Welcoming a new term and a new Chair
Dear all
I hope you've had a relaxing summer and are enjoying the sunshine this week. We have been busy at Grit with a new term beginning and some of our programmes re-launching in new ways. We are far more savvy about Zoom, Teams and Skype than we ever thought possible and still looking forward to being able to be 'back in the room' with our participants.
There'll be more of an activity update to come but this newsletter is really to introduce you more fully to our new Chair and also a new Trustee, exciting times for Grit as we move into a new era for the charity. You'll notice that the new Chair is not really 'new' at all but I'll leave you to read that in his words below.
Thank you as always for your continued support, feedback and communications and I look forward to being back in touch again soon.
Ellie
A note from our new Chair, Ben Rose:
A lifetime ago a group of mates and I met and founded Grit, then called Youth at Risk. I was 26 years old, a trainee solicitor working in a large legal aid practice in Stockwell. We had a clear simple vision. To make a profound, life changing difference with alienated, damaged and damaging young people.
Fast forward thirty-one years and Grit has worked all over the UK (including Northern Ireland), France, Kosovo, Belgium, Holland and Nigeria. Our Advisory Board has two former presidents of the Supreme Court of the UK and one member of the US Supreme Court. We have worked with tens of thousands of young people, and volunteers in hundreds of different communities, workplaces, schools, universities, and prisons consistently producing extraordinary results. It has been an amazing journey which I have been privileged to be part of.
As I step into the role of Chair, I am conscious of the huge contribution my predecessor, Tony Morgan, has made. I can still recall our very first phone call when I was trying to persuade him to become involved. In between explaining what the programme was and how it worked I was happily munching on an apple. Tony’s manners are far too good to ever permit him to do this and in a slightly perplexed manner he asked me what I was doing. Embarrassed I confessed and stopped. This is perhaps an apt metaphor for his role in my life and that of Grit. Demanding, in a gentle, unthreatening manner that those around him raise their game. Thank you, Tony for all you have given me and the organisation we both love so much.
Grit has weathered governments of all shades and two major recessions and as life in a COVID world sets in for the long term its work remains more relevant than ever. Racism, poverty, alienation, isolation and despair are on the increase. Whilst not an elixir to all these ailments, what we continue to offer is a route by which young people discover their power, responsibility and exercise their ability to make a difference in their lives, and that of those around them.
I am looking forward to working with you to keep Grit real, diverse and life altering.
A very warm welcome to our new trustee:
We are delighted to be welcoming a new Trustee to Grit – David Woolley is the Director of Student and Community Engagement at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and Co-Chair of the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes in Higher Education (TASO). He’s been working with us at Grit since 2016 and has been a driving force for the innovative approach to social mobility being taken at NTU. Not only is he passionate about making society fairer but he translates this into action through his work, in particular his pragmatic, open, curious and dedicated approach. He is going to be is a huge asset to Grit. He shares our values and will support us as we increase access to our work in the higher education sector. Welcome to the team David. We are very privileged to have you on our board.