“Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree today” (Martin Luther).
2020 was a difficult year, a year full of uncertainty, suffering and endings. But it was also a year that encouraged renewal; an exceptional year that forced people and organisations across the world to rethink, relearn and re-vision, to contemplate anew not only how we could adapt to living differently, but also how we might create a different future in which to thrive.
2020 offered us two visions of the future: the potential for unpolluted skies, clear water and birdsong, or for the hurricanes and wildfires that ripped through and devastated so many natural areas. These are just two of the manifest dangers that will accelerate should we continue on our current path. The question is, what will we choose? Will we choose to rise above ourselves and change? Will we still plant the apple tree today and make sure we live – as humanity – to enjoy its fruits tomorrow?
For us all at the Impact Trust, we are committed to planting the apple trees that we can. Indeed, 2020 demonstrated just how important our small efforts to contribute to deliberate practice were. Like organisations the world over, we were forced to transform how we work. We had to unlearn and relearn, draw deeply on our own sources of resilience, agility and adaptability, in the same way we encourage so many young people to do. Some of our programme highlights are below but we invite you to consider the detail in our Report to Society for 2020 and share your thoughts on what more we could do to further our common global goals.
Routes to Resilience: New ways to reach, engage, inspire, inform and ignite
Routes to Resilience demonstrated that resilience is in its DNA; innovating and collaborating to find new ways to reach, engage, inspire, inform and ignite young people from many different background, to help them feel empowered, despite isolation, to suppot them in their efforts to design a new future within their families and communities. Pivot strategies included, unsurprisingly, WhatsApp and Zoom as well as, importantly, the creation of ‘family groups’ of students connected in ‘pods’ which allowed them meaningfully engage, care and support each other. These ‘families’ embodied the principles of Ubuntu and were inspiring for us to witness. Programme content was narrated into beautiful and engaging student workbooks that helped students have access to materials at home and to inform their Zoom seminar discussions with others.
Routes to Resilience continues to grow in both uptake of its programmes and recognition of its depth. The Sygnature Skills programme has now reached more than 1,200 young people and achieved aknowledgement of its quality through its successful CPD accreditation. Meanwhile, the Resilient Futures programme was born in 2020 and has already experienced significant impact with its first graduates working or interning at the social enterprises they were introduced to through the Routes to Resilience marketplace. We look forward to further reach being achieved in 2021 as the ‘train the trainer’ programme, already launched, enables us to support other organisations access and make use of the programme materials and content in their work.
The growth Routes to Resilience enjoyed in 2020 allowed for expansion of the team, helping us act on our commitment to developing black leadership in the field of sustainability in South Africa. We were thrilled to welcome Miselwa Mzanywa and Nwabisa Mjoli to the organisation and look forward to watching them grow into the leadership roles they have already demonstrated their potential for.
Routes to Resilience has not only “grown up” and established itself independently of the Trust, it has navigated the year with both skill and compassion. The Trust is profoundly impresed at how it has emerged stronger, more agile and yet as focused as ever on its purpose, with a deeper appreciation of its potential to coninue contributing to the resilience journey of its young people in 2021.
ALERT: giving epistemically disadvantaged children a successful, joyful education
The ALERT programme aims to establish a ‘pedagogy incubator’ that will engage teachers to collaborate within a community practice, drawing on research insights from education partners working with some of the most marginalised children and striving to help them access learning through responsive teaching. The programme was constrained by the pandemic in 2020, but the time was nevertheless used to establish sturdy foundations for future development: analysis of the curriculum and how it may need to be restructured for ALERT; research into ICT as a pedagogical resource; securing an anchor funder; and improving the library and literacy project at the flagship ALERT primary school, Silverlea.
Resilience by Design: Implementing intentional strategies to support the needs of a changing world of work
For some years now the Trust has been convinced that the world of tomorrow – a world that is already here today – demands a different consciousness, one that is evidenced in deliberate practice in service of the principles of Ubuntu, that reflects alignment with the principles of nature and the compassionate needs of an interconnected, social world. We believe that there is a significant role for the private sector to play in cascading this consciousness from the inside out. Resilience will be ‘authentic’ and robust when the context and critical determinants of systemic societal resilience are intentionally understood and supported in practice.
The pandemic has accelerated the nature and extent of changes in the world of work. It has demonstrated that there is a significant role that the private sector must play. Businesses have witnessed how important their policies and practive has been and we are excited to be exploring with them the gaps in resilience thinking and employee development programmes.
theCollab: immersive online learning and collaboration for young activists
The Impact Trust has made some progress in pivoting and managing its existing programmes to adapt to the new reality under Covid, however inadequate these have felt in replacing the warmth of ‘real’ human connection. We found ourselves wishing that online engagement would be – well, more engaging,, that they woudl allow learners to interact more freely and naturally with each other and that, importantly, there was a way in which we could provide opportunities the magic of serendipity, happenstance, change meetings in the coffee shop or around the water cooler.
And so the idea of theCollab was born.
theCollab is an immersive multi-dimensional platform that will take collaborative engagement, formal and informal learning to a new dimension. By definition, a collaboratory is intended to support the needs of a ‘metaverse’ and we hope to support activists, education providers, changemakers, knowledge seekers and advocates for change in this world without walls. theCollab is a world within which to design, convene, collaborate and campaign in learning, unlearning and relearning for the needs of tomorrow. We have to thank The VirtuLab who have made it possible for this idea to be brought to life. We are excited by the opportunities it presents.
There are some FABULOUS collaborative events happening in the Collab in April. See more here.
Conversations at the Crossroads: authentic conversations centred around perplexing problems
Originating in the shock of the first Covid-19 lockdowns, Conversation at the Crossroads seeks to engage people from all walks of life in dialogues that explore the experiences, creative ideas, innovations, practices and programmes that might provide a framework for how we create a healthier, happier future as we emerge from the ‘pandemic era’. These conversations strive to engage and reflect a diversity of views, voices and experiences in the hope that they will support, design, create, contest, challenge and regenerate a common future from stories of meaning-making. If you have an idea for a topic that we can discuss at one of our forums, please let us know by emailing info@impacttrust.org.uk.
Thanks we want to be sure to express …..
A team with unwavering passion, commitment and resilience in the DNA
The Impact Trust is extremely fortunate to be able to rely on an exceptional group of people: our team, our board, faculty, advisors, specialists, partners, schools and institutions with whom we collaborate. It has been humbling to see them respond to prevailing circumstances and we are grateful for their unwavering passion, tenacity, fortitude, agility and authentic care for the purpose and vision of our organisation. They have chosen to rise above themselves, and the impact has been breathtaking.
A donor network that has consistently engaged and supported dynamic evolution
We are most grateful to our donors, especially those who have risen to the challenges of the time and stepped up to support the financial needs for our work in support of youth at this difficult time. Their consistent appreciation of our purpose and their willingness to be consciously responsive to emerging needs has given us permission to change direction and open new avenues of activity even without concrete or fixed attachments to outcome. This openheartedness and willingness to try – even if to fail – is so deeply appreciated by all of us.
A turning point – and a wish for 2021
The pandemic has humbled humanity. It has shown us that, in fact, we are not all-powerful. But it has also given us clarity of vision. It has taught us that we must both do things differently and do different things. The opportunities are all around us, we just have to be open to seeing – and taking – them. Because it is now more than urgent. And it is essential. At the Impact Trust, we start 2021 more convinced than ever that our work plays a critical role in bridging some of the gaps that inhibit us from taking the road less travelled to joy and thriving.
If you would like to read more about what we achieved through our programmes in 2020, you can read our annual report here.