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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
30 April 2020
Updated: 23 October 2020
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Karen Tozer, Clore Social Fellow 2018 and Programme Manager at Groundwork inspires us with the organisation’s agile and strategic response to COVID-19.
Groundwork have been working in Hull over 10 years with communities and individuals that are often those most in need. The work we do builds the skills and knowledge of people through experiential learning and/or volunteering so they are able to begin to address some of the issues that impact on their lives.
We enable people to learn through hands-on participatory activities to grow food, cook healthier meals, learn crafts and DIY skills that help make their money go further and improve their physical and mental wellbeing. Our volunteering opportunities give people a sense of purpose and enable them to build their skills, confidence and social networks.
We also have managed Springhead Park Golf Club since 2014. We have worked hard to transform this former municipal facility into a hub for the whole community.
In Hull I am lucky enough to have a small but dedicated and creative team. Prior to 19 March we recognised that many of those we support were the most vulnerable and would have to self-isolate. We also studied what was happening in other countries and quickly realised that full lockdown was inevitable.
Myself and the team looked at how we could change the way we worked to ensure we were able to provide the best service possible to the communities we support.
Springhead Park – We shut down the course and Club House and transformed the Coffee Shop into a takeaway and home delivery service that runs on a skeleton staff and volunteer drivers. We immediately contacted all the local homecare providers and agencies supporting the elderly and vulnerable in our area. We sent them information on our new affordable meal service with free delivery for the elderly and most vulnerable.
Our Communities team were also quick to move and offer a virtual service on Facebook.
Groundwork Connect – A daily mix of quizzes, healthy recipes and useful information together with live stream and pre-recorded `how-to’ videos covering crafts, growing and up-cycling that utilise everyday items and things we might otherwise discard.
We also established a number of different Facebook Groups where people can meet virtually and interact.
The Virtual Shed – Here people post their lockdown up-cycling and DIY projects that use what others or they might normally throw away. People are able to inspire others and be inspired and we have found there is a massive appetite amongst all age groups. People have tried things they might never have tried and the ‘Likes’ they receive give them a much needed boost. One young mum who joined undertook her first up-cycling project and has now gone on to provide tips to others.
The Virtual Veg Plot – Excited by the success of The Virtual Shed we quickly developed The Virtual Veg Plot. Now more than ever we believe people need to be thinking about growing their own food. We provide tips on growing and how to make a planter out of everything from an old shopping bag to a pallet. To support The Virtual Veg Plot we are also sending seeds by post to those who live in our Growing St Andrews project area, around Hessle Road. I have also sought additional funding to expand this wider in the coming weeks.
The Virtual Kitchen – For a long time Groundwork have delivered healthy cooking sessions. The Virtual Kitchen along with our daily recipes is a way in which we can still encourage and support healthier eating.
The Virtual Sewing Room – This is our latest addition in response to requests by our Facebook followers. The group provides tips and ‘how-to’ advice from sewing on a button to taking up a hem; skills that many people were never taught.
Hull Story Time – Ground Hull has a long established partnership with Hull Library Services. As soon as schools were shut down we began work on this joint project. Every Friday at 1.30pm live on YouTube we have children’s stories being read by local authors, performers and currently local celebrities and sports stars.
Groundwork Connect Radio Show – Growing St Andrews project had an existing radio show that went out to over 250,000 households across West Hull and the surrounding villages. We wanted to develop something that was more frequent and interactive to support those who may not have access to social media. Groundwork Connect now goes out via live feed three times a week on FM radio, internet and Facebook Live. This has enabled us to keep the community informed, interact with volunteers and connect isolated families and friends through song requests.
"It is important that we are continually looking for the 'How Next' so that we can respond quickly to the needs of local people..."
As a result of the changes we have implemented, Springhead Park is now producing approximately 100 meals a day, ensuring the elderly and vulnerable can receive a home cooked meal for just £3 and our Coffee Shop social media following has soared to almost 900.
Our virtual community engagement and activity has also grown our already strong Facebook following by over 200% and this is still increasing daily. Our post reach is now regularly over 7,000 and our first Hull Story Time was viewed by over 4,000 families on YouTube.
My team and I are now thinking about the next phase of COVID-19. The way of life and working we knew before will not return for quite a while. Social distancing and other measures may stay with us for many months, perhaps into next year, with a potentially longer lasting impact on the communities we work with.
It is important that we are continually looking for the 'How Next' so that we can respond quickly to the needs of local people and the challenges and opportunities the 'New Normal' present for us as an organisation.
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Karen Tozer, Clore Social Fellow 2018, is Programme Manager at Groundwork, an organisation that positively changes places and people's lives, in partnership where possible. Visit @GroundworkHull on Twitter & GroundworkHull on Facebook.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
23 July 2019
Updated: 23 October 2020
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The world is awash with leadership books, courses and advice. In 2015 around 1,200 books were published with the word ‘leadership’ in the title. Type ‘leadership’ into a search on Amazon and you will have over 50,000 titles to peruse. Hundreds of MBA courses are available every year. You can find out how , and ‘Unicorn Leadership: how integrated, next-level leaders are changing the world’. And politicians, top military brass, psychologists and business leaders all have platforms to share their secrets of leadership success.
So with all of these options on the market, why is the responsible finance sector in need of a leadership programme?
Over the last decade, we have seen an acceleration within mainstream and retail finance of roles becoming highly specialised. But responsible finance remains a sector that puts people first, is agile and innovative.
Yet there is limited availability of training and development programmes for those working in responsible and social finance, a growing sector that is critical to supporting local economic growth and financial resilience across the UK.
In 2017, the responsible finance industry lent £67 million to over 5,000 small businesses, creating over 4,000 jobs. Businesses funded included local nurseries, manufacturers, cafes and food producers. £22 million was lent in over 55,000 loans and customers were encouraged to deposit over £3 million into savings accounts and helped to improve their credit scores and financial capability. £142 million was lent to 363 social enterprises, including a charity training medical detection dogs and a community build scheme with integrated training and employment skills on construction sites.
Credit unions are financial cooperatives that provide savings accounts and loans to consumers. At the end of 2017, there were 450 credit unions in the UK with nearly 1.8 million members. In 2017 credit unions lent over £161 million to their members, and had total deposits of £2.6 billion at the end of the year.
Social investors invest with a social purpose alongside a financial return. In 2016 £630 million was invested to over 1,100 beneficiaries. The majority of this was lending by social investment intermediaries.
Despite this significant impact, the social and responsible finance sector is ambitious to do far more and knows that the need from customers is there. Building the next generation of leaders and developing the skills they need will ensure the long-term sustainability of the sector. It is important that responsible finance leaders of the future have the confidence and abilities to tackle some of the sector’s prominent opportunities and challenges.
With small teams and limited resources, senior management needs to have an overview of and provide leadership on issues ranging from risk management to lending policies, IT platforms to marketing, securing investment to demonstrating impact.
That’s why Responsible Finance has launched its first leadership programme for the Responsible Finance Sector. Funded by the Connect Fund and delivered in partnership with Clore Social Leadership, the programme will also be available to the wider social finance sector, such as credit unions and Social Investment Finance Intermediaries (SIFIs).
The target audience is aspiring leaders in the sector, middle managers and above. The purpose is to create the next generation of responsible finance leaders, addressing succession planning, staff development and retention challenges that the sector faces.
The Responsible Finance Leadership Programme will support aspiring leaders to develop their skills, knowledge and behaviours to become stronger ambassadors for their organisation and the sector as a whole. It will help them to become better strategic thinkers, confident to operate openly and transparently while empowering others and to effectively collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders.
You can find out more here.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
01 August 2017
Updated: 22 October 2020
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This blog was written by a group of 2016 Clore6: Youth Fellows who, as part of the programme, worked on a team challenge around ‘people development’.
Managing people is a huge responsibility, it can be a minefield of processes and overwhelming information, all of which is often shaped by your own experience of being managed.
In undertaking the first Clore6: Youth programme we were set a challenge to address a key leadership issue in the youth sector – people development. How do we get the best out of the most important resource in our sector, our people?
Following a human centred design process, we refined our approach to address that very real fear that many people told us about: when they become a manager for the first time, they just have no idea what’s going on! People shared their stories of taking on the responsibility and not really getting the support they needed, or being sent on a ‘new managers’ training months after having started!
We recognised that charity training budgets are often tight, the range of courses and training can be vast, but that there is a huge amount of knowledge and experience from individuals across the youth sector, as well as online – but knowing what is key is hard.
Having done our initial research, as a team we felt that the focus should be on creating a resource that new managers can have in preparation for taking on management responsibility. However, in the spirit of challenging our approach, we wanted to make something that provided an overview of the concepts that new managers should consider, and then signpost them to useful resources for further information, rather than trying to cover everything in one go.
In our online toolkit we cover some key topics, from having courageous conversations with team members to self-care, building on our experiences of the things we wish we’d known when we started out at managers.
This video provides a brief overview of these crucial topics.
Visit here to sign up to be one of the first to test our curated toolkit for new managers.
We want your help to continue to refine the video, the toolkit, and to reach as many new managers as possible across the youth and wider social sector. Please share your comments and views below, and join the conversation on Twitter.
The team of Fellows who developed this blog and the New to Management toolkit are: Fiona Ellison, Stephanie Papapavlou, Sally Marsh and Sue Burchill.
The next Clore6: Youth programme will take place early 2018 and we are now taking expressions of interest, please email: info@cloresocialleadership.org.uk
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
05 June 2017
Updated: 22 October 2020
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About halfway through my Clore Social fellowship, shortly before the birth of my third child, this was the phrase I muttered to myself as I posted on a local parents Facebook group about setting up a ‘baby bank’ – where people could donate their great quality, unwanted baby clothes and kit, in order to pass them on to other local families in need.
Little did I know that 18 months on, I’d be running a fully-fledged charity, with two branches, and a third in the pipeline. In our first year, Little Village helped nearly 400 families across Wandsworth and Camden, and we’re on course to more than double that this year. This 4 minute video tells you more about our work and what’s important to us.
Little Village on Vimeo.
Little Village grew, without question, from the things I learnt during my Clore Social journey. I love a good catch-phrase (see: Start by starting) and these are the ones I’ve lived by since launching the charity.
What would you do if you were ten times braver?
This question, posed to us on our first residential, remains one of my favourite provocations. I still ask it every time there’s an important decision to be made about Little Village’s future. Asking this question gives me permission to be authentic. It reminds me that I don’t want to play safe, I want to play true and aim high. It has led to having the difficult conversations rather than brushing them under the carpet. It has given permission for my dreams to breathe, and to guide Little Village’s evolution.
Keep things simple, even when they’re not
One of the things people often say to me about Little Village is “how great, that’s such a simple idea!”. I nod my head while thinking ‘if you only knew the half of it’. I’m someone who loves complexity and has spent most of my career working on abstract concepts in the thinktank world. And yet building Little Village as a practical, approachable, friendly organisation has been one of the great pleasures of this journey. I’ve seen how the simplicity of what we do, underlined by our brand, draws people to us. It’s very powerful.
Harness frustrated female energy
One of the biggest challenges I’ve faced is juggling Little Village with 3 kids under 5. I’ve worked some pretty interesting hours, my kids are definitely better acquainted with CBeebies now than they were, and I’ve pulled in a LOT of granny favours. Little Village is powered by an incredible network of women who are skilled and talented and yet can’t find work that fits with their family life. That’s crazy. We work with the grain of people’s family needs. None of us work more than a 3 day week; some of our volunteers bring their children with them; we offer flexible shifts – and we have access to talent that extends well beyond our core business as a result.
So – start by starting. Putting one step down almost inevitably leads to the next step – so be ready for the consequences, and take great joy from the journey.
Visit Little Village to find out more about their work. Share your comments below, or you can join the conversation with Sophia on Twitter.
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Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
10 May 2017
Updated: 22 October 2020
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This blog was originally published on Civil Society Futures, The Independent Inquiry, and is written by 2014 Clore Social Fellow Louise Cannon, UnLtd Award Manager, Building Futures Lead.
I was recently invited to talk to the group responsible for the inquiry into the future of civil society on behalf of UnLtd and the social entrepreneurs with whom I work. Following some scene setting about what the group are looking to achieve, the current challenges facing communities and the scope of the inquiry; one of the members asked me, and another invited guest, whether we were optimistic or pessimistic about the future role of civil society?
Here is my answer.
To state the obvious and somewhat predictable, I believe there will be an important place for social entrepreneurs in the future of civil society. Consistently over the years I have seen social entrepreneurs bring forward enterprising solutions to social issues. Regardless of the challenges of the operating environment, people have come forward to make a change and UnLtd have supported them on their journey.
Whilst we are supporting great ideas and passionate individuals who are achieving results, I have seen a limited number of social entrepreneurs tackling the root causes of the social issues we experience today, due either to the complexity of wicked social issues, or because they are stuck in the day to day operations trying to survive and grow. We are continually looking to improve our ability to support social entrepreneurs and so our own journey must be one which enables us to understand the barriers which prevent a larger proportion of social entrepreneurs from being able to look beyond their individual solution. We need to invest in collaborative approaches to address broader systemic challenges.
However, the burden of responsibility cannot solely be carried by those individuals without support. We exist to provide that support, but how do we help those who are not within our network to start up and thrive, or support others to do so?
In 2015, myself and a small team of colleagues in Birmingham were tasked with exploring how we could reach more social entrepreneurs with the same resources. It might have been easy for us to assume we understood the challenges facing social entrepreneurs, but we decided to make sure and test our assumptions. Our first step was to speak to as many people as possible, in fact, we conducted in depth interviews with over 50 people, both social entrepreneurs and supporters of, and tested the results on over 1,000 more social entrepreneurs. The results were in, and the challenges and opportunities were clear, some even a little surprising. Of those that stood out, were just how regularly social entrepreneurs experience feelings of isolation. Social entrepreneurs are also finding it hard to access funds beyond seed capital, because they simply don’t have the resources to spare for failed attempts. We also discovered some powerful actions that can have a transformative effect for social entrepreneurs.
So we had our answers and so began a series of prototypes to test out ideas and methods looking at each of the challenges and prototyping solutions. Many of the ideas we tested were not new ideas but slight adaptations which allowed us to test their impact for social entrepreneurs. We have used and commissioned research to understand ideas we saw around us that were working in helping people to connect, collaborate and share. We will be sharing the results in the form of a Playbook which will map out ideas we love, tools, methods and solutions we have tried, and more importantly, how others can do the same. We are also working to map the state of social entrepreneurship in Birmingham and the wider West Midlands Combined Authority area which will be replicated if it proves useful for social entrepreneurs in navigating support and finding their own allies.
To come back to the question. I am positive about the role of civil society and the willingness of citizens to act but there are three challenges we cannot ignore:
Empowerment
We need to continue to find creative ways of supporting people to connect, share learning and support each other, this will be critical in embedded solutions coming from communities.
A sense of community is not something which can be dictated by top down idealism, active participation is required. Less empowered individuals and communities need people who they know and trust to help break down the few visible and many more invisible barriers standing in the way.
Scale
We still need large scale solutions, and to drop the hang ups about scale and innovation. Some ideas are worth spreading and innovations worth scaling.
Massive urban growth and climate change require city administrations to realise both the legitimacy and potential of local communities and grassroots movements. Small actions build to large movements.
Limiting Financial Burdens
- For social entrepreneurs trialling new technologies and solutions, the impact of BREXIT and loss of European funds for R&D will be a stymie if not replaced.
- Successful ventures are limited by restricted funds which prevent them from doing what they do best, turning money into impact.
- We need to invest in opportunities for collectivism so that social entrepreneurs and stakeholders can work beyond their individual solutions, and in collaboration to resolve social issues.
- We seek answers to community resilience through social entrepreneurship and community participation to build the bridges to the future without destroying what already exists.
To find out more about how we are doing this get in touch, and finally, to share some of my favourite examples of people, and places making things happen;
Please share you comments below about this blog, or you can contact Louise on Twitter. Louise is an UnLtd Award Manager, Building Futures Lead and Clore Social and Winston Churchill Fellow.
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