by Cathryn Pender, Grants Director
When I think of it, I can’t quite believe I’ve been 30 years in one place, but honestly, it feels like five minutes; there has been so much to do! To keep having to do. So much to get done that it really is a life’s work, as it turns out.
Back in 1991/92 when the Charity was established in its current form, everyone was crying out for funds, there simply was not enough of anything, of everything. It was hard. But look where we are now. Now is hard. Now is really hard. Now is really very hard indeed. Now is the rainy day that has so oft been spoken of by the voluntary sector and the Trust and Foundation world in which John Lyon’s Charity inhabits just one tiny bit.
But John Lyon’s Charity doesn’t really inhabit just one tiny bit, does it? The seemingly ‘tiny bit’ that is the Charity’s Beneficial Area is nine North and West London boroughs, which are home to c£2.5m people, c700,000 of whom are under the age of 25. And that is a lot of future promise to keep an eye out for, a lot of horizons to make broad. It has focused us to ensure that we are doing what we should be doing, to make the difference. To bring hope, aspiration, opportunity, stability and security to children and young people. And fun. In my three decades at John Lyon’s Charity I can see that so often it is fun that makes a huge difference and we would be wise not to forget it. We are all children at heart, or at least we should be.
Given the nature of our Beneficial Area, our ‘Patch’ as we like to call it, being not so large as to make it unfeasible, we saw from the early days the value in pounding the pavements and meeting our applicants face to face. In my time, I have indeed travelled to the ends of various tube lines (and everywhere in-between) to meet applicant organisations, see their work in action and to inspect those toilets that they said needed to be repaired (a request that was frequently at least 10 years overdue!) You don’t spend 30 years visiting charities without having a fair few ‘memorable’ experiences… from the slide that crashed into a wall, to getting into the wrong car at a station, to attempting to avoid holding all kinds of animals from rats to slow worms. In those early days, out I would trot armed with my trusty A-Z, which became particularly worn and dog-eared on the relevant pages in West London; soon this A-Z became a print out from the Streetmap website of the one specific area to which I was headed; and now, we have the whole world in the palm of our hands thanks to our phones – and I suppose it is a version of this that we are seeking to achieve for our beneficiaries, the opportunity to do anything, go anywhere, be anyone, with no limits.
These visits afforded us a lot; they provided us with a window into the inner-workings of an organisation; how papers are filed and how tidy an office is can say a lot about how an organisation approaches its budgets; and it is surprising what someone will tell you face to face – often without meaning to – that helps you really understand properly where that organisation is at. There was also the time that the tax man knocked on the door of a charity I was visiting, but the less said about that, the better! We used to regularly hear that we were the only funder that had ever visited, something that is heard much less frequently today I am pleased to say. I firmly believe that it is this approach, getting to know our beneficiaries, listening to what they need and being able to respond to them is what has helped us gain our reputation for being a supportive and responsive funder, one that is as invested in the health and vibrancy of their local communities as they themselves are.
Over the past thirty years I have seen many changes in the way we make our grants, not least trying to stay on top of the latest advances in technology in order to best serve our grantees. The way we physically pay grant monies is one of the most telling; people are always surprised when I tell them how often organisations didn’t cash their grant cheques, with one admitting to accidentally feeding it into the shredder! Thankfully, with the advent of online payments this is a thing of the past!
But for all the change that has happened and all the good projects and programmes that have been delivered, so much has not changed; children and young people and their families across our Patch still face huge challenges. Still, the voluntary sector does so much vital and important work, but continues to operate within uncertain and unstable circumstances: dependence on contracts; dependence on funders; dependence on (so much) good will. It still spends huge amounts of time and resource trying not to be so dependent and spend more time doing the vital work it has set out to do; and if that hasn’t given, and doesn’t still give, John Lyon’s Charity purpose, I don’t know what else would.
If I have learnt nothing more in 30 years, it is that sheer will and labour really does make the difference. Our Beneficial Area is literally stuffed with so much that makes the difference; so many organisations, and their people, that quite literally can have a life-changing impact on young lives, if they are afforded the opportunity to take part, engage and experience them. I am often asked if I have any ‘favourite’ projects or ones that I feel most proud over the years. The easy answer is ‘no’ but it is gratifying to see that a number of organisations that I worked with in those early days remain with the Charity and we are still funding them today. Brent Centre for Young People is one such example, who we first awarded a grant in 1994. Brent Centre’s mission is to enable children and young people throughout Brent, irrespective of circumstance, to access high quality, world class psychotherapeutic support. Back in the 1990s young people’s mental health and wellbeing was certainly not a cause that attracted much funding, nor did it have the profile that it does today. I like to hope that the Charity’s support of organisations like Brent Centre for the past three decades has played a small part in raising the profile of mental health support for young people and the importance of supporting these community-based organisations that exist to support young people in a way that supports their individual needs in a way that NHS services could not hope to achieve.
Sometimes, a project presents itself that you just know has so much untapped potential but just needs the right kind of intervention to help it to grow, develop and ultimately benefit more children and young people as a result. The work that we have done with the Primary Shakespeare Company, helping them to grow from a school-based project operating in a handful of schools in Camden to becoming an independent charity, working in 70 schools each year across the Charity’s Beneficial Area and beyond, has been particularly fulfilling.
And as a self-confessed lover of all things horse-related, being able to support organisations such as Wormwood Scrubs Pony Centre to fulfil their brief and enable young people with disabilities to experience the joy of riding and interacting with horses has been such a thrill. The Pony Centre is also a brilliant example of where our funding has contributed crucially and vitally to helping maintain their core costs, keeping the lights on and providing hay for the horses They have become a stalwart of the Charity’s grants portfolio, an essential service for young people in West London.
For all the frustrations, disappointments and sadness that everyone is living with, I have heard and seen every single day the wonderful and very important things that have happened to young people because of the work of the organisations that the Charity funds, from learning Shakespeare, to going to the beach for the first time, to riding a horse… I have heard and seen the difference that believing in an organisation and allowing it to do its work with some financial security (albeit temporary) can make. I have been rewarded every single day with insights into the impact of our grants, of the real difference that the Charity’s money has made. Of the freedom it has afforded organisations to get on and do what they do best, making the difference to the children and young people in nine North West London boroughs, and often far beyond.
Whilst it is sobering that it has been necessary to support some organisations for so long to tackle the challenges that so many children and young people face, the value of these long term relationships has brought advantages – the learning for John Lyon’s Charity has been immeasurable. 30 years to hone our craft, to try to become an understanding, knowledgeable and reliable stakeholder in the Beneficial Area with relational funding at our heart. Taking the responsibility of being a truly place-based funder seriously and striving to get good at it. Still striving to get good at it. So much still to achieve. To get right. To get better at. But, I am so grateful to all the organisations who have helped us on our journey to where we are now. Who help us in our mission every day. Who have helped us learn, and see, and empathise.
But most of all, I am grateful to all the young people who have so often shared with us their experiences, disappointments and their struggles, but so much more frequently their successes. It is they who are the very reason that we strive to do our best to find new solutions to these persistent challenges, who have helped us to try to remain faithful to being an asset in their communities and contribute support and access and not be a further hindrance in their ambitions.
Actually, when I think of it, I can believe I have stayed in one place for three decades. And it does feel like five minutes.