We are a Fair Education Alliance Innovation Award Winner!
By Molly Forbes
Last week I travelled to London for the Fair Education Alliance’s Innovation Awards ceremony. Hosted at Bloomberg’s European headquarters, the event was an opportunity to celebrate those in the sector who are working to tackle educational inequality and highlight the work of the six winners of this year’s Innovation Award… of which, The Body Happy Organisation is one!
Just after the Awards ceremony where I was announced as one of the winners
What is the FEA innovation award?
The Fair Education Alliance is a coalition of nearly 300 member organisations tackling educational inequality. The Innovation Award, supported by Bloomberg, is open to any member of the public and FEA members who want funding and training to develop, test and scale their new solution.
Up to six winners receive access to their Incubator programme, which is a year-long programme of support including face-to-face training in everything from leadership to finance to impact, as well as 1:1 mentorship and group coaching. From now until the end of December, winners commit to working 10 hours a week on their project (with face to face sessions in London), and from January to July the programme ramps up to full time. The programme enables innovators to develop, test and scale their offering, amplifying their impact and growing as an organisation.
Arriving at Bloomberg’s European HQ in London
This year there were 87 applicants for the Innovation Award, a 64% increase on the previous year. The application process was rigorous and included a written application, a Shortlisting Panel and a Final Panel. Both panels involved a presentation and in-depth interview with a panel of judges who are all leaders in the educational space (my panels included an Ofsted inspector, headteachers, youth steering group representatives, impact experts and FEA representatives, to name just a few - you can see the full line-up of Innovation Award 2024 judges here).
What does winning mean for The Body Happy Organisation?
The FEA is the UK's largest coalition of members tackling educational inequality. As well as the intense practical support from the Incubator programme, winning the award gives us exposure within this incredible network and is a huge mark of validation for our work and the importance of body image within the educational landscape.
Importantly, the award also comes with financial support in the form of a grant to be paid to each of the six winners as a salary for 6 months from January. This means I will be able to work on Body Happy Org and the innovation I applied with full time from January, without having to take on other work or projects which don't align with our Theory of Change or overall strategy.
It may surprise some to know that I've been running The Body Happy Organisation CIC (often for 40 hours + a week) for the past three years with no salary, meaning there have often been periods of time when I’ve had to work other full time jobs alongside it in order to have a level of personal financial security. This simply isn't sustainable long term either for myself or our future as an organisation. I’m really pleased to see the FEA recognise the importance of this financial support, because it both makes non-profit work more equitable as a whole and recognises the innovator as being a vital resource in and of themselves to their organisations.
With the other brilliant Innovation 2024 Award winners - find out about the five other inspiring innovations here
What was our winning innovation?
Our winning innovation is a whole school framework to promote body image and instil a classroom culture of body respect in schools, called The Body Happy Schools Programme. As with all of our work, it's about prevention and culture change, viewing body image as a systemic issue which requires a systemic solution.
The framework will consist of:
Teacher training
Student workshops / assemblies
Educational resources
Peer advocacy programme
Within this framework we’ll be working on a finance model which allows schools serving a high percentage of pupil premium students to access the programme at a subsidised rate, meaning we'll be focusing our impact on the students who most need our support. This is important because while all can be impacted by poor body image, some of the significant risk factors disproportionately impact children and young people who are experiencing socio economic disadvantage. These issues are impacting educational outcomes for these students, as well as their overall wellbeing, and driving educational inequality.
My friend Amy Walker, founder of design agency Ace and Ping and the designer behind all of our branding and physical product design, came along as my guest for the event to support me and calm my nerves!
What now?
We will still be offering workshops and access to individual elements of the programme over the next year that already exist (eg. teacher training, CPD workshops and student workshops, as well as educational resources). However, we'll also be working hard behind the scenes to develop, test and scale our offering, accelerating our impact and offering schools access to a more comprehensive package of support.
With this in mind, we'll be looking for our stakeholders, partners and community to:
Signpost to and advocate for the programme and our work
Commission our work
Fund elements of the research and development of our programme
If you can help with any or all of the above, I would love to hear from you. You can email me directly at molly@bodyhappyorg.com