A recruitment programme for young people on arts and heritage Boards

A year-long initiative running from February 2020 – February 2021

Supported by the William Grant Foundation

IMPACT SUMMARY

Our year-long programme, supported by the William Grant Foundation, aimed to recruit young people (aged 18-30) from a range of sectors and in the early stages of their careers, and prepare them to join arts and heritage charity boards.

From 100 applicants, 18 individuals were selected to take part. As a group, they undertook an intensive training programme over a number of weeks on the roles and responsibilities of Board trustees, including an introduction to the charitable sector; the general duties of charity trustees; the differing roles and responsibilities of trustees and staff; effective meetings and decision making; understanding charity finance; and the difference that a board member can make.

Interested culture organisations, who recognised the need to change the dynamics of their current Boards, applied to take part in the matching process. As well as stating their ambitions to address equality, inclusion and diversity within their organisations, and the need to have a representative voice of the stakeholders, beneficiaries, target audiences and users that their organisations service and support, the selected organisations underwent a governance health-check to ascertain that they had the systems, processes and infrastructure in place to embrace the rationale and need for diversification.

At the conclusion of the training programme the young people were then matched where possible with culture sector organisations; 15 of the 18 were matched by the end of the programme.