A society in which everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed
To empower people to fully realise their potential
The SOHK psychology is the key to our success and is what makes us special. Understanding how we change behaviour is key for us in continuing to do it effectively.
We aim to create internal change to enable positive external behaviours. Using sport as a vehicle for this works brilliantly because you can identify issues within a sporting context first; before exploring these issues on a personal level.
Empowering people to fully realise their potential through an eight-week programme. We deliver sport (rugby & boxing) and classroom sessions focussing on The Person, The Mind and The Career in order to change lives!
SOHK for Schools is a unique three-year intervention that uses rugby coaching, classroom sessions and mentoring to improve attendance and behaviour at school. Our ultimate aim is to help at-risk children to avoid permanent exclusion.
Anyone who has played rugby, or indeed any team sport understands the invaluable benefits – having shared goals, looking after each other, feeling part of something that is greater than just yourself. At SOHK, one of the five principles of our psychology is that thoughts, feelings and behaviours are all interlinked, so if an individual’s behaviour changes then their thoughts and feelings will also be impacted. In his early work with adults, SOHK’s CEO and founder Ken Cowen, discovered that pushing people to change their outward behaviour through rugby drills that presented a controlled challenge, subtly changed the way participants thought and felt about their lives. Time and time again, our participants feedback to us that they wouldn’t have engaged with our workshops as well without the exercise element – but why?
Many people are aware of the effect that exercise has on the release of endorphins, but what might be less well-known is that physical exercise facilitates neuroplasticity of certain brain structures meaning that the brain can more readily accept new ideas and different ways of thinking. After conducting research, we specifically developed our programmes so that our morning sessions get participants moving, motivated and energised through physical exercise so that they start the day with positive behaviour. This, in turn, readies them for our afternoon sessions which encourage a growth mindset and constructive thinking and makes it easier to engage with the workshops.
The start of September 2019 saw our us double our Schools Programme delivery, to cover well over 500 pupils from eight schools, across London, Surrey and Hertfordshire. It was a testament to the strength of the model and our existing staff that we were able to take on several new staff and continue to deliver an intervention that we are all truly proud of. The most positive news from Schools Programme delivery post-Covid is that all of the schools want us back and delivering again. We are hopeful that we will continue to see positive delivery and growth go hand-in-hand. Adult Course delivery saw? the start of our first ever long-term grant funding, securing six courses over three years with the Quilter Foundation. This was such a huge win for us as one of the biggest challenges we’ve faced is having to move across various delivery sites all over London. Covid has presented us with an unexpected opportunity: to develop an online offering for the first time ever. We are hopeful this will commissioned and funded very soon and be part of something we offer in the future.
2018-2019 saw the launch of the SOHK Creating Futures, schools programme, in Scotland. The team hit the ground running, working with 110 pupils from 4 schools in Fife, central Scotland. Part-funded by the Scottish Children's Lottery, who have already agreed to support the programme again in the new academic year.
The programme was a huge success, overall 70% of pupils showed an improvement in behaviour with 61% showed an improvement in their attendance. We worked with 40 females and 70 males with 70 pupils being in S2 and 40 being in S3. Pupils attended 83% of SOHK sessions.
The schools programme is increasing its reach in the new academic year with 2 new schools and 50 more pupils. This includes bringing the programme to Springburn in Glasgow. Our adult courses reached 61 people across 4 courses; 3 for men and 1 for women. Across the courses, on average, 40% of adults found employment as a result of taking part, 15% began further training/education and 10% began volunteering. This means an average of 65% have moved on to a positive destination. 2020 will be an exciting year for the Scotland team. Funding has been received from a number of sources to deliver our flagship employability courses, as well as piloting a new 'wellbeing' course including cooking classes and yoga.
This year has been unlike any other. We got off to a flying start with our Adult Courses in Canton and Central Cardiff and had 41 men turn up on day one of our Barry course. Our four schools (with around 50 participants in each) were achieving some incredible outcomes with some outstanding displays of SOHK values on and off the field. Our Schools Programme team had also managed to sign up three new schools ready for a September start.
Then Covid-19 struck, and we initially found ourselves in chaos. It was incredibly difficult for the team to shut down delivery mid-term and mid Adult Course, and we had real concerns about the impact of this on our participants. Unfortunately maintaining one to one communications with our schools participants was initially difficult but our Adult Course Facilitator Shaunni did a brilliant job in maintaining regular check ins with our adults.
What we can say is that although this has been a testing time for everyone at SOHK Wales, there has been some incredible work done during this pandemic by a group of staff that have - in true rugby style - continued to fight even with their backs up against the wall. Our Schools Facilitators Hannah and Elinor produced the first of two wellbeing packs in just under a week which was not only circulated amongst SOHK schools but was picked up by other schools throughout the UK as well as by Laureus and Comic Relief. Data was also collected by the wider Welsh Schools’ team during the last three weeks of the summer term. That data from our schools’ participants helped inform not only our re-entry in September but the approach other organisations have taken in approach to their youth work.
Finally, our new Back in the Game online course has led to our first programme with the WRU. This will see us deliver the online course to up to 100 members of the rugby family who have lost work during the pandemic. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that when we get knocked down, we dust ourselves off, get back up and keep on going.
# OF MALE PUPILS
166
119
154
439
#OF FEMALE PUPILS
65
21
54
140
MENTAL WELLBEING
40%
75%
43%
-
#OF MEN
38
41
66
145
# OF WOMEN
5
10
15
30
% ENTERED FULL OR PART TIME EMPLOYMENT OR EDUCATION
33%
76%
63%
100% of groups improved
53% average improvement
73% average improvement
SOHK achieved the key performance indicator of a 5% increase in revenue at the end of March 2020. This growth is largely due to our success of securing multi-year grant funding that provided stable income and allowed us to focus fundraising on individual giving and fundraising events.
As detailed in our fundraising strategy in 2019, we focused on our Friends of SOHK campaign and individual donors which allowed us to increase our individual giving by 72% from the prior financial year.
As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, we experienced a loss of income due to school closures. However, we have established key performance indicators for the current financial year to continue to grow our presence in the three regions by providing online courses and adapted delivery geared towards the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
£735,736
£1,140,047
£390,963
£175,343
£180,314
£1,307,013
£1,315,390