On Purpose news

Year 2 is well underway at On Purpose and so here’s some of our news.

This is the short version. Scroll down for more detail!

• Welcome our new Associates and placement hosts!
• Good luck to our first cohort of Associates who completed in December – see some of the work they have (help) deliver(ed): a social impact report, an education website, a report on social venture intermediaries
• See what’s been happening and have a peek at what’s to come in our training programme
• Read what we’ve been writing in the Guardian, what others are writing about us and check out our blog
• Scroll down to get involved in some of the work the Associates are doing

Most importantly, thank you to all of you who have contributed to making this happen. On Purpose is built on the contributions of 100s of people!

Do spread the word! If you know of an organisation who might be a future placement host or if you know a future leader who could be an Associate, please put them in touch by replying to this email.

Very best wishes,

Tom and the Associates

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New Year, new Associates, new placements
The new cohort of 11 Associates is now well-ensconced in the 2011 programme. They have a wide-ranging set of backgrounds including consulting, finance, local government, sustainability charities, business school, social enterprise and the law.

We are also proud to be working again with a hugely diverse and innovative set of purpose-driven placement hosts. They range from early stage bottom-of-the-pyramid start-ups to enterprising charities and multi-national corporates – all combining commercial ways of working with social and environmental objectives. This year’s list is: Comic Relief, HCT Group, Interface, O₂, Startle, Teaching Leaders, Terra Plana and Soul of Africa, ToughStuff, JustGiving and Youth Music.

Good luck to our Fellows
Our first On Purpose Associates who completed the programme last December, are now our first set of Fellows. Many of them are still involved with the placements they worked with during On Purpose. To give you a flavour of some of the (publicly available) work they undertook and contributed to, take a look at:

• HCT Group’s social impact report
• O₂ Learn, a new education website created from scratch during the On Purpose placements at O₂
• The Young Foundation and NESTA report on social venture intermediaries(SVIs)

Training and development
The training programme is in full swing again and we’re grateful to all those professionals who have and are contributing to it. Last year we delivered 50 training sessions with the help of more than 50 professionals from over 30 organisations.

This year a highlight will be a visit to Embercombe. If you haven't heard of Embercombe, do look at their range of exciting residential courses for individuals and organisations, which support people to know themselves as leaders, taking committed action for a socially just, spiritually fulfilling and environmentally sustainable world.

Making the news and the blog
13 articles and publications have featured On Purpose to date. (See full list here). Some of the more recent ones are:

• Tom explains on the Guardian Social Enterprise Network why “Builders and Runners” are needed in social enterprises
• The Guardian Public reviews On Purpose one year on
• On Purpose features in the Young Foundation and NESTA’s report on Social Venture Intermediaries

In addition to this our blog has taken off in a big way, so if you want to stay in more regular contact and here about what the Associates are up to and what else is going on, do ‘follow’ us here.

Get involved in what’s going on
There are several ways you can help Associates past and current in some of the work they are doing in their placement organisations. To be in touch, reply to this email.

Do something funny for Monkey!
Jordyan is working at Comic Relief to raise the profile of their intellectual property, including the much beloved Monkey that is licensed to PG Tips for their famous tea ads. Check out Monkey’s fabulous facebook page, become a fan of undying loyalty, follow his witty tweets @alistmonkey, and spread the word about one of Comic Relief’s most charming celebrity ambassador.

Help Teach some Leaders
Teaching Leaders develops outstanding senior teachers working in the most challenging schools. In just two years, the programme has raised pupils’ GSCE pass rates by 10% and is now expanding rapidly to over 100 schools. Martin, who is working with Teaching Leaders, is now looking to actively involve corporate partners in the following areas:

• Using the power of business to embed change in schools through peer mentoring between our teachers and managers, school access schemes and pupil mentoring
• In-kind support including venue space, IT systems and developing an alumni network
• Technical assistance for advertising, marketing, recruitment and leadership training

Learn a thing O₂
Harriet and Kate from the 2010 cohort are carrying on their work at O₂. The exciting education website O₂ Learn launches to parents and students in April this year. They're currently working hard to increase the number of lessons teachers upload to the video-sharing website. O₂ Learn is designed to help young people revise for their exams and ensure that everyone, no matter what their background, has access to great teaching. Spread the word to any teachers you know, as every fortnight the highest rated, most watched videos wins £4,000. The TV ad that's on air at the moment gives a good little summary that you could forward on.