With a little help from our friends
In our unique mixture of sunshine and rain there are some great examples of people and ideas blossoming in this month’s newsletter. We’re really proud of the range of work we do, from year 9 students to those navigating university to those entering the workplace, right through to staff teams rethinking the culture of how they work. Every day I have conversations with such a range of people whose commonality is their desire and willingness to do something different in order to create change for themselves and others.
This work is not easy, it is challenging and can be confronting. It requires participants (and staff and trainers) to be courageous, tenacious and vulnerable. If it ever becomes easy we are getting something wrong! But to offset that challenge, this time of blossoming is so important. Reading about Rayan’s huge courage and how he has been ablet to tackle such challenging times, reading about Aush and Aimee’s experience of the Students of Colour workshop and of Rob’s resilience in completing his fundraising commitment. These are so important.
Thank you for sharing your stories with us, and if you’re in need of a bit of uplift right now, do look at our LinkedIn page and our YouTube page to remind yourself of how human beings have such potential to create change.
Best wishes
Ellie
Grit in posts
There have been some great LinkedIn posts from Grit participants this spring. Asika from the University of Manchester has written about the Grow Beyond Limits programme where Grit trained staff gave coaching support to Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black heritage students with their academic and personal goals, confidence and sense of belonging.
Kate, a student at Nottingham Trent University, talks about the “honest conversations and personal reflection” she had in the “unforgettable” Grit workshop, how “it pushed me to challenge my assumptions and rethink how I approach obstacles.”
Aimee at Manchester Metropolitan University describes how Grit “reignited my motivation to take initiative, step beyond my comfort zone, and actively work towards my goals and ambitions,” while Aush from Solent University writes about our “incredibly inspiring” Students of Colour workshop. He talks about how it “was truly innovative, helping us to build, grow, and motivate ourselves as leaders.”
All this and more on our LinkedIn pages…
“It really made me think”
Rayan was in year 9 at a school in West London when he did a 3-day intensive Grit workshop followed by five months coaching from a volunteer life coach. We caught up with him again recently.
“My home had just been flooded out when the Grit programme started. It was too damp to live in, especially because I have asthma. We moved six times while the programme was running, going from hotel to hotel. Only just now have me and my mum finally got a flat of our own again…”
Find out what happened when Rayan did a Grit programme…
Mindset for success
We had a very thought provoking afternoon Talking about Transformation with colleagues from local authorities, virtual schools, youth services, schools and universities at our first ever roundtable event about Grit’s work with staff teams. Huge thanks to Chris from the Nottingham Institute of Education for hosting the session, and to Stephanie from Haringey Council and Emma from Cumberland Council for speaking about their Grit experience. If you would like to explore Grit for your staff team, contact us at jon@grit.org.uk.
And we also had a fascinating day at the Institute of Student Employers’ conference. There was a whole series of insightful presentations and a bumper crowd that came along to our session on Mindsets for Success. It was such positive, enthusiastic and engaged audience that we could have done with twice the time…
Keep on running
And finally, a huge vote of thanks to old Grit friend Robert Hutchinson who, even though he was carrying an injury, still managed to run the London Marathon to raise money for Grit and surpass his fundraising target.
Rob, we are in awe. If you have a fundraising idea, please don’t feel you need to injure yourself, but we really would love to hear from you.