enterprise

Ripples Story: “Building relationships”

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In this article, Elenid Roberts, Transport Coordinator at Yr Orsaf, describes how her organisation transformed an empty building into the Cymru Fydd community hub, a beacon of support and opportunity in Gwynedd, North Wales with help from our Profit for Good Programme. 

Located in the heart of Dyffryn Nantlle in Gwynedd, North Wales, Cymru Fydd is part of Yr Orsaf, a community enterprise providing support and opportunities for the community. This includes an accessible community hub for friendly advice and support with everyday needs such as cost of living, meeting spaces for people to hire for various activities, workshops, and workspace. It also houses a co-working space for individuals to use. There is an enterprise centre for young adults to develop the skills and confidence to start and run their own businesses. We also provide a community transport scheme using our electric vehicles for vulnerable people. It targets those affected by lack of public transport, a growing problem in rural parts of Wales. We also run an electric bike hire scheme to encourage people to reduce their carbon footprint and improve their health.

Last year, we were fortunate to be part of Rank’s Profit for Good Programme. It has allowed us to gain not only financial support but also provided us with the tools and a safe space to develop the skills and knowledge that are required to run a successful and sustainable business.

When we started the Profit for Good Programme, we were in the early stages of our enterprise, which was transforming an empty building (Cymru Fydd). During construction, we faced many uncertainties and delays. During this time, with Profit for Good guidance, we built relationships with skill-set organisations such as local colleges to offer varied workshops and training for young entrepreneurs. We also partnered with three other like-minded community transport organisations based in Gwynedd. Together, we are expanding our services and developing new bus routes that will allow us to help and reach more individuals. Through collaboration and intensive marketing, we have generated interest and have started to receive bookings ready for when we open.

Our enterprise is more effective due to the learning through the project. I have gained confidence and increased my knowledge through participating in the session and learning from other experiences. I have had the opportunity to raise problems I have faced with the Action Learning Set and have been supported in thinking about practical solutions to these challenges. As a result of the programme, Cymru Fydd and I have increased our impact. We are confidently looking forward to opening our doors at the end of the month.

Elenid Roberts

Transport Coordinator at Yr Orsaf

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.

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.