Posted By Clore Social Leadership,
16 April 2021
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This #CloreSocialFellowFriday, we sat down with Neil Mapes, a 2010 Clore Social Leadership Fellow, to talk about career transition, peer support, and his work as the manager of Green Hive.
Tell us a little bit about your leadership journey and current role.
I was part of the very first Clore Social fellowship cohort, back in 2010. When I started, the organisation that I founded, Dementia Adventure, was in its infancy. In August 2019, after working there for 10 years, I decided to hand the reins over to somebody else and relocate my extended family to Scotland for a different quality of life.
Now, I'm now the manager of a charity called Green Hive, which is based in the town of Nairn, the third largest in the highlands. Green Hive is a local environmental and community development charity. Our overarching mission is to make Nairn a happier place to be for its people and for the environment. All of our activities are designed around individuals in the community, and taking action to improve the environment and make themselves feel better at the same time. As a community organisation, we are run by the local community, for the local community, so all of our projects come from local needs. Because we've got a relatively small geographical area, we're able to really make an impact.
What has the transition to your current role been like?
I started the role on the first day of lockdown last year, which was a very challenging and unusual time to start a new job. However, it has been a great year despite the challenges, and we've been able to do a lot of things that we wouldn't have had time for in a ‘pre-Covid’ year. For example, we launched a new website, and we’ve converted fact-to-face activities to starter kits and webinars. We’ve also redesigned a lot of our group activities. Now, instead of doing large beach clean ups, we send people bags, grabbers, and gloves so that they can go and pick litter individually when they're taking their exercise.
We’ve also set up a new online shop, where we’re able to sell some of the items that our volunteers make with recycled materials! Our handcrafted items include clocks and coasters made from milk bottles, and Aprons and Bumblebags made from repurposed fabrics.
Can you tell us a little bit about your experience with career transition and changing sub-sectors?
Before moving to Scotland, I had always worked in the dementia sector. So, when I was initially thinking about leaving Dementia Adventure and trying to put it in the best possible position to continue to thrive, a mentor told me that I was going to have to look for a dementia job in Scotland because people associate my expertise with dementia. A lot of the conversations I had with people almost made it seem like it was impossible to change sub-sector, especially in your late 40s.
But actually, one of my passions is outdoors and the environment, and a lot of the things that we did at Dementia Adventure were to get folks in contact with nature and with the outdoors. So, working for an environmental charity actually tied really nicely into my passions and my expertise. Rather unusually, we moved to Scotland primarily for a quality of life change, and the job came second. So, once we moved here, I volunteered for a couple of organisations, and Green Hive was one of them. And then a few months after that, the job came up, and I jumped at the chance to apply.
Since starting the role, I’ve found that there are actually a lot of parallels between starting up a social enterprise that was focused on folks with dementia and starting up and building a social enterprise and a charity that's focused on the environment. You still need fundraising systems and financial systems that can cope with growth, you still need a really good core staff team, and you still need to support volunteers in the same way. For me, the key is that I’ve come across another job that I’m passionate about, and the transition has been really fascinating and really refreshing. I loved my time in the dementia sector because of my family history of dementia, but at this point in time, climate is such a pressing issue and Environmental Action must be at the top of everybody's agendas, so to have a job in this sector now feels like the right time to have made the change.
Since graduating from your Clore Social Fellowship in 2010, which elements of the course have stuck with you the most?
Perhaps most importantly, the fellowship gave me the confidence to bring ideas to fruition. It’s one thing to have an idea, but it’s another thing to follow through and do something about it. It is another thing to successfully hand over that organisation and transition out to a new role.
The fellowship also gave me a network of peers that I still draw on today. I’m now the chapter lead for the Clore Social north of Scotland chapter, and one of the things that I learned on the programme was the importance of support networks that aren't necessarily tied to your current role or organisation, and there are some really dynamic, amazing organisations in fairly remote parts of northern Scotland. Now, under the banner of Clore Social Leadership, I’m excited to build up leadership support in this region and create a space where we can all talk about shared issues.
Looking to the future, what are you excited for this year?
There are about 105 active volunteers with Green Hive at the moment who haven’t had the chance to come to the workshop in recent months. Now that we’re coming out of lockdown, we’re really excited to get them back into the workshop. We’ve made a lot of improvements to the space over the last year, including brand new double glazed windows, LED lighting, and a new air-source heat pump heating system and a new e-bike and trailer. So, not only can we welcome them back, but we can welcome them back to a warm, well-lit community space.
We’re also looking to take on a shop on the Nairn high street in the centre of town to engage partners like schools, businesses, and other charities in climate activity, all working towards a net-zero and zero carbon approach. So, in the next year, we're hoping to identify the shop and secure the funding for that as well.
You can find Neil on Twitter @neilmapes, and on LinkedIn.
You can find Green hive on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, and their online shop here.
To Join the Clore Social north of Scotland chapter, create a profile on SharedPurpose, and join the group.
If you would like to be featured for a #CloreSocialFellowFriday, send us an email at info@cloresocialleadership.org.uk.
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