Working Well Works! From Thriving Individuals towards Systemic Solutions

“Working Well changed how I approach work, interact with colleagues and think about my career. It’s helped me build self-confidence and support networks, and reflect deeply on priorities, work culture and self care. I feel much more engaged in and excited about what I’m doing and empowered to really make a difference!” –2021 participant

Working Well, our brand-new career-development programme, just graduated its first cohort with flying colours! The series brings young people and their organisations together into more meaningful relationships, with the aim of growing thriving individuals, community participation and systemic change.

Working Well builds on our Young Trustees Programme and our former graduate training programme, Worthwhile, the series targets 3 clear needs that we feel & see:

• Early-Career Development: Young people are hungry to create impact, but are struggling to access learning to help them know how
• High Quality Training: Many small social orgs find it tricky to provide high-quality on-boarding & training — there is no economy of scale and short-term impact can be hard to measure
• Creating Connections: Cross-org peer networks are hard to form from siloed, busy organisations, but essential for support, knowledge sharing and seeding collaboration

So, after 3 months, 6 peers, 6 workshops & 6 peer-coaching sessions, we take a moment to reflect and update. Hosting our second cohort, and opening applications for Autumn, we ask

• Did we create impact?
• What did we learn?
• What will we change?
• What was great?!

Thriving Individuals: Working Well works!

Measuring impact before and after the training, we’ve been delighted to hear positive quantitative and qualitative feedback. Participants reported increased wellbeing, agency and collaboration skills, and rated the quality of our facilitation and learning quality 8.5/10.

In terms of qualitative feedback, what was striking?

• Reflection room: Participants reported that having space to reflect each week was something they had really valued. Usually squeezed out by every day busy-work , this space allowed them time to sense what was going well, what changes could make work go even better, and gave them time to discover how to implement them.
• Peers are Powerful: Every other week, participants met with a buddy from the course to try peer-coaching, to support each other in exploring and applying what they’d learned in the workshops, and work through any challenges they were facing. Participants found the peer element really valuable (something we’ll measure in the next cohort!) — learning that their struggles were shared, and figuring how to navigate them well.
• Quality Connection: We were surprised how quickly participants found the quality of their working relationships increased, with space and stimulus to have more honest conversations around work with peers yielding more honesty and closeness within our team.

Community Participation: Opportunities for Collaboration

Our most exciting outcome might be that our cross-organisation cohort are taking their group forwards, independently meeting monthly to continue to support each other to reflect & grow. We’re excited to check in with them in 3 months, to learn how we can better nourish these cross-organisation links, and encourage and support collaboration opportunities across the sector.

Strikingly, 85% of participants reported increased ability to collaborate. Inspired by this, we’ll consider piloting a participatory community project into Working Well as a test-bed for newly-discovered skills. We’ve seen the success of getting stuck in as part of programmes like Green Labs and Social Action Labs, so having a go at something community based within a new and diverse team, and supported by Oxford Hub could be a great taste of having a go and making good stuff happen!

Systemic Change: An opportunity for impact!

Working Well was developed to be more inclusive than Worthwhile, our former graduate programme. We think that there’s huge untapped potential in bringing young people together from all backgrounds and giving them a chance to support each other and share complimentary skills — finding that everyone has something unique and important to bring to each group.

We’re curious if there is an systemic opportunity for us here — to support our community partners, and the wider Oxford and social impact community, in onboarding, embedding, and developing young people. We know signing up to training can feel like a gamble — one participant said they had no idea what they were signing up for. But feedback from our initial cohort gives us such confidence to share this with the world, as a valuable and worthy investment of time. We’d love to talk to you, to understand how Working Well might help you increase your impact!

What next?

We’ve opened another cohort for Autumn 2021, with an updated curriculum. It’s already almost full! So, if you, or some of your team, are at an early stage in your career, want to make an impact, & feel excited to meet like-minded peers in your sector, apply now, or email questions to stephanie@oxfordhub.org

Specifics:

• When? 1st & 3rd Tuesdays, 10–12, starting September 21st
• Who? Early career peers in socially-oriented orgs, keen to develop skills and be part of a collaborative cross-org peer cohort
• Cost? 6 workshops and 6 peer reflection sessions, £500. If the cost is a barrier, let us know!
• Spaces are limited. Five spaces left in this cohort

Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash