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blog • Announcement

Relaunching 'Board Boost' - our holistic and comprehensive programme for young trustees and wider boards

Grace Jeremy

23 January 2024

After the success of our 2022/23 pilot training, we are relaunching Board Boost; A programme that encompasses everything young trustees need to thrive in governance, and for their wider board to create inclusive, accessible practices.

Last year we worked with 10 young trustees and their boards, helping them take the steps towards thriving governance, and received great feedback and results.

"It’s an excellent course, especially if you’ve had no prior guidance or training. It’s a great way of connecting with other new young trustees who are around the same knowledge and skill level that you are." - Young participant on the pilot programme

"You will be pleased to hear that we have just appointed 2 board boost participants, who were previously shadow trustees, as full trustees. They both reported that the board boost training was really helpful in giving them the confidence to apply for the position. So thank you! - CEO of a pilot organisation

"The course was really helpful from different perspectives; practically with the financial documents understanding and aiding in understanding governance and responsibilities.  The course also helped by connecting with other young trustees, in a very older person dominated area" - Young participant on the pilot programme

This year board boost is back!

Based on our evaluations and learnings, we are excited to be offering an improved programme, running 2 different cohorts to support a wider range of people:

  • A cohort aimed at current young trustees and their wider boards.
  • A cohort aimed at aspiring young trustees and boards that are looking to appoint a young trustee, matching them together.

Read on to find out more, and complete this short form to register your interest.

What is it?

The “Board Boost - Trustee Accelerator Programme” takes a comprehensive approach to creating thriving charity boards, through an immersive 6 month programme that supports young trustees’ personal and professional development whilst helping their wider board embed better ways of working.

IT’S NOT ENOUGH FOR TRUSTEES TO JUST EXIST ON A BOARD,  THEY NEED TO BE ABLE TO THRIVE.

Board Boost builds its holistic approach around 3 core aspects of providing training, building community, and creating impact.

Who is it for?

Cohort 1- Autumn 2024

This programme supports current young trustees and their wider boards.

Cohort 2 - Dates TBC

This programme matches aspiring young trustees with boards who are looking to appoint them, before covering the same content as Cohort 1.

*Note: we use the term “young trustee” a lot. We only use this phrase to highlight the lack of representation of young people on boards, and to make reference to trustees aged 30 and under who we will be working with. They are full trustees, just like every other trustee.

What do you get?

This course is more than just a grounding in governance knowledge.  This programme is a way to unlock sustainable growth and innovation for everyone involved.

Support for Young Trustees:

  • Training sessions and resources that help you develop both:

    • The 'hard' skills of governance (legal responsibilities, the role of a trustee, understanding and interpreting finances, etc)
    • The 'softer' skills of being a trustee (knowing your worth, overcoming imposter syndrome, learning how to ask powerful questions, finding your niche, etc)
  • Mentoring and a peer support network

  • Access to an online training course to complement the live sessions

  • Interactive case studies based on real life scenarios

  • Support to lead on a governance project, where you practically apply your learning in an area that is of interest to you and supports the needs or development of your charity.

Support for the young trustee's wider board:

  • We support the wider board to review their ways of working, providing training and practical structures where the full potential of every trustee's diversity of perspective can be unlocked.
  • Access to our new 'Conversations Toolkit' tool and training. Boards thrive when they can take practical and meaningful action to innovate for greater diversity, inclusion and belonging. This toolkit supports trustees and board stakeholders to hold constructive conversations that enable this to happen.
  • We ask one trustee to function as a mentor for the young trustee (mentor training is provided). This person will gain transferable mentoring skills and practice, and benefit from the two way learning they will experience.

The Practical bit:

Training Dates and Times:

All training sessions will be held over Zoom. Dates and times are to be confirmed shortly, and availability can be discussed when you register your interest.

Training will also be available via our interactive online platform.

Cost:

We operate a sliding fee approach based on your organisational income, which allows us to keep our programmes affordable whilst enabling us to continue to exist as a growing movement.

For cohort 1 we ask that organisations contribute £1000-3000 to take part in Board Boost, and are happy to discuss both our deliverables and your budgets with you.

It is important to us that this programme is accessible to charities of all sizes. As such we offer a limited number of partial and full subsidies that organisations may apply for.

Please note- the young trustee participants are not expected to contribute to this fee; in previous programmes it has been covered by the organisation and/or the young persons's employer.

If you are interested in cohort 2 we will discuss costs and logistics in a 1-1 chat.

Accessibility:

Please contact hello@youngtrusteesmovement.org if you have any access requests or would like to discuss the commitments of the course.

We welcome enquiries from Boards with and without young trustees, aspiring or current young trustees, and anyone else working in the youth/charity sector who thinks Board Boost may be beneficial.

Sponsorship

If you are a funder and would like to support a young trustee to participate in this course by offering a bursary place, please get in touch here: https://form.typeform.com/to/RTlAs59O

BOARD BOOST UPDATE

Updates on Board Boost are available through this link: https://youngtrusteesmovement.org/blog/board-boost-update.

Free Champion Training

Join a 1 hour training session to understand the power of young trustees, have a framework to understand how to approach board diversity and take practical next steps. New dates are added every month.

Join the Model Boardroom Series

Learn how to think like a trustee and engage with governance, all through exciting mock boardroom scenarios.