leadership

Handling Covid19 – Reaching Higher

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This week we are spotlighting Reaching Higher, a youth charity based in the London Borough of Croydon.

Reaching Higher has been known to The Rank Foundation for a long time, recieving their first grant back in 2013 to fund a YAP apprentice. Since then, Reaching Higher has hosted GAP apprentices, Time to Shine Leaders, and Community Action Placements. A previous Reaching Higher employee won the Rank Memorial Award back in 2016, and Jordan Ignatius, current Strategy and Operations Manager at Reaching Higher, was recently appointed as a member of the RankNet Leaders Action Group.

We spoke to Jordan about the trials and tribulations of managing the Coronavirus pandemic in youth work, and how Reaching Higher have adapted their services.

At Reaching Higher, their vision is “to see a wider community working together to best serve young people” by drawing synergy between schools, community and home life. Their mission is to “challenge young people to be leaders of their own lives”. They employ eight members of staff and engage with approximately 250 – 300 young people per week.

In a usual week, Reaching Higher are visiting schools delivering their transferable skills programme, running their Football and Drama Academies and Leadership Programme in the community, as well as doing home visits and parent induction meetings. However, during the pandemic Reaching Higher have had to drastically adapt their programmes and services.

With the help of some of their service users, Reaching Higher quickly developed Isolation < Aspiration, which is an initiative designed to raise the aspirations of each young person and provide a catalyst of hope for them and their families during these uncertain times. The main objectives are to provide young people with high quality, fun and meaningful activities in their home, support families by providing them with practical tools and resources to use whilst at home with their children and to sign post young people and their families to organisations that can provide them with the support they need.

Reaching Higher has committed to building their online communities via interactive workshops, youth-led content, hosting competitions and engaging with young people across their social media platforms. They know their audience, their needs and how to keep them engaged and inspired.

There has been so many positives and learning opportunities since Reaching Higher had to digitalise their service delivery. The team have sent out educational and community resources to parents and carers, offered Drama related activities (tangible advice about how to develop acting and writing skills), run football skill workshops, match review sessions, fitness workouts and online FIFA tournaments, and they have held mentoring sessions on CV and Personal Statement writing as well as timetabling.

Although this has been hugely successful, Jordan explained that lockdown has come with some very real challenges. Maintaining contact with young people and their families is a delicate art; they are very conscious of overwhelming and alienating their service users. A lot of their youth have shared a lack of motivation to get involved in online activities and are bored of staying at home. Jordan explained:

“There’s no blueprint for times like this and a lot of what we do is face to face youth work so we are really figuring out how things work as we go. Working face to face is what makes our jobs feel so rewarding, so working virtually makes it difficult to measure our impact in the same way“.

If you have any questions for Jordan or the team at Reaching Higher, or want to know more about their programmes or services you can contact them at info@reachinghigher.org.uk or visit their website at www.reachinghigher.org.uk

Handling Covid19 – Kissing it Better

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We caught up with Kissing it Better, a charity who became members of the network back in 2017 due to their Major Grant. They have subsequently had a Time to Shine Leader, Hannah, who is in the middle of her employment year with them.

Simply, Kissing it Better’s mission is ‘to end the isolation of old age by bringing the generations together.’ There is a key team of 5, with 7 additional self-employed team members. The main bulk of people at Kissing it Better are the fantastic volunteers from schools, colleges, universities, and teachers, as well as musicians. There are around 800 of them!

Ordinarily, Kissing it Better has contracts with large hospital Trusts. They also work with care home groups and those in the community. Some of that work is funded by local councils as well as other funding groups and individuals who donate money to the organisation, either directly or through fundraising activities.

Kissing it Better are also starting to teach students in secondary schools, colleges, universities and those completing ‘Duke of Edinburgh’s Awards’ about their work through a regulated and accredited course called ‘Creative Thoughtfulness in the Care of Others’. They also run workshops for primary school children called “When great granny came to stay’, to teach them how best to engage with their older relatives, neighbours and friends.

Those who sing or offer other performances that demonstrate their skills (drama, dance, magic skills, hairdressing, beauty therapy etc.,) are learning how to adapt a performance or experience for those who may have dementia, hearing loss or poor sight. In return, Kissing it Better will offer master classes on how to work in challenging environments, train them in dementia awareness, write references for them.

During this pandemic, Kissing it Better has had to adapt its services to facilitate social distancing and the ensure the safety of their staff and service users: from making regular phone calls to elderly service users, to making goodie-bags for hospital and care staff. One of their adapted activities has received a lot of publicity. This is their ‘outside the window’ campaign – an initiative that enables Kissing it Better to continue to bring music and other gentle entertainment to those isolated in care homes and hospitals by performing at a safe distance outside their windows.

They are also working with The Duke of Edinburgh Award to enable students to continue their volunteering experience by connecting them with older people in the community, by giving them ways to continue that connection from their own homes.

We asked them how their service users were responding:

“We work with older people in hospitals and care homes and many are feeling so lost and alone at this time. Unable to see their relatives and friends, we believe they are not just thrilled to get some gentle entertainment, they are also touched that someone took time out their busy lives to think of them”

How to contact KIB or get more information.

The best way to contact KIB is by emailing mail@kissingitbetter.co.uk or by calling 07831 136152 or 01789 488018

You can visit their website here.

CAP: Molly and Sophia

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We are part way through the 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.

We will be sharing the reports written by our School Leadership Award holders and their CAP hosts throughout the summer period.

Brook is the UK’s leading provider of sexual health and wellbeing for young people under 25.

They are the only charity working across the UK and Channel Islands that specialises in working with young people to promote their sexual health in the wider context of health and wellbeing.

Brook in Liverpool has been hosting Community Action Placements for many years and is one of the most sought-after placements. Whilst on placement, School Leadership Award Holders are fully immersed into the education and support of young people in the Liverpool area around sexual health and wellbeing.

Sophia

“I wanted to mainly get out of my comfort zone, learn to work in a team with adults instead of students and experience a sense of leadership in a totally different environment. My placement at Brook has allowed me to expand my skill set. I’ve been able to participate in so many incredible things but some of my favourites have been a wellbeing and self-esteem session with vulnerable women seeking asylum in the UK; a group which supports LGBTQ individuals who are questioning their gender identities; attending Pride Liverpool and helping a group of teenage mothers understand healthy and unhealthy relationships.

The staff at Brook are genuinely incredible. I couldn’t have asked for a better placement or better hosts to stay with! I have loved seeing all of the amazing work that Brook do to help their community. I hope to come back to Brook in a future CAP, and see (and help!) the charity develop further.

“It has been wonderful having Sophia stay at Brook. She has achieved so much and participated in lots of sessions during her time.
Sophia is bright and upbeat and has a contagious positive energy that is lovely to be around. She is passionate about her beliefs and will take what she has learnt during her stay here, with her. Sophia has shown lots of interest in the work that Brook does and also provided input from a young person’s perspective.”

– Viccie Hamlet, Brook

Molly

“At Brook, I took part in lots of different activities, including: sexual health workshops, STI testing events, youth groups, Liverpool Pride, and re-designing educational activities. The work was very varied, with a good mixture of office work and practical tasks. It was absolutely amazing, and everyone who we worked with at Brook made the experience one of the most enjoyable things I have ever done. I enjoyed all of the outreach work that we did, especially visiting the ‘Work it Out’ group, and Elizabeth Anderson House. Talking to people who are experiencing different challenges in their lives has made me more open minded and has shown me how necessary organisations like Brook are.”

“It was a real pleasure to visit Molly whilst she was on placement at Brook. She had already shown incredible resilience and flexibility after an administrative delay, and she was ready to get completely stuck in with the team. She seemed excited and has a great energy which I think held her in good stead for the remainder of her placement.

The team at Brook gave us some amazing feedback on Molly, that she was an excellent communicator and had a wonderful confidence that meant she settled in really well.”

– Natalie Kay, The Rank Foundation


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.”

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.