Three words for Grit
The end of the academic year is fast approaching, and looking back over the year, I am proud of our tenacity to keep finding new ways to work with young people and celebrate their brilliance. I love the collage below and wish the stories of these brave, vivacious, thoughtful young people could carry as much weight (or more) as the less positive narratives that dominate our national media.
Drawing on the questions we ask our participants six months after they complete a programme with us (below) and their summaries of Grit in three words, my reflection on this last academic year would be summarised as follows:
Resilient – we are working hard to reframe the notion of resilience – it’s not about putting up with stuff regardless of whether it might need changing – it’s about developing a resource of support that you draw on. That resource may be internal, it may be individual, it may be a service or a network. Or it may be a collective, a team of peers who can keep you in touch with your goals when you lose sight of them. This year we’ve seen young people and adults tapping into their own resilience and we have, organisationally, done the same.
Outstanding – yes it’s been a tough year, extremely challenging world events and cuts in funding to the support we believe is important for young people. However, we have seen, and been part of, some outstanding events. A shining example of this was our Unleashed event celebrating the achievements of our Students of Colour and Black Leaders programmes. The students themselves hosted this event and they honestly blew me away and gave me hope for the future.
Connected – we have focused this year on forging and maintaining connections, bringing people together and finding forums for them to connect and reconnect. This has been a joy. In course rooms, in roundtable events, in meetings and in alumni forums, the people we work with inspire us, inform our next steps and remind us that through our connections we can empower and sustain change. Thank you for being part of our community!
Ellie
It’s easy fundraising
More and more of our supporters are raising money for Grit, at no cost to themselves, by simply shopping online.
Easy Fundraising has over 8,000 brand partners who will donate part of what you spend to Grit. And it is the partner that covers the cost. They’re all there: Amazon, Tesco’s, Just East, the Trainline, Confused.com …
The follow up
We’ve just finished analysing our spring follow up survey, that time of year when we go back to participants who did a Grit programme between six and nine months ago. We found:
83% of students who had been considering leaving are still at university
83% have an increased sense of belonging
96% of university staff tell us they continue to be impacted by Grit
And we asked students to describe their Grit experience in just three words. This is what they said.
Finding my voice
“I wanted to drop out of university but I didn’t. Grit gave me the confidence to persevere.”
Grit Trustee Annete first came across Grit when she took part in one of our workshops at Nottingham Trent University in 2019.
Here she talks about what brought her to Grit, the impact it’s had on her life and how’s she’s gone on to work at one of the largest financial institutions in the world.
If you’ve got a Grit story you’d like to share, do get in touch.
We’d love to hear from you.