placebased

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)

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.

The Rank Foundation reaches Plymouth

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The Rank Foundation is embarking on a £1.5m investment in the city of Plymouth.

Known as Britain’s Ocean City, Plymouth is home to 260,000 residents in addition to the 22,000 students at the university.  It has a rich history and a vibrant marine and maritime economy, however its unemployment rate is higher than the national average and the NHS records indicate high levels of poverty and deprivation. More than a quarter of Plymothians are amongst the poorest 20% in the UK.

With our previous and ongoing work in Hull and Dundee, the Foundation is enthusiastic about working with the latest addition to our Place-Based programmes. The Foundation has identified a collaborative energy in Plymouth which, with investment in the city and the people, has much potential to produce and nurture similar relationships and successes to Hull and Dundee.

We will be working with two strategic partners, the Real Ideas Organisation (RIO) and the School of Social Entrepreneurs (SSE), who will help to drive the RISE (Rank Inclusive growth Social Enterprise) programme in Plymouth. We have also appointed Phil Davies (who was previously Principal at City College Plymouth) as our local associate and Rank representative.

Visit our latest Place-Based webpage here to read more about our investment in Plymouth, and get to know the participating projects.