Chairperson & CEO
Deborah Griffin, Chair of Trustees Bursar of Homerton College, Cambridge
It has once again been a challenging year for everyone at SOHK from our delivery team through to the Trustees. The children and adults that we work with have increasingly difficult backgrounds and complex needs which our team endeavour to help our participants overcome so that they can enjoy a better life. There are also more requests for us to work in new areas which unfortunately without funding we are unable to – these are the challenges that keep our staff and trustees awake at night.
Our work is increasingly recognised by the schools we work with and our funders as having real benefit for our participants and measuring performance and getting results is a key ethos of the SOHK team. We are now delivering support to over 700 of the most vulnerable children every day throughout the year. Built around the values and ethos of the game of rugby we know from our own personal experiences the benefits that teamwork, discipline and respect make to us and our friends and families.
Ken Cowen CEO
I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry is a sentiment experienced regularly by everyone who works at the front-line of delivery in School of Hard Knocks. Easily the best part of my job is getting out to visit our schools and adults programmes in different parts of the country and seeing first-hand how the people we work for can be sources of such great inspiration and side-splitting laughter. At the same time, however, there are the stories of poverty, of domestic abuse, of child abuse, of battles with drugs and alcohol, of barely addressed and frequently undiagnosed mental illness that continually challenge our capacity and resource as an organisation.
Much has been made in the last 18 months about record numbers of people in work and falling unemployment, but the truth remains that economic insecurity is now a way of life for millions of people in this country whether they are in work or not. Our adult courses have become noticeably more populated by people who are far from work ready, for a variety of reasons. Many face multiple barriers between where they are now and where they would like to be. Just last week, for instance, I met a young man who couldn’t provide an address, because he has been sleeping rough in a local park for the last six months… and yet he is coming to SOHK every week.
Over the course of nine years of SOHK documentaries on Sky Sports, the perception of the charity is that we use rugby as a tool to help people into work. I think that this perception needs to be shifted somewhat because for so many, getting a job is simply not their greatest immediate need. Our increasingly holistic curriculum is evolving to meet varied needs and provide all-round care. We are adding new workshops to help with nutrition, physical fitness, mental well-being, homelessness, and addiction; and our investment in expert staff, from a range of relevant fields, has never been higher.
As for our schools' work, we are now working with 700 children at risk of exclusion, building strong bonds with the same children every single week. Our rugby coaches work hand-in-hand with our behavioural coaches, to help them stay engaged with school and hopefully leave education with some qualifications – but, again, the needs of these children run far deeper than to get a few GCSEs. Many are incredibly vulnerable with complex needs and, often, our own staff emerge as some of the few adults in their lives that they fully trust.
I could not be more proud of the whole team who work tirelessly to make School of Hard Knocks ‘the change your life’ course. Like any charity, however, our success is not just down to the dedication of the staff, but the ever-growing army of supporters, Ambassadors and trustees – all working together to ensure a sustainable future.