How do you align values of integrity, versatility, openness and resilience with curiosity, courage, passion, agility and care? By partnering The Red Thread Partnership and Ringway!
But who are Red Thread and who are Ringway? Well, Ringway are local partners, developing sustainable highways and transportation solutions that strengthen local communities and are pivotal in keeping the city of Milton Keynes moving. The Red Thread Partnership is an award-winning leadership and change business that runs a year-long not-for-profit leadership programme that develops compassionate leaders and builds more caring and inclusive communities called The Red Thread Fellowship. Both businesses have a strong commitment to supporting the local community, local community projects and the voluntary sector, so the partnership is a perfect fit.
The Red Thread Fellowship offers leaders and mangers in Milton Keynes a unique year-long leadership development experience structured around volunteering with a local charity. Fellows connect with and implement projects in collaboration with charities, forging long-lasting, supportive relationships. Through a series of seven action learning workshops, they reflect on that relationship and use the experience to develop their leadership, to benefit not only their business, but also their community and the charity they are supporting.
This process strongly aligns with Ringway’s principles of serving the communities they work in and investing in people and partnerships. As a result, two of Ringway’s new managers are Fellows on the sixth Milton Keynes cohort, along with a representative from
Milton Keynes Council.
On May 23, we had the graduation ceremony for the fifth Milton Keynes Fellowship cohort, held at the beautiful Parks Trust headquarters in Campbell Park. We also invited the charities with which the Fellows had worked over the course of the previous year, along with the Fellows making up the sixth cohort and the charities hoping to be working with them.
This made it the ideal opportunity to launch the sixth cohort and announce Ringway’s sponsorship – an exciting partnership that will strengthen community leadership in Milton Keynes as well as in the city’s third sector.
A deeply immersive and personal experience, the Fellowship supports participants by developing leaders and managers who:
- Lead with integrity
- Are agile, versatile and proactive
- Are open, curious and innovative, and have the courage to stand for positive change
- Know how to create cultures that allow themselves and others to flourish – within their organisations and their communities
- Are passionate about stepping up to their role as a leader, in their work and the communities they live in.
In July, our new Fellows joined us for the two-day launch workshop at Hazard Alley Safety Centre, who made the space available to us for free. Eleven local leaders and business owners came together to get to know each other, start the process of developing deep trust amongst themselves and to choose the charities that they will be working with this year and gain the charities’ agreement. We are delighted to announce our Fellows will be supporting MK SNAP, Autism Early Support, Harry’s Rainbow, St Mark’s Meals and YMCA Milton Keynes, for the next year.
Why the Red Thread Fellowship? Well, it was launched in 2016 as a separate not-for-profit business in response to the terrorist atrocities that happened in Paris the previous year. My fellow founder Adrian Spurrell and I passionately wanted to develop compassionate leaders who lead organisations, who care about the communities in which they work and want those communities to be truly inclusive and caring.
The programme delivers significant benefits to both employers and employees by developing leaders who: build high performing teams; enhance employee engagement; attract retain and grow talent; develop next generation leaders; and raise their organisation’s brand and profile in the community. Leaders who are more confident, have a deeper understanding of themselves and their roles, and have a range of tools, techniques and coaching skills to drive creativity, communication and collaboration.
But don’t just take our word, this is what our Fellows say:
“Really good to be encouraged out of my comfort zone.”
“Benefited from time to reflect on the gaps in my own leadership practise.”
“Ring fenced time out of the day job/family to focus on me and my growth.”
“The unique combination of theoretical, practical, application through the volunteering can’t be found anywhere else.”
“I found the old me, no – I found a new me!”
“The fellowship programme helped me realise I can deal with anything”
“Do it in a heartbeat – I can’t say any more than that!”
In the past seven years Fellows have raised over £57,000 and supported 34 charities. The fifth cohort in Milton Keynes raised a whopping £4,444 for MK charities Al’s Pals, Transitions UK, Hazard Alley, Autism Early Support, MK Bus Shelter and Sparkles through activities such as walking up Snowden, marathon running, quizzes, raffles, walking and fun mudders.
It is challenging, fun, eye-opening, mindset altering and very rewarding. Without the kindness and support of our sponsors the Fellowship would not exist. Ringway and Hazard Alley are a three-way collaboration, Freeths provide support for printed materials and People Inside offer the 360 review materials and we are eternally grateful for their ongoing support.
If you would like any information about our next cohort, or becoming a sponsor, being a charity supported by the programme or just have a question, contact admin@the-redthread.co.uk
