2020 Shortlist | Happy Baby Community
Happy Baby Community
Shortlist – Board Diversity and Inclusivity
Who they are
Happy Baby Community (HBC) aims to build a safe, resilient and thriving community for pregnant women and women with young children who have fled war, violence and traffickers. It runs two drop-in centres in deprived areas of London and provides practical and therapeutic help to more than 650 women and children. Most beneficiaries have suffered horrific past trauma that affects their mental health, most are destitute and unable to seek employment until they have been granted asylum, many are single mothers, more than a third have survived trafficking, and most do not receive antenatal care until their third trimester. HBC’s services include education (such as English lessons, storytelling for children, sexual health, antenatal and postnatal care), support services (family-style meals, psychotherapy and counselling), and advice (counter trafficking, welfare and signposting). HBC has also developed a network of more than 46 charity and statutory partners to provide additional support to its community. All services provided by HBC are free.
What they’ve achieved
HBC aims to be the first refugee charity in the UK run and managed by its beneficiaries. Through an open recruitment process to more than 80-members of the charity, it has appointed 10 trainee trustees, selected for their skills and expertise. They have formed the shadow trustee board that is made up of a chair, treasurer and eight trustees. All shadow board members have ‘lived experience’ relevant to the work of the charity: eight are survivors of trafficking, two have been granted refugee status in the past two years, and all 10 have children. While the recruitment process was blind to nationality, eight are from different countries (including Morocco, Iran, Pakistan, Albania, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Chad and Kenya).
HBC sincerely believes this board will provide the highest standards of governance and at its heart has the Charity governance code based on the seven principles – leadership; integrity; decision making, risk and control; board effectiveness; diversity; openness and accountability. The Board are committed to working with this code to ensure that the Happy Baby Community will demonstrate not only its social value, but as a group, the collective value of women.
Although the board was recruited from members of HBC, a key priority was to secure exceptional skills and talent for the board. As a first step, a job description was developed for each of the key roles and interested members were offered the opportunity to attend workshops exploring the roles and responsibilities within the organisation. The board received 28 statements of interest, and trustees themselves conducted the interviews. With external financial support, the new recruits began an individual and group programme of training to develop their skills and understanding as trustees and deepen their relevant expertise. The individual training programme is tailored to the needs of each trustee and includes courses such as the NCVO finance course, courses run by the Institute of Fundraising and in-house training, such as the development of the Risk Register (supported by the current Company Secretary). The group training covers presentation skills, leadership training, media training and workshops on power and challenge, all run by experienced organisations such as On Road Media. HBC also works with the charity Route Collective; whose mission is to champion women through one-to-one mentoring. Every member of the shadow board has a mentor, sponsored by their employers. They meet once a fortnight to discuss progress.
Why they were shortlisted
There was evidence of commitment to the Charity Governance Code and investments to support individuals in serving as trustees. Judges applauded Happy Baby Community’s strong, clear ambition to become the first refugee charity in the UK run and managed by its beneficiaries, recognising the charity’s work towards that goal as thoughtful, innovative and effective in transforming (not just adapting) the organisation. Particularly interesting was the charity’s development of a ‘shadow board’, providing those trustees with training and working to ensure their inclusion in board meetings.
