The Fellowship's North West Momentum
Liverpool's Royal Liver Building
The Manchester Charities Evening of November 2008 has been followed up very effectively in the North West, in particular by the tremendous initiatives of Rank Fellow Lee Evans.
Lee has been offering free accountancy advice to the charities in the North West which are associated with the Rank Foundation and he has worked with Grant Thornton to set up a finance seminar for those charities in Grant Thornton's offices in the iconic Liver Building in Liverpool.
Lee joined us at the London Charities Evening at the Inner Temple and his discussions with the London Youth Support Trust there has led to the working project of the Merseyside Youth Support Trust which seeks to replicate that very successful model on Merseyside. We are very grateful to Lee: watch this space!
Rank Fellow Neil Handley has followed up November's Charities Evening with productive contact with one of the charities there, Changing Faces, led by chief executive James Partridge. Neil's absorbing account of his own perceptions of Rank Foundation support and his particular affinity with Changing Faces can be found here
James Partridge's visit to the British Optical Association Museum was the initial outcome of the meeting in the Inner Temple Hall. Our photograph is of Neil showing James the historic collection of artificial eyes at the Museum. Neil has been curator of the British Optical Museum since 1998 and he is currently busy writing a book on "Cult Eyewear". Changing Facesis a dynamic UK charity that supports and represents people who have disfigurements of the face or body from any cause.
The Rank Fellowship is an unusual alumni organisation in that Fellows have attended a wide range of different schools (more than seventy, in fact). As part of our wish to improve what we do all the time, we felt it would be mutually beneficial to meet with other similar trusts which support young people through a large number of different schools and university.
A meeting chaired by Jason Chaffer brought together alumni directors of the Fellowship, the Ogden Trust and the Frank Buttle Trust. We found that we had a great deal in common and future meetings are planned. Following the links above will uncover more about the admirable work done by these two other trusts.
“Your job gives you authority. Your behaviour gives you respect.” Irwin Federman