coronavirus

Handling Covid19 – Clean Break

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This week, we are shining the spotlight on Clean Break, a charity based in London. Clean Break uses theatre to keep the subject of women in prison on the cultural radar, helping to reveal the damage caused by the failures of the criminal justice system.


Clean Break is a women’s theatre company, founded in 1979 by two women prisoners who believed in the power of theatre to transform lives. Their vision is of a society where women can realise their full potential, free from criminalisation. Through theatre workshops and projects in prisons and the community which build confidence, resilience and wellbeing, Clean Break transforms the lives of women who have experienced the criminal justice system or have been identified as at risk of entering it. The team ordinarily work with 70 women each week as part of their weekly Members Programme. They have 10 full time and 11 part time staff and are usually supported by around 40 volunteers.

“We pursue our vision by producing ground-breaking theatre which puts women’s voices at its heart and creates lasting change by challenging injustice in and beyond the criminal justice system”

Photo Credit: Clean Break

The Members Programme is delivered from trauma-informed, women-only studios in Kentish Town. The Programme runs in ten-week sessions, and each week Clean Break will host workshops in Introduction to Drama, Advanced Theatre, Writers Circle, and Health & Wellbeing, as well as running a Young Artists Development Programme. The sessions are designed to help members cope with the long-term issues that can underpin women’s involvement in the criminal justice system, such as mental ill health, domestic abuse or violence, poverty, or alcohol or drug misuse.

The Coronavirus pandemic has meant that Clean Break has been forced to make some big changes to their programme delivery. They swiftly moved their sessions online and began to offer member support remotely. This was a challenge as many of their service users already struggle with isolation; and the crisis also presents challenges in coping with long-term issues. The sessions now include: 3 online creative workshops per week, members support in the form of check-ins, Zoom 1:1’s, and care packages, as well as new creative projects which foster connectivity and community. The plan is to maintain this service until the team are able to offer a reduced, in-person version of their Member Programme that they can run alongside their virtual workshops.

The biggest organisational challenge has been financial. Clean Break’s largest unrestricted income is hiring out their building (ordinarily generating £125K per year) which came to an abrupt halt in February. Other financial challenges have included the loss of donations as funders have diverted money to emergency delivery; a reduction in capacity as Clean Break have furloughed 76% of their staff; and loss of further trading income as they do not expect to be able to run training courses or earn box office income from theatre productions for a good while yet.

“Emergency funding support from both existing and new funders has been essential to navigate this crisis and stabilise our organisation; funders such as the Rank Foundation have been absolutely vital in protecting our resilience, securing our future, and making sure that we will be able to return to a full Members Programme as soon as possible.”

For more information about Clean Break, please visit www.cleanbreak.org.uk

You can also follow on Twitter @CleanBrk, Instagram @CleanBrk, Facebook, or find them on LinkedIn.

If you’d like to contact someone at Clean Break for more information about their work, or supporting them, please contact Head of Development and Communications Sally Muckley at sally.muckley@cleanbreak.org.uk

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

Resilience Fund: Making the Leap and Newington Day Centre

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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 Making the Leap and Newington Day Centre.

Making the Leap

Organisation Overview:

Making the Leap first came to Rank’s attention in 2016 and became a Major Grant recipient later that year.

Making the Leap’s mission is to transform the futures of young people from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. They deliver training to raise young people’s aspirations and equip them with the skills, behaviours and confidence to succeed whilst increasing their access to opportunities. They deliver their programmes via a number of methods: from the classroom, to their own centre but also via employee engagement opportunities helping businesses to meet their Corporate Social Responsibility goals.

Difficulties due to Coronavirus:

The team have been unable to deliver sessions due to school closure and cutbacks on CSB budgets to protect businesses through the COVID19 period. Most schools will prioritise the curriculum for the remainder of the year due to the time lost, therefore additional services such as the opportunities offered by Making the Leap will drop further down the priority list. And in longer term plans, businesses will be likely to continue to cut CSR and HR budgets to recover.

Their annual fundraiser 2020 UK Social Mobility Awards will be very unlikely to happen due to new social distancing and capacity laws (or will at least be significantly scaled-back), which means minimal sponsorship or ticket sales profits.

What will the Resilience Fund grant be used for?

“As a result of Covid-19, young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and their families are now facing additional challenges – loss of income, rising household costs, health problems, social isolation and housing issues. Therefore, it is vital we continue to support young people during this time to boost their professional skills, stay motivated and remain connected with others”

The Resilience Fund grant of £20,000 will cover 6 months of predicted operational costs and loss of fundraising, allowing Making the Leap to continue to support their service users, albeit virtually.

Newington Day Centre

Organisation Overview:

Similarly to Making the Leap, Newington Day Centre was first funded by Rank back in 2016 as one of our Major grantees. They were also the joint winners of the Rank Accelerator award in 2019, voted for at our Annual Conference.

Newington Day Centre provides a range of Day Care services to people who are older and their carers since 1978 . They provide 250 places each week with individuals attending 2/3 days each week. The services offered by NDC include assistance to maintain good personal care, therapeutic hand care, a hairdresser, daily meals, a range of community services, a chiropodist, a community hearing clinic and a range of community events to help members engage in community life. They also provide opportunities for students on work placements completing NVQs and also support many nursing and social work students.

Difficulties due to Coronavirus:

The centre is unable to provide any physical services and has had to close. However, Newington Day Centre has adapted to the closure and now offers a telephone support service to ensure the most at-risk are receiving adequate care. They are also delivering arts and crafts boxes for entertainment and to keep their members occupied.

What will the Resilience Fund grant be used for?

There will be a large reduction in donations as many of the community face challenging times ahead and the ability to hold fundraising events. Local community and business fundraising usually brings in around £130,000 per year. Therefore a Resilience grant of £25,000 has been accepted to help with the current shortfall.

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 – Why Me?

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Why me? are the only national charity fighting for victims of crime to have access to Restorative Justice. Restorative Justice empowers victims of crime to communicate with the offender, through a face to face meeting where appropriate. This gives them the chance to talk about the impact of the crime, seek answers about why it happened and have their voices heard. Many victims of crime feel excluded, confused and revictimized by the criminal justice process. Restorative Justice can change this.

We spoke to the team at Why me? about the changes and adaptations to service delivery due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

Why me? has been known to the Foundation since 2017 when they first received a 3 year Major Grant to fund a new Business Development Manager role. As an organisation, they have been engaged and active RankNet members ever since.

Why me?’s work focuses on two key areas. One is providing Restorative Justice, which they do through their own Restorative Justice service. Anyone is free to get in touch to explore whether a restorative process is best for them and if Why me? are best placed to facilitate it. Their work also focuses on campaigning for the greater use of Restorative Justice. This strand of their work includes policy development, lobbying Government, spreading best practice, engaging with the Restorative Justice sector and helping to perfect the use of restorative practices for under-used crime types: such as hate crime. They have seven hard working, part time staff and a dedicated team of trustees, restorative facilitators and ambassadors who have lived experience of being victims of crime.

During lockdown, Why me? have prioritised communication within the Restorative Justice sector highly. They now send out a weekly newsletter, and hold forums on different issues for people working in Restorative Justice to attend. These include Why me?’s regular forums but also one-off forums on important subjects, such as an upcoming Restorative Listening forum for BAME people to talk about racism they have experienced from the police and justice system. These events are all part of a growing online “Restorative Hub” which Why me? are seeking to develop, with the help of funding from the Rank Foundation.

We asked the team about the challenges they have faced during this difficult period. They explained:

“One of our key aims is to influence policy makers, and this is difficult during a time when the Government have so many urgent priorities. Restorative practice has a part to play in a number of problems facing the country: it could help to address the backlog in the courts, guide the police on how to carefully police new COVID laws, and be part of the healing process as the country returns to health. But our ability to have these representations heard is diminished at the moment, due to the focus on the emergency response to the pandemic. We have also had financial struggles during this period, like most small charities, but we are doing everything we can to overcome them.”

However, it would appear that the service users at Why me? have responded well, and the organisation said they were heartened by how restorative providers around the country have engaged with their online forums. Aided by Why me?’s ability to share best practice, restorative services across the country have learned to operate remotely, giving victims of crime the opportunity to engage remotely in Restorative Justice if they wish to. Some participants have been keen to continue with their restorative processes remotely, while others have preferred to wait until face to face meetings are possible again.

If you would like to contact the team at Why me? for more information, you can email them at: info@why-me.org.uk

Website: www.why-me.org
Twitter: @WhyMeUK