmental and have supported me with getting my own flat as well as becoming more physically fit with boxing. The walk & talk sessions have allowed me to talk openly about many issues, which has helped to reduce my stress, worry and anxiety. With their support, I’m looking at returning to education or finding a job.”

The new funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, which distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK, will see this work continue in Claremont and expand into Bloomfield, Talbot and Brunswick; areas that face similar youth unemployment issues.

Dame Julia Cleverdon, Chair of the Pride of Place – Claremont Steering Group Board says:

“The Claremont team sponsored by Rank Foundation who have led the collaborative work with partners to support young 18 to 24 year old unemployed people in this ward are so delighted that our lessons learnt can now be shared and implemented across three more wards in Blackpool- We are turning the Tide in this coastal community!”

Ripples Story: “The spirit of enterprise”

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In this article, Alan Qualtrough, Editor at The Stonehouse Voice CIC, discusses how the Rank Network has fostered a flourishing social enterprise network and entrepreneurship in Plymouth.

Nudge Community Builders

The Rank Foundation’s focus on Plymouth sowed the seed of enterprise, which has blossomed vigorously. Enterprises run by individuals or small teams have flourished, as have larger organisations such as Nudge Community Builders, who specialise in bringing abandoned buildings back to life. Nudge focuses on Plymouth’s Union Street, which they have made one of the most exciting UK streets for urban regeneration. Their mission to transform derelict buildings into community spaces has been a great success. They have reclaimed more than 4,000 square metres of abandoned structures, a remarkable 37% of the empty buildings on Union Street. And the Rank Foundation has been with them every square metre of the way.

One of Nudge’s most recent acquisitions is the former C101 nightclub, which has been derelict for many years. The other is the Millennium, a vast landmark building and architectural Art Deco gem at the very edge of the city centre. Nudge was able to buy the Millennium with Art Work Eat and with the support of The Rank Foundation and Power to Change. Coincidentally, the building was a former Gaumont cinema built by Arthur Rank in 1931 to show his films about Methodism.

Nudge was set up in September 2017 after Hannah Sloggett and Wendy Hart had been Chair and Vice Chair of Stonehouse Action for 10 years and realised the importance ownership has in how communities can change. The pair immediately started reclaiming a shop that had stood derelict for years. After volunteers rebuilt and restored it, it’s now called Union Corner, a thriving community hub.

A pub called The Clipper was next to be ‘nudged’. Then came The Plot, an abandoned warehouse space now crammed with small enterprises and a food hall. Planning permission has been granted to turn the Millennium’s ground floor into eight medium-sized workshops. Although the building has yet to be cleared out, future plans for C103 include social housing and a hydroponic farm.

When Nudge set out in 2017, they received a re-cyclable grant loan from Rank that set them on their way and replaced the neglect and dereliction with energy and enterprise. “ Without Rank, we wouldn’t have started, “ says Wendy.

Pollenize CIC

It’s unusual for a social enterprise to work in the scientific field— especially one so critically important to humanity—but Pollenize is making a success of it. In 2018, best friends Matt Elmes and Owen Finnie failed to find local honey to relieve hay fever symptoms. They sought innovative and accessible ways to keep honeybees in urban landscapes. They say the rest is history (and the future).

After developing a business plan and undertaking apiculture training, Pollenize set up a network of 11 community beehives with native honeybees across Plymouth landmarks. Public members could get involved and share the honey crop each year. Pollenize used this to create a lasting positive impact in the city. In 2020, Owen participated in the Plymouth Rise programme and was coached in all aspects of social enterprise.

Five years on, Pollenize has a team of 12 and has been on an incredible journey with bees, moths, and butterflies. They are investigating their vital role in a healthy planet and, most importantly, what we can do as humans to protect bees. Through academic partnerships, innovation, and AI technology, Pollenize is developing ways to track and improve biodiversity, allowing insects to recover and our environment to flourish. As a result, the social enterprise has gained tremendous momentum. It has become a key player in driving environmental research and social change within the city and beyond.

Their energy and enterprise are impressive. Last year, they raised £119,750 in funding and distributed 1443 seed packets, with 2,000 square metres of wildflower meadow created. A total of 44 individuals joined them for community beekeeping, five bee hotels were installed across Plymouth, and two innovative products were launched – Floradex and Hornet AI.

Floradex is part of their Tech for Good campaign, which was developed in collaboration with the University of Plymouth. It is an AI-powered tool that empowers landowners and businesses to create pollinator-friendly habitats. The Nest Sweeper Project is their most recent crowdfunding campaign involving fighting the invasive species, the Asian hornet.

As they expand nationally, Pollenize now collaborates with farms across the UK, installing research beehives and moth boxes to monitor pollinator health.

Bikespace CIC

In 2010, Gareth Thomas gave up his full-time teaching job to offer an alternative learning route to pupils excluded from school. He hired a small industrial unit in Devonport, Plymouth. He set up Bikespace, a social enterprise that uses bicycles for social and environmental good.

By the time you have read this story, Gareth will have moved to Madrid, where his wife is to work as a full-time teacher. But he will have left behind a remarkable legacy. In recent months, when he was organising his move to Spain, he transferred the organisation to a Worker Cooperative and will no longer be involved. “I’m very confident they will succeed,” Gareth says. The full-time Bikespace employees will take the reins and appoint directors; all have equal rights.

Hard work and enterprise are behind Gareth’s success story, but the Rank Foundation helped. Gareth participated in Rank’s Rise programme in Plymouth, which equipped him with the enterprise skills to move forward. He says, “The Rise programme gave me the confidence and network to pursue more significant contracts. I worked with a fellow Rise participant, Dataplace, to scope out markets. I got a lot of insight from a Witness Statement from Co Cars, Exeter. The first contract Bikespace won after the Rise programme was a Trail Therapy scheme during which participants learn basic bicycle repair skills and set off on weekly off-road cycling trips in all weathers. At the programme’s start, they receive a helmet, jacket, gloves, and a recycled bike to keep.

A more lucrative outcome soon followed. Gareth won a contract to operate a Beryl Bike e-bike network in Plymouth, which has 510 bikes and 40 in Saltash, Southeast Cornwall. It is the second-most extensive e-bike network in the UK, and it has meant hiring nine full-time staff to maintain and repair the bikes and moving to a larger industrial unit. “The Rank Rise programme forced me to go networking, and it worked,” says Gareth.

In Plymouth, the initial Rank ripples of 2017 are turning into a torrent of positive social change.

Alan Qualtrough

Editor at The Stonehouse Voice CIC

Thriving Plymouth event

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Evaluating year 1 of the Participatory Grant Making Fund.

Last week Plymouth welcomed over 100 guests to a celebratory event hosted by Real Ideas at the Devonport Market Hall. It was a fantastic opportunity for our Chair, Joey Newton to present certificates to the ten participants who recently completed the School for Social Entrepreneurs’ Match Trading programme – the third cohort in Plymouth to do so, which means there are now 30 SSE fellows who are part of the local Plymouth Rank Network.

The occasion also marked the end of the first year of the enormously successful thirteen projects supported by Rank’s Participatory Grant Making fund.

This brochure gives a flavour of the projects’ achievements as they address and combat loneliness and social isolation in the city.

Finally, the event was an opportunity to celebrate supporting the next round of Participatory Grant Making projects with Livewell’s CEO explaining to the audience why they had committed £500,000 to match fund the loneliness and social isolation projects.

It was great to see the commitment and the energy in the room – it was a really inspiring afternoon.

Addressing food insecurity in Dundee – Webinar

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We are pleased to share a recording of a webinar that took place in December which addressed an innovative story of how a place-based collaboration between community groups, funders and local authorities sprung to action during a time of greatest need, providing a platform for tackling the emerging cost of living crisis. Food insecurity is becoming an acute issue with the cost-of-living crisis following shortly after the Covid pandemic.

The webinar was hosted by Emily Sun of Place Matters (a beneficiary and partner of Rank Foundation) and featured Jacky Close (Director of Faith in Community Dundee) and David Dorward (Associate Director Rank Foundation in Dundee and Chair & Founder Dundee Bairns) telling the story of how they were able to bring together community organisations, funders and the local authority to quickly respond to the community’s food needs during Covid, and how they then built a longer-term food security strategy that puts dignity and collaboration at the centre.

Rank launches Plymouth Participatory Grant Making Programme

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Further to the launch of Phase two of the RFL Plymouth place-based programme, applications are now open for the Plymouth Participatory Grant Making fund.

This fund will be exclusively open to Plymouth RankNet member organisations*.

Since 2018, the Rank Foundation has invested some £2.5m in supporting Plymouth’s vibrant social purpose sector. More recently, Rank’s Board of Trustees has restated its commitment to Plymouth by approving a second phase of their place-based investment.

Over the next three years, the Foundation will be supporting a number of initiatives but the principal one is a commitment to addressing the issues of loneliness and isolation in the City.

To that end, Rank has committed £1m over the next three years to support projects delivered by social purpose organisations which are designed to address and combat loneliness and social isolation.

Plymouth RankNet member organisations are invited to apply for a grant of up to £30,000 per annum for a period of up to two years. A further year’s funding may be available after the initial two-year period depending on the availability of funding and on the priorities at that time.

Applications for smaller projects with a shorter delivery time are welcome.

For further details, please refer to the programme prospectus

Plymouth RankNet member organisations can apply for the Participatory Grant Making Fund under ‘Opportunities’ on RankNet.

To support your application, you will need to upload a completed budget template, and a partnering organisations template if this is a joint application.

Please refer to The Terms and Conditions of the fund before applying.

* Whilst the fund is only open to Plymouth members of RankNet, organisations can collaborate with other projects outside of the network. A Plymouth RankNet organisation must be the lead partner.

£1.6 million awarded to Plymouth

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In September, the Rank Network came together at Market Hall in Plymouth for the phase two launch of our Plymouth place-based programme awarding £1.6 million to Plymouth social enterprises with a particular focus on projects tackling loneliness and social isolation.

35 Social Enterprises

The Rank Foundation began place-based funding in Plymouth back in 2018. Year on year, the organisations funded by Rank have shown spirit, collaboration, and learning. To find out more about the 35 social enterprises involved in phase one, view this special edition of Stone House Voice.

Upshot in Plymouth: an Evaluation

Upshot is a performance management tool which is used by many of The Rank Foundation-supported organisations. For some, it is a condition of their grant that they use this evaluation tool in order to provide evidence of their work, set targets for themselves and measure their impact within the community. The brochure, produced by Emma Ridley our Plymouth Officer, highlights those ambitious targets, their geographic reach, evidence-based media and some rich case studies. It provides an interesting mix of quantitative analysis with qualitative material, particularly those stories which detail how they have responded to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. View the Upshot report here.

Summary Video

This video is a summary of the event hosted at Market Hall. Special thanks to Real Ideas for hosting.