While giving his considered ‘Goodbye’ speech for our departing Director of Learning, Grants & Partnerships, our Chief Executive, Ed Ikin shared some pertinent points about grant-giving with the assembled colleagues:
A grant is not just a transfer of money. It’s a bond of trust, a statement of belief and a commitment to growth and improvement.
While everyone in the room nodded in agreement, the point was best proved two weeks later via an email from a school – one of our many grant beneficiaries, whose candid words of thanks perfectly illustrated Ed’s convictions.
The school in question is Nidderdale High School in North Yorkshire. Their ‘Nidd Green Hat Gardeners’ had been hard at work since receiving our £1,000 Outdoor Essentials Grant earlier this year, implementing Stage 1 of their school grounds improvement project.
As with all things to do with nature and gardening, the project was still a work in progress when the school contacted us – as shared images of freshly-dug bare earth awaiting new growth showed. However, another type of growth was very evident – the growth in confidence, resilience, and enthusiasm among the students who had proudly donned their Green Hat Gardening uniforms and worked together as a team to get the work done.
As the school told us,
…children who struggle to engage with school have embraced this project, seen that it’s a real job, loved being given true responsibility and taken pride in enhancing their school grounds.
The teacher continues,
…even the discovery that the grass banking being dug into was mostly made of rubble and stones didn’t dampen the enthusiasm! The initial and hardest stage is now complete, thanks to a very fine team effort.
We also learned that the day before completing this work, most of the gardener-students had completed the 24-mile Yorkshire Three Peaks hike. True Yorkshire grit!
We’re delighted that our funding helped to enable this project, with students taking great pride in doing the work to a high standard, and enjoying the process so much, all have asked to be employed by Green Hat Gardening again. With flower planting planned for the next term, there will be plenty of opportunities.
Their story bears witness to our convictions about grant-making. The Outdoor Essentials Grant was given to the school because we trusted their belief in the proposed project and their commitment to overseeing the growth that it would bring – on the ground, as well as in the lives of the students, with impacts reaching the local community.
With a desire to embed these convictions deeper into our organisation, the Trust has recently joined an impressive community of grant-makers who are part of IVAR (Institute for Voluntary Action Research) which promotes transparent, flexible funding to deliver better outcomes and greater impact for communities. We’re excited to see how we can contribute to and learn from this community in the coming months.
Find out more about IVAR, and about our Grants here:
IVAR
Grants at the Ernest Cook Trust
The last word goes to Nidderdale High School,
Many thanks for your support – we couldn’t have done this without it and it’s already brought a lot of positivity to both the school and the community who pass through our grounds on the way to the leisure centre.
