Plymouth

Our Plymouth: Working Collaboratively During Covid19

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During the Coronavirus crisis, Our Plymouth has partnered with POP+, Together for Devon and Plymouth City Council to help with the Good Neighbours Scheme. The Good Neighbours Scheme is a space for volunteers, community groups and charities to come together and help some of Plymouth’s most vulnerable residents throughout this difficult time.

By Emma Ridley
Plymouth Project Officer

In total, 700 people have stepped forward to volunteer, however, the scheme currently has more volunteers than it does opportunities; this is something that is being mirrored throughout the country. And although this is really positive and a great position to be in, it also has its own frustrations.

People who have been offering to volunteer are being kept on a database. The elected councillor of the volunteer programme has been writing to them to thank them for their service and to also keep them in the loop, so they are aware of what is going on. If there are no available opportunities, they aren’t just being ignored, they receive regular updates and are notified if any positions become available.Our Plymouth volunteers are helping with a mixture of services, including Age UK, British Red Cross, as well as providing welfare checks and doing food deliveries. Other members of the Good Neighbours Scheme are doing prescription collections and deliveries. Organisations that usually work alone have come together with a collaborative approach, which has been really powerful in the city.Our Plymouth are now focusing on how they manage this moving forward; they are mindful that a lot of people currently volunteering will eventually return to their normal jobs. Martin Mills from Our Plymouth said: “We are hoping that when this pandemic comes to an end, there will be more citizens in the community who notice the positive impact of volunteering. People are starting to realise the benefits of their own happiness by doing something good for someone else.”The Covid-19 pandemic created some massive challenges for Our Plymouth, as well as many other organisations. However, because of the RISE Trade Up programme, they have had the opportunity to re-visit their business plan, which has allowed them to re-direct funds online to help with their volunteer programme. Martin said: “The RISE programme has made it easy for us to pivot, because we have been able to adapt our cash flow and business plan. We wouldn’t have been able to do this without the support of the Rank Foundation.”

Handling Covid19 – Memory Matters

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During these unprecedented times we are shining the spotlight on grant holders who are still able to continue their service delivery. 

We approached Memory Matters, an organisation that enriches the lives of people affected by dementia. The Rank Foundation awarded the first grant to Memory Matters back in Summer 2018 as part of Plymouth Place Based funding. 

They have a team of 20 people, including 1 part-time Rank employee, who works as the Plymouth Project Officer, as well as 1 Time to Shine Leader and Kate Smith and Laura Walker, the CEO’s of Memory Matters. Last year, they welcomed 75,076 people through their doors, including organisations hiring their rooms for conferences, meetings and activity sessions, as well as customers enjoying food in the Café and people looking for advice and guidance in our Memory Matters Hub (dementia advice centre). In 2019, The Hub supported 278 families that have been affected by dementia.

“There’s no such thing as ‘normal’ in the Memory Matters world. No two days are ever the same. We run many different projects – Memory Matters Workshops  (these run every day all over Cornwall), we provide Training all over the UK (as well as regularly training nurses in large local hospitals – sometimes every week), Moments Café – an innovative social enterprise Café open to the public, Memory Matters Hub (our dementia advice centre) which is open 6 days a week above Moments Café, Memory Matters Inside (a weekly project that teaches prisoners how to provide dementia therapy to other prisoners), as well as scoping out new projects on the horizon; like the Memory Matters Fellowship  (enabling local communities to run dementia groups with our support every week). It’s usually pretty busy!

Since the 21st March, the world has changed a bit. Moments Café has closed, but not before the staff spent the week asking all our customers whether they would like us to keep in touch with them, which was tough to do and a financial worry. We have furloughed 10 staff members that worked in the Café. The team, however, are spending time supporting each other with weekly film nights, P.E with Joe Wicks exercises and daily zoom catch ups – a few of the team live alone so this contact is so vital for them and also very beneficial in keeping their spirits up. 

The rest of the team are busier than ever. The whole team are very creative, and our organisation is built on looking for the positives in everything we do. I guess when we work with people living with a life limiting disease, it’s important to make the best of every opportunity. The Memory Matters Workshop teams run 10 different dementia workshops a week, so they have approx. 70 people living with dementia to support. They are doing this by weekly phone calls and sending out weekly activity sheets to take part in at home. For those that can get online, we are running zoom sessions – these have been amazing, not only are they seeing their peers and gaining some activity to keep their brains exercised but they are learning new digital skills that means they can also connect with family members easier too. 

Our Dementia Advice Centre (Memory Matters Hub) – sees many people coming in off the street for advice – this provision hasn’t changed; it’s just not face to face anymore. We are also spending time catching up with those that came to see us in the last 6 months, to ensure they are well connected and have a weekly chat and signposting as required. We also run a Young Onset Group (YOG) and a Football Memory Café with Plymouth Argyle so there are a few more people to try and get online. This is no mean feat, trying to ensure that the systems are the easy to use, as there usually isn’t anyone else to help. Also, trying to access technology is difficult too. So, in total we are supporting approximately 130 people living with dementia and their carers. 

We are sending out a daily newsletter, which has been very well received and ensures that despite physical distance, we are still connected to those that are interested in what we do. We have received a great response from our service users and they really appreciate our daily contact. We have recently put together a quick 15-minute video to share with anyone who is going to volunteer for local councils. Many will not have training and a few hints and tips on how to communicate effectively with someone with memory loss may be helpful. 

This period is going to be tough for everyone, people running services, furloughed staff worried about how this will affect their lives and also those we support, locked at home when you don’t remember why. There will be some very difficult moments coming, we know that. All we can do is the best we can right now, with the information we’ve got. Social Entrepreneurs are agile beings, they shapeshift, are resilient and the team at Memory Matters are no different. With the amazing support from funders and friends in the business community we can only press forward, positively.”

Contact Emma Ridley – Communications Officer (also found on RankNet) for more information emma@memorymatterssw.co.uk.

The Future is Social

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By Emma Ridley
Plymouth Project Officer

In 2019, the Rank Foundation and the School for Social Entrepreneurs Dartington (SSE), supported nine Social Enterprises in Plymouth. They provided training and funding to these organisations, to help create positive change in some of Plymouth’s most disadvantaged areas.

On Thursday 27th February 2020, crowds gathered at The Plot in Plymouth, where people came together to celebrate the success of the RISE Match Trading Programme over the past 12 months.

The event gave people the opportunity to showcase their work, this included things such as food stalls, information stands, speeches, videos, photography, live demonstrations, virtual reality and a sewing workshop.

“The event this evening, where we are celebrating the outcomes of the first RISE Match Trading programme, are evidence that the programme is having a tremendous effect.”

Phil Davies, Rank Associate for Plymouth

There are over 200 Social Enterprises and Community Businesses in Plymouth, who collectively employ over 9,000 people in the local area. As a result, this has a positive impact on the city; not only does it give individuals jobs within a meaningful sector, but it also means that these businesses can continue to grow and develop.

Now, 10 new organisations have joined the RISE Match Trading Programme, taking the total to 19 participants. The new group will have the opportunity to get together with the original 9 organisations throughout the year to share their experiences as well as looking at opportunities to collaborate with one another.

The Future is Social event was a great environment for like-minded individuals to get together and share ideas, celebrate achievements, and simply cheer each other on.

An exciting year lies ahead, and we can’t wait to see all the great things these organisations continue to do in the city.

For more information on the RISE Match Trading Programme, click 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.”

Report: Valuing Place

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The Rank Foundation is delighted to launch our latest report, Valuing Place.

The report was produced by our external evaluation team, summarising Rank’s experience with place based programmes across the UK. The report looks at the start of Rank’s place-based funding, through to the development the Hull Community Development Programme, Dundee Community Development Programme, and the introduction of place-based funding in Plymouth. 

You can read the report here: The Rank Foundation Valuing Place Report 2019

Plymouth News

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In October 2018, The Rank Foundation launched a new Place-Based programme in Plymouth. The programme is supported by Phil Davies, the Plymouth Rank Associate and Laura Kelly, who splits her time between Nudge Community Builders and The Rank Foundation.

They sent us an update on how Plymouth has continued to flourish over the past six months, and what we can look forward to in the future.

Plymouth’s social enterprise sector have been up to a range of exciting things from launching new initiatives to dance and a few costumes, check out what they have been up to below;

Iridescent Ideas have been broadcasting webinars with community business leaders in the sector, discussing topics from who has the power to taking Plymouth’s social enterprise success global. You can view one of their webinars here.

Street Factory’s Saturday sessions are getting better and better each week connecting people through hip hop dance and spreading a bit of love, especially on Valentine’s.

Nudge Community Builders have been all dressed up on Union Street consulting with their community differently, finding out what they would like to see on the street as part of a grant to visually improve the area over 3 years in creative ways.

It’s a year of tens for Memory Matters, Fotonow and Plymouth Hope celebrating 10 years of their amazing work in Plymouth. Memory Matters is launching a new Hub in Moment’s cafe on the 15th March, a free one stop shop on the High Street for those living with dementia and their carers. Fotonow have released their social impact report for 2017-2018 with a feature on one of Rank’s Time to Shine Leaders Ryan (pictured), who started out as a volunteer. Have a read of Ryan’s feature here.

Plymouth Hope are gearing up for their 10th festival on the 15th June, a celebration of everything they do and the people they work with, check out the video from last year here.

Keep up to date with what’s happening in Plymouth through Twitter – follow Phil Davies (@PhilDav74575500)