THE SHANKLY FAMILY FOUNDATION - THE STORY SO FAR...... The Shankly Family Foundation – The Story So Far…..March 2014 By Christopher William Shankly Carline – Chair of the Foundation and Bill’s Grandson As a completely new charity, staffed solely by a volunteer board of six people; we felt like we wanted to share our experiences so far with the wider public, to give an insight into our first 6 months as an organisation, and to explain what we have done so far and really detail our aspiration about where we want to go. The idea to set up the Foundation was one that I myself had, probably circa Summer 2013. In that light, I suppose the first question to answer is why? We all know that Grandy was a huge socialist as well as a football man. The ethos of everything he did from when he got up in the morning to when he went to bed at night was ‘for the people.’ He just wanted to make people happy and even further, he just wanted to help people. Help people by sending them home happy after a great win for Liverpool. Help people by somehow finding them a ticket to the match. Help them by sorting travel to or from a vital game. Help people by replying to their letter or stopping to chat to them in depth in the street. Help people by having a kick around with them on a local field. His quote, The socialism I believe in is everybody working for the same goal and everybody having a share in the rewards. Thats how I see football, thats how I see life. perhaps best sums him up his ideals and was with this firmly in our heart that the idea for a charity in his name seemed so apt. Brand Shankly is so strong worldwide, and for me personally; the idea that his name; that my Nanny Nessie’s name; that the FAMILY name, should be used to build on his legacy and help people; was such a motivational factor in setting up the Foundation and a fitting tribute to him and the family. Times are hard at the moment in this country; all over the world, and in particular in Liverpool, a City, a place that he loved from the moment he arrived here. It was with this in mind and with a strong socialist belief akin to his, that we embarked on this journey. So what did we want to do? What does the Shankly Family Foundation want to deliver? This was the next question. For me personally, my ‘day job’ is in public service. I’m a local authority officer for Liverpool City Council, managing some of the most deprived areas of our great City. I’m a public servant who has a responsibility for the people who live, work, rest and play in these areas. And I love it. Part of my role has a remit to work with young people, and help commission activity for young people across the area. Within the areas we work, there are a multitude of issues, centering round deprivation, poverty, lack of education and lack of opportunities for young people. All of the above foster involvement in crime, anti-social behaviour and gun and gang crime. With this is mind, one of our targets as a charity is to work with young people, in particular in hard to reach areas, to build relationships and to help find out about the individual. What makes them tick, what are their aspirations if the opportunities were available to them? Having established that; the Foundations job is to help them achieve these goals and aspirations, whether directly delivering service to them or indirectly by working and signposting to partners through the extensive networks we have as a board of directors. The model we feel to achieve this is by a programme of engagement, building relationships and trust, tailoring provision to need and want and then when trust is established and barriers broken down; finding out the aspirations, establishing what is needed to help them achieve this aspiration, and then delivering this for them as a Foundation. No Foundation carrying the name of Bill Shankly however could operate without having sport and in particular Football at its core. In addition to therefore supporting young people, we also decided that we wanted to support Grassroots Football and sport provision generally. The Grassroots football issue is a hugely contentious one at the moment, with increasing prices for facilities, many of which may not be especially fit for purpose. There is a wide ranging debate about money from the professional game not being filtered down to the Grassroots side. Frankly speaking, it is not for the Foundation to get embroiled in the politics of these matters. What we do see however, is that we can help and play a role in the supporting of Grassroots players and teams and that we can generally look to increase quality sporting provision and opportunities across the areas that we operate within. Instantly, there is an overlap between this and the target of supporting young people, sport is a common engagement tool with young people and many young people foster dreams of sporting careers, and it was with that in mind that we settled on our agreed outputs and targets as a charity, supporting Grassroots football and sporting provision, and working with young people. Throughout this narrative so far, I have used the term ‘we’ on many occasions. I of course refer in these instances to the board of the Foundation. Having formed an idea on what we as a charity should look to deliver; the next step was to consider a board of trustees. With the charity starting from scratch, it was clear from the onset that the first couple of years at least will mean that our endeavors will need to be managed by people willing to volunteer their time and expertise. Our goal ultimately is clearly to be in a position to employ people to run the Foundation; but initially the task was to bring together a board of people who could deliver for the Foundation and who pose a specific set of individual expertise. Throughout my time with the local authority; I have collected contacts, who have gone on to be colleagues and who have then developed into what I would now class as some of the best friends I have. All bring a specific set of skills to the table and as such were cherry picked by myself to form the board of trustees. Step forward the magnificent…….six……..Adrian Devers, Christina Williams (Treasurer), Patrick Goodison (Secretary), Phil Windever, Ian Crawley and of course, me (Chair). The original and first ever board of The Shankly Family Foundation. All with a set of invaluable skills and contacts and whom to his day have been involved in everything we have done as a Foundation. So, what do we have in place by circa August 2013? We have a name for the charity, we have a set of outputs and targets and we have an extremely talented board of trustees. The next steps were three fold, to formalise it, to create a brand and infrastructure in which we could operate; and to launch. Taking the latter first; a natural opportunity was staring us in the face with regards our launch. September 2013 was to mark what would have been Grandy’s 100th birthday; September 2nd 2013 to be precise. The opportunity to launch for September was too good an opportunity to miss and work began in earnest to ensure this happened. As was to be expected, many organisations were planning on marking the 100th Birthday event, including Liverpool Football Club and Trinity Mirror amongst many, many others. The strategy was to link up with these orgainsations and to ensure that their events also became about announcing the launch of the Foundation as well as honoring the momentous occasion. I have had the honor over the past 12months or so of being mentored by globally renowned entrepreneur, speaker and author, Mike Southon. It was he who managed to get us round the table with officers from Liverpool Football Club to discuss a dual event in September that would do just this. Conversations took place and an agreement made to hold a dinner in September that would double as a birthday celebration and a launch of the Foundation. The night would consist of a meal at Anfield in the Shankly Suite, with ex-players from the Shankly era, compared by Colin Murray, with items available for raffle and auction. Tickets were to be available for sale to the general public and thanks to some skilled negotiation from Miss Stephanie Navarro (our marketing and PR guru), a deal agreed with the football club for some of the proceeds to be donated to the Foundation. An opportunity would also be available for me to address the attendees on the work and goals of the Foundation. Similarly, other organisations were holding events of an identical nature around the September anniversary; Trinity Mirror being one of those. Their event was to initially be a double celebration, being a celebration of his birthday and the presenting of the Bill Shankly Award to Jamie Carragher for his service to Liverpool Football Club prior to his retirement. The event was soon to become a treble celebration as working with Ken Rogers and his team; plus John Thompson from the Liverpool Echo, we agreed (ably assisted by Ms Navarro again!) that the event would also see the launch of the charity publicised and a proportion of proceeds from the night shared with the Foundation. Whilst the excitement of our launch was prominent, equally important was ensuring our existence as a charity was formalised. Sterling work by Patrick Goodison, one of our trustees and Secretary of the Foundation, ensured all paper work was completed and logged with Company’s House, as well as liaising with the Charity Commission with regards our registration with them. The paperwork included detailing our aims and goals as a charity, polices as to how we are to operate which are to be adhered to and detailing each of our signatures in agreeance of all this. In a matter of weeks, our existence was fomalised with Company’s House (with a registered company number) and work in progress to ensure we would meet the criteria that would facilitate The Charity Commission bestowing on us a Registered Charity Number in due course. All that remained now was to create our brand and identity, and an infrastructure for which we could operate within, including a website and social media presence. Once again liaising with Ms Navarro, we made contact with a local Liverpool company, Cleversteam, whose expertise lies in web design and brand creation. For me personally, getting the brand creation right was of particular importance. Shankly was my grandad, and the Foundation is to carry his name. To deliver in his name. And I am the Chair. It carries with it a certain pressure and in this, everything we deliver needs to befitting of a man who was, who still is; a global icon. We met with Cleversteam and tried to feed into them what we wanted from a brand and a website, something to capture the global identity of Shankly and something that carries his ideals. It helped that Dan, from the company, is a huge Liverpool fan and a member of the fans group Spirit of Shankly. What they provided us with could not have been any more fitting, both in terms of the logo and the website, and it can of course be viewed at theshanklyfamilyfoundation So we had arrived on paper. At the start of September 2013, we formally existed as a company with Company’s House, were registered with the Charity Commission; had our own logo and website, launched our Twitter account (@shanklyFF) complete with trendy hashtag #jointhefamily, with a board of 6 willing trustees and a vision and goal for delivery, all within the socialist ethos Bill Shankly. September posed a great opportunity to officially announce ourselves to the masses as indicated above. The first event we were able to ‘piggy back on’ was that of the Trinity Mirror/Liverpool Echo event to commemorate Grandy’s Birthday and to present Jamie Carragher with the Shankly Award. Having met with Ken Rogers, John Thompson and Chris McGloughlin, an arrangement was reached wherby a proportion of the receipts from table donations would go the Foundation, and that we would be officially recognised as the official charity of the night alongside amongst others, Jamie’s 23 Foundation. I would be required to be interviewed on stage on the night also as a way of announcing our arrival. It also gave us an opportunity to have our name and logo in lights, and upon arriving on the night, it was certainly that. The SFF logo and name on envelopes on tables, on the large focal screen at the front of the room/stage. Proudly displayed next to that of the 23 Foundation and others. It was a watershed moment as it felt like we had arrived. As I sat at our allotted table with the rest of the Shankly Family; the agenda for the night was conveyed; comprising of, in amongst the 5 course meal, interviews and stories being told about Grandy by former players and managers, and notable guests who had the pleasure of knowing him. I was to be interviewed on stage sometime after dinner, and I began to take in the significant amount and stature of some of the attendees. Brendan Rodgers, Jamie Carragher, Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Ian St John, Ian Callaghan, Ron Yeats, Chris Lawler, Tommy Lawrence. The list was endless and impressive. to be continued ...............
Posted on: Wed, 28 May 2014 09:22:45 +0000
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