The numbers have been counted and what a year it has been!
It has to be said that 2021 has been a full on year! My volunteering time has bizarrely worked out to be exactly the same number of days this year as last, but the proportions have moved around a little. My volunteering work this year has consisted of the following:
Governor of the University of Manchester
Governor of The Apprentice Academy
Governor of Victorious Academies Trust
Coach for City Year
Coach for UK101 Common Purpose Leadership Programme for under 25s
My subsidised coaching for non-profit organisations has also taken a big leap this year. The organisations I have been supporting have been providing wide ranging services to individuals and communities across the UK during an exceptionally difficult time. Covid has created a challenging operating environment and I am privileged to have been able to support organisations and senior leaders working in the following areas:
Domestic violence and abuse
Youth
Family Support Services
Food poverty
LGBT+ Communities
Homelessness
Drug and Alcohol Services
Older people
People living with cancer
People living with arthritis
People living with HIV and AIDS
Each and every person I have been working with in the non-profit world has been giving it their all over 2021. They've been navigating many of the same challenges being experienced by my commercial clients, often with significantly less money. I celebrate their creativity and resourcefulness even in the most trying of times. I'd also like to offer a big thank you to my corporate clients who make this work possible. Through direct and associate work, this year I've delivered coaching for banks, law firms, utility companies, restaurant groups, retail, private healthcare, tech companies, manufacturing and civil engineering firms (to name a few) all of whom make this good stuff possible!
One of the big changes from last year is I stepped back from my Enterprise Adviser role for Greater Manchester Combined Authority. The school I was supporting was working so hard on opening and closing, being covid compliant and delivering remote learning that helping them to link up with local employers for careers was understandably low on their priority list.
With every change comes new opportunity and I decided to switch my time working for one school, to working with many schools and as such, joined the board of Victorious Academies Trust. This Multi-Academy Trust looks after seven academies, has about 400 staff and at the time of writing this 2,392 students across primary and secondary education. I joined the board in July and by December was elected to be Vice Chair. (It was uncontested, so it's not that impressive!)
In 2021, I also joined the board of The Apprentice Academy which provides apprenticeship programmes across:
Leadership and Management
Accountancy and Finance
Business Administration
Procurement & Supply Chain Management
Housing and Property Management
I think I've therefore managed to cover off all parts of the UK education system in my volunteering: primary, secondary, technical and higher education!
Each and every moment of my coaching and pro-bono support over this last year has been a joy. There's definitely been more opportunities than I've had time available and I hope that 2022 will present me with many more opportunities to help make the world just a little bit better through the power of coaching and board membership. Here's to 2022!
As ever, thanks for stopping by and reading!
