In our December 2020 news we announced that we had received a grant from UnLtd Recovery Fund, supported by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport as well as Comic Relief. This was to run Level Best – a development programme for people who are racially discriminated against and/or disabled, with places reserved for people not currently in work. Via online workshops, coaching and masterclasses from people with lived experience of racial discrimination and disability, Level Best aims to boost participants’ confidence, resilience and ability to build contacts and networks leading to positive opportunities.

We had to work to a tight timetable to recruit participants onto this free programme. We were therefore delighted at the response we received, with 26 high-quality applications for 12 places.

But this also gave us a dilemma. As a social enterprise, we exist to support people who feel excluded. While we were able, after careful consideration, to identify the 12 individuals we felt would benefit most from the programme, it did not sit well with us to have to say no to the 14 others who took the time to apply and share their valuable experiences with us. Put simply, if one of your key values as an organisation is inclusion, you need to do your best to include! We felt that this was particularly important during this prolonged stressful lockdown, when the need for support is even higher than usual.

UnLtd’s grant had given us the opportunity to run our ‘dream project’ for an intersectional group, and as a result had given us contact with a wider group of individuals. So we asked ‘What can we do?’.

After reflecting and doing a few sums, we decided to make all 14 non-participants an offer of some coaching. For those not in work, we offered a set of sessions which is free to them, and which draws on our Inclusion Fund of any surplus that we create. For those with income, we offered coaching at a heavily discounted rate. We are pleased to say that several of the non-participants have already taken up this offer and are having coaching with our associates. We will report later this month on Level Best’s progress, but we are pleased that the impact of the funding and the programme has already exceeded expectations. Its success is largely down to you - all our Result CIC supporters - for helping us to communicate about our programme and more generally what we do. Thank you!

If this blog has inspired you and you have your own good idea for a project, why not talk to us about it?