Celebration stories
Dear all,
As I read through this month’s Grit newsletter, I am struck by the theme of celebration. We are so fortunate (and grateful) to work in a space and with an approach that celebrates our humanity and our accomplishments. Because of this we are able to hear about the amazing things people are achieving using our work as a catalyst, whether in a leadership journey, a student journey or as part of team of staff working to deliver results for young people. This really matters.
Hearing these celebration stories is crucial in reminding us of the potential we have to deliver and experience transformation from day to day. I find, more and more, that tuning into the brilliant things human beings do for themselves and each other – sometimes in small ways, sometimes huge – is a real source of optimism. Just today one of our partners shared this powerful film with us in which a post-graduate student talks about her life-changing Grit experience.
It not only gave me goosebumps but topped up my own resources and refuelled my energies in my own mission to grow this work and make it available to more young people across the UK, who can then, in turn, also be celebrated.
I hope our newsletter can give you that same uplifting experience and – as always – welcome your thoughts and feedback.
Ellie
It was visceral
"I think about equality and inclusivity a lot but with Grit it became so much more than an intellectual question. It was visceral."
Judy took part in a Grit programme to train staff to coach Black students in the of Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at the University of Manchester. It was part of a wider programme tackling the awarding gap.
This is her story.
Reframing and rethinking
We’ve been busy networking again this month. At the University of Leeds School of Law workshop on "Exploring inclusion & wellbeing initiatives in legal education and practice" we talked about “Reframing the Resilience Narrative,” in particular for students from under-served communities on high-pressure courses such as law and medicine.
And we took part in another of the Rethinking Leadership conversations with Big Education, a multi-Academy Trust that runs schools, develops leaders and teachers across the country and works in coalitions to bring about change in the education system. This time it was a wonderfully energising discussion about how we can create the environment for leaders to thrive.
Celebrating Grit
To celebrate 10 years of grant giving to Grit, the Marsh Charitable Trust (MCT) posted a small celebration of our relationship on Linkedin and Twitter/X recently.
And what a 10 years it has been! Austerity and funding squeezes, political uncertainty, the upending of everything by the pandemic - it has been an incredibly challenging time both for the young people in under-resourced communities that we work with, and for charities like ours.
So it’s great to acknowledge supportsers like the MCT.
This just in…
Just as we were going ‘to press’ what should appear in the inbox but the Nottingham Institute of Education evaluation of our work with local authorities?
We’re still going through the detail - and there is a lot to go through – but the message is clear: Grit can lead to sustained, qualitative improvement in the work done by Local Authority social work teams.
More next month….