RankNet

Rank Conference 2019: Valuing Place

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On October 9th-10th, The Rank Foundation hosted the annual conference at the fantastic Queens Hotel in Leeds.

Every year the Foundation brings together beneficiary organisations, Time to Shine Leaders, Rank Aspire members, RankNet members and external funders and guests to a 2-day themed conference where delegates get the chance to participate in tailored seminars, the annual Accelerator Event, networking opportunities and celebratory showcases. This is the biggest event of the year for the Foundation, and we are always excited to share the amazing work of Leaders in our network.

This year, the theme of the conference was Valuing Place: Creating Collaborative Change. Earlier this year, the Foundation released a Valuing Place report focusing on the successes (and lessons learned) of Place-Based funding in Hull, Dundee and Plymouth. Building on this, it felt apt to spend two days with the network looking at how Place affects our communities, and how best to make every opportunity count. We had 250 delegates join us in Leeds, including seminar leaders, performers, key note speakers, judges and panellists.

We would like to thank all delegates for their participation at what we feel is our most successful conference to date, with an extra special thank you to members of the network who helped the team deliver the conference content by running seminars, acting as judges and panellists, and sharing their stories with attendees.

You can take a look at photographs of the event on our conference page here.

Press Release: The Rank Foundation receives £3.3m grant to expand Time to Shine

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The Time to Shine programme is empowering future leaders in the social sector

The Rank Foundation, a charitable trust that promotes leadership development and enterprise within the social sector, is celebrating today after being awarded £3.3 million from The National Lottery Community Fund to support the expansion of its successful ‘Time to Shine’ programme.

Time to Shine provides paid opportunities within the charity sector for people experiencing underemployment, while simultaneously addressing gaps in skills and capacity both within individual charities and the wider social sector.

The National Lottery funding will enable the programme to roll out across the UK, increasing the number of individuals and organisations eligible for the programme and allowing it to be better tailored to specific operational and business development challenges faced by small and medium-sized charities.

Caroline Broadhurst, Deputy CEO at The Rank Foundation, said:“Our partnership with The National Lottery Community Fund is a great boost for the Time to Shine Leadership Programme. The Rank Foundation and the Fund share a passion for bringing new talent and skills into the social sector, whilst future-proofing the role of small and medium-sized charities. This grant will help to scale Time to Shine across the UK with a wider reach than ever before.”

The Rank Foundation was first supported by National Lottery funding for its Time to Shine programme back in 2016, which was initially delivered across Northern Ireland. To date, dozens of leaders have been supported to both reach their potential and to be effective in their work placements. One leader, placed in a Belfast charity, raised £800,000 in her Time to Shine year, turning around the fortunes of the organisation – and has since started a master’s degree, while continuing to work for the charity.

Joe Ferns, UK Director at The National Lottery Community Fund, said: “We are delighted that National Lottery funding is continuing to support The Rank Foundation’s Time to Shine programme, which helps those experiencing underemployment to find meaningful, secure work – alongside filling important skills and capacity gaps both within charities and the wider voluntary sector.”

“Now, thanks to National Lottery players, the programme will reach more people and organisations right across the UK, increasing its impact and enabling more communities to thrive.”

Lydia goes to Detroit: Memorial Award 2018

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Who?

Lydia is one of two Memorial Award Winners, formally announced at the Enterprising Leadership Conference in 2018. Lydia originally came into contact with the Foundation back in 2016 as a Time to Shine Intern with Student Hubs, and then subsequently as a Time to Shine manager. The internship was based in Oxford, but Lydia originates from Northern Ireland.

What?

Lydia had identified similarities between Belfast and Detroit. Both Belfast and Detroit have suffered from their decline as industrial powerhouses, resulting in city-wide rioting, tensions between ethnic or religious groups, extreme economic challenges and an increase in derelict spaces.

Why?

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 in her community.

“The whole time I was in Detroit was a huge listening exercise and I wanted to take in as much as possible from as many different people and places as possible. I was reminded about how important it is to keep listening when working on something, even if you are hearing the same message time and time again”

READ THE FULL REPORT HERE

Update: Accelerator Winners 2018

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On the 19th June The Rank Foundation launched applications for the Accelerator Event 2019. Every year we invite the Network to apply to pitch an Enterprising idea at our Annual Conference. This year, the Conference (and the Accelerator Event) will have a particular focus on ‘Valuing Place’. For more information on eligibility and how to apply, please see our latest post on the Accelerator Event 2019.

We wanted to update the Network on the success of the 2018 winners: Nudge Community Builders and Compass Advocacy Network.

Nudge Community Builders

What did Nudge pitch?

Local people need extra support, encouragement and financial backing to take a space at Nudge’s monthly markets. By providing this support, Nudge can enable local people and young entrepreneurs to be at the heart of the markets. This funding would enable Nudge to offer spaces for free or on a commission basis if they have a good day.  Alongside this, Nudge will provide bespoke mentoring support before, during and afterwards. 

Update Spring 2019

“The Manor Street Market started this year on 31st March and is becoming a much loved date in the diary in our local area. Each market has had live music, at least 12 stalls and we have really improved the food options for people by working with local businesses.

We’ve had two markets so far this year with 5 more planned up to September and hope to invest further in the infrastructure to make it suitable through the winter. The market is improving in quality and feel. We used materials from the Scrapstore and volunteer help to make yellow decorations that have had a really good impact and have also had some promotional photos done by FotoNow.

We have had 5 young people participate to run stalls and sell from suitcases, and have 7 more booked in for upcoming markets. This has included selling sweets, popcorn making, hand drawn cards, pottery and running challenges or competitions. We have seen some of our regular community who come to our free Soup sessions now feeling brave enough to take a stall. This has been really challenging for some of them as they have complex needs and mental health issues. They have needed support to feel confident and mentoring to keep trying and to develop their offer. We have spent time promoting the opportunity to local young people at careers fairs and through the local foyer and groups. It is taking time for people to feel confident. So we are noticing that they need to come along to a market first to see how it works and tend to pop in at least twice to talk things through.

From this learning we are developing some more support and resources for young people to use around budgeting, selling techniques and pricing.”

Community Advocacy Network

What did CAN pitch?

CAN’s Social Enterprises enable them to generate their own funds and are all environment/service-based. CAN want to take waste plastic and do something meaningful with it, via a ‘Precious Plastics model’. They wish to purchase the equipment to create a new processing facility with the aim of re-purposing the 17 tonnes of waste plastics they have at their disposal. The Precious Plastic model will create beautiful products, made by adults with learning disabilities for local shops and online.

Update Spring 2019

“Since becoming an Accelerator prize winner we have been extremely busy with the Research and Development stage of our “Precious Plastics proof of concept” initiative, in partnership with Dr Dorian Dixon Msc, Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering at the Ulster University. We have now completed sample stress testing of various different types of plastics and now have a significant body of research as to the particular properties and potential product applications of our recycled plastics. We have also carried extensive research into types of equipment and machinery required to enable us to produce products with production methods that enable our members here at CAN to be fully involved, so that they can learn new skills and be fully integrated into the production process from start to finish. This very important phase of our initiative is now complete and we are now forging ahead with phase 2.

As part of phase 2 we have now taken delivery of a more industrial plastic shredder following experimentation with a small bench top machine and have also ordered our 1st Plastic injection moulding machine which should mean we will start full scale production of our 1st product made from recycled plastic before the end of May.

We already have customers lined up for our 1st product, which is a tourist related item that lends itself to other applications which is part of phase 3 and we hope to showcase this later this year at one of the Rank Foundation’s events.”

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.

The Rank Memorial Award 2018

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The Rank Memorial Award 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. Here is a brief summary of two of the 2017 winners and their plans:

The 2018 programme is now 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 – we might share this depending on circumstances. Applicants must be 18+ to apply with no upper age limit.

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

The successful programme is likely to include an element of working in an outside agency, preferably abroad. The initiative must be entirely of the applicant’s own choosing and design: this might include someone wishing to take a sabbatical in order to explore an initiative around ‘leadership or enterprise’, perhaps working in a community abroad, with an experience that could help develop the applicant’s current or future professional role and expertise.

All submissions must be made via the application form on RankNet. You can find this application form under ‘Opportunities’   Please direct any queries or questions direct to Helen at helen.stockdale@rankfoundation.com.

You will need to cover:

  • Where you want to go, for how long and why
  • A brief description on who you are, your current role and organisation
  • Who or what you intend to visit
  • What you hope to achieve
  • Provisional budget including any flight, travel, accommodation and associated costs (you do not need to commit the £8,000 in full)
  • Full contact details
  • The trip must be complete by the end of August 2019

The winner must be prepared to produce a short video diary, to produce a blog (during the trip for publication on
RankNet) and to make a formal presentation to the Rank team on their return.

The deadline for submissions is 5pm on the 15th June 2018 . You will be contacted by email, on the email address you have provided on this form, if you have been shortlisted by the  27th of June. We expect interviews to take place on the 12th July at the Rank Foundation office in London.

Good Luck!