RankNet

Rank Memorial Award Winners 2020

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It is with great pleasure that we announce the winners of the Rank Memorial Award 2020. This year, the Memorial Award criteria had a particular focus on resilience, in addition to the general criteria of “exploring 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.”

Despite the lows of lockdown and the current Covid19 crisis, the Memorial Award received more applications than ever before which in turn made it particularly difficult to select a winner. Therefore, we are delighted to announce that the selection committee has awarded three Memorial Awards at £6,500 each to Joe Russo, Hannah Ciotkowski and Geraldine Cooper.

Joe Russo

Joe, founder of Major Grant recipient organisation Enthusiasm Trust, will be heading to Los Angeles and Glasgow to explore two organisations whose work, philosophies and aims particularly resonate with Joe’s own experiences of supporting disadvantaged young people at risk of exploitation and gang association. In LA, Joe will be spending time with Homeboy Industries, an organisation that aims to provide hope, training and support to formerly gang-involved and previously incarcerated men and women, allowing them to redirect their lives and become contributing members of the community. In Glasgow, Joe will be spending time with the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, who specialise in tackling the problem of knife crime and is a national centre of expertise on violence.

Hannah Ciotkowski

Hannah, current Time to Shine Leader at Kissing it Better, will be heading to Northern and Central Australia where a growing number of older people suffer from chronic loneliness. Hannah’s current role at KIB looks at offering young people meaningful volunteering experience inside hospitals and care homes. Since the Covid19 pandemic, KIB has had to adapt their services, and set up a ‘volunteering from home’ programme, with Hannah running this for Duke of Edinburgh participants to support elderly people virtually. Hannah’s main aim in Australia would be to learn from isolated, elderly communities in the Northern Territory and other more remote areas of Australia, many of whom have had to cope with serious isolation issues all their lives. She will also be including a visit to Professor Brian Dolan who works in Australia on the ‘End PJ Paralysis’ campaign – an initiative that encourages older patients to wear their own clothes in hospital, as well as visiting ‘The Last 1000 Days’ project that charts the importance of giving older people the best chance of making the most of their last 3 years of life. In addition to this, Hannah will work with young Australians who are already volunteering from home, looking at the way they are successfully supporting the most vulnerable in their society.

Geraldine Cooper

Geraldine, 2019 Time to Shine Leader at Newington Day Centre, will be traveling to San Francisco, Belgium and Liverpool to find out how other countries experience and cope with dementia within their population. Geraldine will visit the Alzheimer’s Association in San Francisco for a fortnight to volunteer with them in the lead up to ‘The Longest Day’ fundraising event, where thousands of participants from across the world come together to fight the darkness of Alzheimer’s through an activity of their choice. She will then move on to The Flanders Centre of Expertise on Dementia in Belgium for 5 days, to see in person how their model works, speak to residents, staff and other members of the community to see how they feel this new holistic model of care for people living with dementia works for them. Then finally, Geraldine will then travel to The Centre for Collaborative Innovation in Dementia Living Lab at Liverpool John Moore University. She will spend 4 days visiting the lab and discover how they work with people with dementia to co-create tools, apps and resources which will improve their day to day experience of living with dementia. 

We would like to congratulate Joe, Hannah and Geraldine on their successful applications and we will be hearing from them during and after their travels.

Handling Covid19 – Social Enterprise Academy

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This week we are shining the spotlight on Social Enterprise Academy, a Scotland-based charity who provides transformational learning and development programmes for people and organisations working for social change.

Launched in Scotland in 2004, Social Enterprise Academy have helped over 18,000 learners to develop themselves and their organisations to create sustainable businesses and have greater social impact. Their programmes support organisations at all stages of development and focus on; leadership, entrepreneurship, social impact measurement, and personal development.

Since 2016, Social Enterprise Academy have been replicating internationally and now have 60 staff members in 14 countries around the world supporting social enterprise development in their communities.

We asked the team what an average day looked like: “There really is no typical week. Our programmes are incredibly diverse. They respond to client needs, so they happen where, when and how will suit the learners best. In Scotland alone, we could have a programme to support a development trust on a tiny island, or a social enterprise with hundreds of employees to restructure. We might be working with young people who are not in work, supervisors or projects leads, CEOs or trustees.  But whatever the programme, it’s the same high quality facilitators, always social enterprise practitioners, who share their own experiences and enable all learners to do likewise, creating space to have experiences, reflect, think and plan. That much does not change.”

The introduction of lockdown back in March meant that Social Enterprise Academy had to re-align their work. The pandemic means Social Enterprise Academy are now navigating what they have coined as a “VUCA” world – one which is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The team has been focusing on upskilling their international network of teams and facilitators to deliver the learning programmes online. Not only are they learning new technologies and tools, they are having to relearn some of the basics of facilitation – how to connect with learners, how to manage group conversations, how to read body language, how to create safety in the room.

We asked the team how their service users had responded to the changes in service delivery.

“We’ve had really positive feedback to our learning moving online. Some of our regular clients have specifically said the experience was as good and inspirational as ‘in the room’ learning. We’ve taken great care to use the right platform, the right activities, right materials, format and so on.”

One of the biggest challenges facing Social Enterprise Academy is that the anticipated longer term social distancing measures that are likely to be in place for some time to come, mean that face to face delivery is no longer possible. Also, understandably, many of their partners within the Third Sector are now unable to pay for their learning and development as a result of the pandemic, so the team have had to find a way to deliver fully funded programmes.

If you would like to hear more about Social Enterprise Academy, you can visit their website or drop them a message at scotland@socialenterprise.academy. Equally you can follow them on Twitter (@SocEntAcademy) and Facebook.

Handling Covid19 – Caritas Anchor House

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This week, we are shining the spotlight on Caritas Anchor House, a charity based in East London. Caritas Anchor House is a homelessness charity providing accommodation and life-skills support for single homeless adults

Caritas Anchor House provides a home and support for people experiencing homelessness in Newham. The borough has the highest levels of homelessness in the country, and there is more demand for their services than ever before. They have 140 bed spaces, and in 2019 the team of around 50 staff supported 287 people to move on from homelessness.

On a usual week, the charity supports its residents to address the causes of their homelessness, and to overcome any barriers they may face by providing health and wellbeing support, education, employability and volunteering opportunities, and help to move on to their next chapters.

However, during the pandemic and lockdown the team have found themselves in an extraordinary times, having to adapt their work in all sorts of ways in order to keep the residents and staff safe. The London Borough of Newham has had the highest Covid19 mortality rate in the country, but only a very small number of residents reported minor symptoms.When we spoke to the team, they explained that they had been so heartened by the wonderful support they have received but it had certainly not been a smooth ride. They supported residents who had to self-isolate and provided PPE as well as information regarding guidance on hygiene and social distancing. As a supported housing provider, many of the facilities (such as the residents loung, kitchen, dining room and laundry) are shared between 140 people, however these spaces had to be restricted to minimise risk.

When we asked the team how the residents had responded to these measures, they said:

“Residents have been really co-operative and understand that their actions save lives by minimising risk of infection spreading. There is a strong sense of community at Caritas Anchor House and our residents find strength from their peers, but they recognise that these steps have been essential.”

Sadly, a number of the residents at Anchor House lost their jobs due to lockdown, so the team supported them to manage their finances and prepare them for returning to, and securing, work opportunities. Other residents experienced a deterioration in mental health due to the unprecedented circumstances, therefore the team needed to increase the level of wellbeing support they could give.

A big barrier for Caritas Anchor House was the fact they were unable to support residents to move on from their service. However, as lockdown has eased, the team has prioritised supporting those who are ready to do so. In an attempt to knock down some of the barriers, the team have had to look at other ways of delivering support: “We’ve seen the benefits of moving towards telephone support, and have been able to catch up on resident’s progress more frequently – and it’s something we will likely continue.”

As lockdown eases, the team at Caritas Anchor House are striving to get back to full service delivery whilst making the appropriate adjustments to their work. To keep up to date with their progress you can visit their website at www.caritasanchorhouse.org.uk.

If you would like to contact Caritas Anchor House you can reach them at info@caritasanchorhouse.org.uk or 020 7476 6062.

You can also follow Caritas Anchor House on Twitter and Facebook to keep up with their latest news.

Resilience Fund: HARV and disAbility Cornwall & Isles of Scilly

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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 fortnight, with this week spotlighting Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Domestic Violence and disAbility Cornwall & Isles of Scilly.

Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Domestic Violence (HARV)

Organisation Overview:

HARV first came to Rank’s attention in 2019 as a 3 year Major Grant recipient.

HARV’s aim is to identify, support, protect and empower both adults and children who are or have experienced abuse, exploitation and/or violence. Their services include an advocacy service, holistic support, safe houses and housing advice, a children and young people’s service, stalking and harassment services, legal advice and counselling.

Difficulties due to Coronavirus:

During the pandemic there has been a significant increase in demand for their services. Service users are currently accessing services in the evenings and weekends, and safety advice can only be given out over the phone and via email instead of face to face. The need for emotional support has grown significantly, as well as calls for accommodation support, thus the demand on the staff at HARV has increased.

For the majority of victims of domestic abuse, COVID has meant they have had to suffer at the hands of the perpetrator. The numbers of women murdered has increased, as well as abuse of children.

What will the Resilience Fund grant be used for?

“We are preparing for a tsunami of referrals once lock down restrictions are lifted. We are currently working hard to get our centre re opened and re stocked with essential items for families.”

Due to the significantly higher rates of domestic violence, the number of staff will need to increase to meet demand. Current staff are overwhelmed and exhausted. They are also fighting to transfer some of their services from face-to-face to digital, whilst running increased opening hours.

Their new centre was only opened in December 2019 in preparation to rent out conference space, host events and provide catering for income generation. All has been on hold since March 2020.

A resilience grant of £20,000 was approved for core funding. 

disAbility Cornwall & Isles of Scilly

Organisation Overview:

disAbility Cornwall & Isles of Scilly has been known to Rank since 2011 when they first recieved a 3 year Major Grant. Since then, they have benefited from 3 Time to Shine leaders and other grant funding.

The charity is values based and user-led, and supports, represents, includes and empowers people living with a long term health condition or disability, along with their families are carers. As per their name, they operate in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly on the South West coast.

Difficulties due to Coronavirus:

Their advice line has seen a nearly 70% increase in demand, and with all staff moving to working from home or in the community they have needed. much like HARV, to increase their opening hours to cover demand.

The charity has been inundated with enquiries from service users around PPE and hygiene, and what to do if they or their carers became sick. It would seem the council had not been forthcoming with this information therefore the CEO at disAbility Cornwall has had to work directly with the council to ensure information was sent to Direct Payment recipients.

In addition to longer opening hours, in response to COVID-19 they have set up a community kitchen, delivering free meals to 350 vulnerable clients twice a week who are self-isolating.

What will the Resilience Fund grant be used for?

More than 50% of disAbility Cornwall & Isle of Scilly’s income for the next two years comes from contracts where a key output is to help disabled people back to work. The job market is flat and many will remain unemployed, despite their best efforts. Many of their clients will have to self-isolate for much longer than the general public.

Some of their services that generate funding have been put on hold: losing advertising income from their magazine, they can’t hire out their meeting spaces and are having to run their new community kitchen with help from local businesses and volunteers.

Therefore, a Resilience grant of £18,000 was approved to support the increase in demand as well as loss of immediate income.

If you are a member of RankNet and wish to apply for Resilience funding, please visit our Opportunities page on the online platform. If you have any RankNet related queries, please contact ranknet@rankfoundation.com.

Handling Covid19 – Real Ideas Organisation

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This week, we are shining the spotlight on Real Ideas Organisation (RIO), a charity based in south west England. RIO focus their work on solving problems and creating opportunities for people, communities and organisations.

RIO has a team of 60 who suupport thousands of individuals every year through a range of events and experiences, coaching, mentoring, business support and consultancy. They are clearly a very diverse organisation, and during ‘usual’ operations they can be doing anything from reimagining new futures for old buildings to supporting young people to take positive steps towards work, education or training…and everything and anything in between! We asked them to give us an idea of an average week, to which we were answered “there’s no such thing as a typical week for the team at Real Ideas!”.

Before the Coronavirus pandemic they had been running a series of support sessions to mentor and coach young people to develop the skills they need to move forward with their lives, whilst also working with Plymouth City Council to involve more people in making decisions about green spaces and parks. At the same time they were operating three buildings, running them as co-work spaces with shared business, creative and making facilities and running events from these spaces. They are used to diverse working and following the needs and requirements of their community.

We asked the team about how the pandemic has affected their working conditions and routines, to which they said:

“Fortunately, many our staff are used to remote working, so whilst a bit of a culture shock not to see each other in person, it has been a relatively easy transition from office to home working. It was our customer facing delivery that we were most concerned about. Much of what we do involves being in a room with participants – supporting people, working in schools, running buildings with live events programmes – relies on face to face contact, so lockdown brought immediate and fundamental changes to how we work with the people we support.”

Much like most of the charities in our network, RIO moved their service delivery online. Within days of lockdown being announced RIO had scoped out, tested and set up a digital platform which enabled them to deliver online meetings and events. Since then, they have delivered more than 50 online sessions and supported over 1,000 people including 400 vulnerable young people. This can only be counted as a success; more than 650 people attended one of their online webinars and 400 young people are continuing on their employability programme. The team said “in fact, engagement with young people on our programmes has increased during lockdown”.

We asked RIO what the biggest challenge had been so far in terms of service delivery and they explained that digital disadvantage has resulted in some users being unable to access assistance, support and learning opportunities: “We started to get concerned that some of the most vulnerable were being hardest hit due to lack of connectivity or kit – without access to the internet they couldn’t access assistance from health professionals, support from foodbanks or learning activities set by schools”.  In response to this, the worked with funders and partners to distribute smart phones, tablets and wifi dongles to those who struggled with internet access. They also opened up their buildings so that those who needed to use PCs or complete essential paperwork such as Universal Credit applications had somewhere to go.

If you would like to find out more about RIO, you can visit their website at: www.realideas.org

Email them at info@realideas.org or give them a call at 0330 223 4158

Handling Covid19 – Street Factory

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This week we are spotlighting the fantastic work of Street Factory, a Plymouth-based Hip Hop Social Collective.

Street Factory has been known to the Foundation since 2018 as one of the 8 original Place-Based funded organisations in Plymouth. Since then, they have performed at our annual conference and grown as an organisation.

We spoke to Jo Gorniak, co-founder and Director at Street Factory, who runs the CIC with her husband Toby.

Founded in 2007, Street Factory’s tagline is “Transforming lives, so they exceed their potential and fall in love with their purpose!”. Over the past 13 years, Jo and Toby have been offering street dance and hip-hop classes to children and young adults, often subsedising or sponsoring those who are unable to pay full fees. They also host over 18 dance groups and have created a mentoring environment and a caring community ‘hub’. This means they are much more than a dance studio – the Street Factory team get to know their service users and offer emotional supportm promoting peace, fun, love and unity.

In a ‘usual’ week, Jo and Toby would be delivering their sessions from their Plymouth theatre to over 300 service users, as well as working with their hip-hop outreach team in schools, training programmes and other nationwide projects.

However, when the Covid19 pandemic broke out and lockdown set in, Street Factory were unable to deliver their usual classes and workshops, meaning the team have had to think innovatively about how to adapt to the restrictions. Jo, Toby and the team have been quick to act, immediately turning to digital means in order to stay connected and to support their 300+ local community service users. They have been offering daily (sometimes hourly) community support, and have been running hip-hop lessons digitally from their living room. Due to the isolation and loneliness of lockdown, they are needed now more than ever.

Street Factory creates change that empowers their service users of all ages, races and experience the chance to unlock their own potential, despite facing a range of social and economic challenges.

If you would like more information about Street Factory CIC, you can:
Visit their Facebook page
Visit their Youtube Channel
Drop them an email at streetfactorystudios@hotmail.com