I'll Always Be a Multiplier – This Is Just The Beginning

By Emma Pears

In 2023 I was one of a cohort of 15 people chosen from over 100 applicants to take part in The Multiplier: a relational programme with The Cares Family. It was supposed to take me on a journey to increase my confidence and capability in building more socially connected communities, but ended up making far more of an impression on me than I ever imagined.

I knew that from the start this wouldn’t be like any leadership programme I’d been on before. During my seven months on The Multiplier I had my eyes opened to a different way of leading; one that sees diversity as a strength and where I started to believe that I could be a changemaker beyond my own back yard.

I was introduced to leaders in the social sector that I’d never have met in my everyday life – people like Evie Muir who led a session at our residential on ‘unlearning leadership’ which was one of the most impactful things I experienced on the programme. To be able to develop my own ‘unlearning principles’ around rejecting a culture of urgency and embracing an abundance mindset made me think, ‘what more can I do?’.

Towards the end of our programme we heard the sad news that The Cares Family would cease to operate due to difficulty fundraising and that our programme was ending prematurely, so we did what community leaders do best and took matters into our own hands: we created our own closure by setting up our own meetings. We checked-in with each other, laughed, cried, and held the space for each other.

In the months that followed I reached out to many of the alumni on my cohort, and have remained particularly close to my ‘buddy’ Ola Fagbohun who has provided me with sage advice over the last year and encouraged me to keep doing great things.

It was following one of our catch-ups that I decided to apply for The Rank Memorial Award; an award from The Rank Foundation that provides an opportunity for travel and learning to explore a specific area of interest.

As part of that process I reached out to Alex Smith, the Founder of The Cares Family and now Senior Development Advisor for the Obama Foundation. I felt like the loss of Cares (along with so many other organisations and charities that have disappeared from our infrastructure over the last few years) has left a massive gap in support that is available for leaders like me, many of whom are running small charities and community groups. I also reached out to Liz Weaver from the Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement.

Both Liz and Alex offered to be committed contributors to my application, so I’ll be spending a month next summer travelling to Canada and New York visiting projects to learn more about leadership in the social sector, as well as the power and potential of communities to positively impact on complex issues.

The award will give me a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore different initiatives and see how local changemakers turn ideas to support their community into reality and hopefully serve to inspire, educate and promote the interests, values and ethos of the Rank Foundation, as well as reignite my passion for Youth Leadership and supporting inspiring leaders at SELFA Children’s Charity.

I want to learn more from the social leaders that the Tamarack Institute and the Obama Foundation support, as well as the power and potential of communities to positively impact on the complex issues our society is facing. You only need to look at the recent riots in UK towns and cities to see that the people rebuilding communities after those events were community groups and charities. I want to travel to find out more about place-based community change efforts, which bring together individuals with unique perspectives and resources. I’d like to see first-hand how this impact is achieved through individuals acting both alone and together to shift systems.

I have become aware through conversations whilst preparing my application for the Rank Memorial Award that there is a massive appetite from leaders like me within UK communities to collaborate to bring about change for the communities we serve, and people who want to co-design and co-deliver this reimagined leadership training for our sector.

I want to be part of something that brings together diverse changemakers to learn from each other and make a difference to those who are overlooked by traditional routes to leadership and support them to drive systemic change.

I also want to research some of the best programmes for social leaders, with the ultimate aim of identifying what works for marginalised groups and be part of a movement to develop programmes to widen access to what’s already in existence.

I will always be a Cares Family Multiplier, and I’m immensely proud of that. I was only a very small piece of the wonderful work that The Cares Family achieved in more than a decade, but I am so grateful for all that I have learnt from the amazing humans I met on my Multiplier journey. I will keep pushing for change, disrupting systems, being the voice of hope in the darkness and using my lived experience to fight for change in the community I am so deeply embedded in. This is just the beginning…