westminster

Leadership Day 2016

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Every year in September, The Rank Foundation gather the two cohorts that make up our Leadership Award Holders in Westminster. This is an opportunity to get to know each other, participate in group activities, and hear about what the Leadership Award has in store for them.

This year, Tim Young (Director of Education) and Lindsey Clay (Chair of the Rank Fellowship) welcomed the group, and Vivid Echo (a video production company) ran a video workshop with the young people.

Will Counsell, one of our 2015 cohort, gave his account of the day:

“It was another fantastic day for the Class of 2015 at Westminster Cathedral despite it being the hottest November day in fifty-five years.

The day started with us having a briefing on the task ahead,  then breaking into groups to make a video on leadership and its qualities.

Once we’d mastered the equipment we went out and about into the local area to gather footage for the main section of the video. Everyone worked so well together, each adding their own ideas and working as a unified team. After the main portion of the film
was finished we headed inside, out of the sun for a welcome break with drinks and pastries.

The films we’d worked on in our groups were then taken away to be edited by a Vivid Echo. We had the chance whilst this was happening to watch a film on J. Arthur Rank, the founder of The Rank Foundation.

We were then back in our groups to discuss the introduction and conclusion to our videos. Then back out into the searing heat to finish our last bits of filming.

After a delicious lunch we had the  opportunity to mix with our own age groups, Class of 2015 and the Class of 2016, where we chatted about our placements over the summer and generally got to know one another better. Then, the highlight of the day was watching each other’s videos, having been professionally edited. It was such a Fantastic experience.

Once again another truly inspirational day with my time with Rank.”

If you were at Leadership Day 2016 and would like to send us an account of your experience, please get in touch with Natalie.

New 3 year report launches at The House of Commons, investigating building better communities through global learning

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The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and The Rank Foundation are launching their first joint report, ‘Building Better Communities through Global Learning’ at the House of Commons this evening.
In 2012 the two organisations agreed to collaborate on a research project to address some of the complex and urgent challenges facing communities in the UK.
In the 3 year period that followed, 58 Fellows were selected to undertake international, experiential research to investigate the question of how to build strong communities, exploring examples of good practice that might be relevant and transferable to the UK.

These Churchill Fellows are innovators, frontline practitioners and academics, who researched a broad range of community development themes – from housing to mental health, gender based violence to enterprise, community cohesion & engagement to youth support.
The main findings include 4 consistent, recurring and interrelated themes that represent the ‘building blocks of a strong community’:
•    Engagement and cohesion
•    Health and safety
•    Empowerment and resilience
•    Enterprise and innovation
The research also identified 3 broad approaches that can help to build stronger, more effective communities:
•    Community-centred approach
•    Preventative approaches
•    Collaborative, partnership approaches

Building better communities through global learning is now available both on our website and that of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.
“Through a jointly funded Travelling Fellowship programme, which supported motivated and talented individuals from across the UK, we wanted to enable global learning that could contribute to safe, strong and empowered communities, fit for the 21st century” – Julia Weston, Chief Executive of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.


“The challenges facing our communities today are myriad, complex and constantly in the headlines. The solutions we all seek cannot lie with an individual, or even solely with government or charitable organisations; they require collaboration and a collective approach. We hope that this body of work, undertaken by people working across all sectors and at all levels, will contribute to the debate and help provide some solutions”

– David Sanderson, Chief Executive of the Rank Foundation.