HERO: Education for Blackpool

WHY WE WERE ASKED TO WORK WITH HERO

HERO is a project funded by Blackpool Council to deliver Enterprise Education across Blackpool. It is tasked with providing young people access to skills and knowledge they would otherwise have never received. The HERO team inspire many a young person into a career in business/ entrepreneurship. Its work has been incredibly well received by young people, Blackpool schools and parents alike.
The team have known for approximately 18 months that their LEGI funding (Local Enterprise Growth Initiative) was due to end in March 2011 and that they would lose their entire
£300,000 a year funding for activities. This meant an end to Enterprise Education as Blackpool knew it. Throughout the last financial year the project has seen "in-year" cuts to its funding become the norm.
If the team wanted to continue, it had to find a sustainable and scalable solution that didn't require public sector funding and fast!

WHAT WE DID

The HERO team completed Step One on the Talent Dynamics Pathway- a one-day programme called Understanding Primary Purpose.
On this programme, individuals in the team received their personal Talent Dynamics Profile Reports and began to understand the best way to create value within their team and how to leverage that value with each other. They started to have some real 'aha' moments about why the ideas they previously had were not coming to fruition in the way they had set out in the new HERO vision.
They experienced a unique process of creating flow using the Talent Dynamics model and learnt how to immediately apply that to the ideas created that day. The programme created situations that allowed participants - both as individuals and as a team - to experience for the first time together, flow, in a very empowering way.

WHOM WE WORKED WITH IN THE ENTERPRISE

The HERO leadership team and Schools' HERO enterprise faciIitators.

PROGRAMME TIMINGS

One day programme.

HOW THE PROGRAMME HAS IMPACTED

The change in the mindset within the team was dramatic and instantaneous. Team members were open to change, much more flexible in their approach, more committed and most importantly, were having more fun!
HERO has now become a Community Interest Company. It will no longer be funded by the Government from March 2011 but be funded through its commercial activities.
Forward orders have already been placed for programmes by schools that will be run by this 'new company' in Blackpool and it is estimated that a revenue of £50,000 will be achieved as a minimum in the next 12 months.
As a community interest company, it can now apply for funding streams that were not 't open to it previously. This is likely to generate a further £30,000
It is likely that the service provided to Blackpool will be leveraged next year across the whole of the UK as part of an ambitious expansion plan.
The team remains the same as before with imminent plans to be no longer employed by the public sector, but set up as a Community Interest Company The wealth of experience, credibility and the strength of relationships mean service can continue at the usual high standard.
Productivity has increased because each person is working to roles and accountabilities that keep the team in flow.
They are all particularly excited that the work they have invested their time and passion in was recognised, when the team was awarded a Prime Ministers Big Society Award (one of only a handful presented across the country!).