Neil Mapes recounts his experience of becoming a fellow of the Clore Social Leadership Programme in 2010.
I am a Clore social fellow. This is something which all successful applicants can say when they join and begin the active Clore Social Leadership Programme (CSLP). I was in the inaugural 2010 cohort which first met back in October 2009. If I am honest, I did not know exactly what this new leadership programme would entail, yet I intuitively knew that it was the right thing for me and it had come at the right time. The Programme has been a much-needed and rare opportunity for my personal reflection, for inspiration, connection and bespoke leadership development.
The Fellowship is flexible, with core elements co-designed in partnership with the CSLP staff. It began with a 360-degree assessment which was both empowering and clarifying in equal measure, and has since enabled me to articulate my strengths to others, as well as worry less about my weaknesses.
Professor John Zeisel has been an inspirational mentor and hosted my first secondment in Boston where I learned about, and contributed to, the very successful Hearthstone Foundation and Artists for Alzheimer's programmes – the highlight of which was supporting a film event at an Art Deco cinema in Boston attended by over 200 people living with dementia.
My practice-based research project was conducted as a visiting fellow with the University of Essex. The final report and accompanying film into the benefits of green exercise and connection with nature for people living with dementia was successfully launched at the offices of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in February 2011. This research has, for the first time, developed and shared an evidence-base for green exercise and dementia that is already proving critical as I lead and build Dementia Adventure CIC. But also more broadly, as living well with dementia has become one of the biggest social challenges we face as a society.
Extremely practical reflective spaces
I found the Action Learning Sets and the training events such as the Thinking Environment extremely practical reflective spaces which I continue to use and share in my daily work. I completed the Windsor Leadership Trust course which was both validating and confidence building, and met Sir Tim Berners-Lee and other inspiring people at the DO Lectures. During the fellowship, I also won a social entrepreneur award from UnLtd for my ideas for Dementia Adventure. I was generally aware that more people were listening to what I had to say and more people were following and joining Dementia Adventure.
Before I finished the fellowship in March 2011, I undertook another secondment, this time 'living in innovation' at the Young Foundation, implementing and sharing much of what I had learned through the Programme.
If you are considering applying for a 2012 Clore Social Fellowship, I would make the following points. The Programme is a rare opportunity which generates an invaluable range of personal and peer-based reflection and support. It can enable you to re-connect with the values and purpose which brought you into the sector and provide you, and others, with evidence of the importance of your work as you lead in the sector. You get back what you put in. It is a significant time commitment to the programme and to yourself.
You may want to ask yourself: Why is this important to me? Is this the right step for me? Is this the right time for me? How will I find the time to fully benefit from the fellowship? In what way can I take the lead?
Neil Mapes is a Clore social fellow and leads Dementia Adventure, a community interest company
Click here to read Dame Mary Marsh's view of the benefits of the Clore Social Leadership Programme and click here to read Caroline Beaumont's experience of the programme.
