‘It’s about confidence, self-belief & that lightbulb moment realising there’s a big wide world out there’
‘THE CHILDREN’S REACTION STILL FLOORS ME’: Lisa Dawson, Director of Hull-based learning charity Run With It
Chewing the Fat, out to lunch with Phil Ascough
This week’s guest: Lisa Dawson
Venue: Larkin’s Bar
A few days after lunch with Lisa Dawson I find myself still being drawn back to memories of great days out with the kids, and the accessibility for other families of such opportunities and experiences.
How many children have seen Hull City win at Wembley? Probably not many.
How many have seen Hull City win? Hopefully rather more.
How many have seen Hull City? More still, but not enough.
And then Lisa chips in with a couple of crunching tackles: “There are a lot of children in Bridlington who have never seen the seaside.
“There are a lot of children in East Hull who have never seen the Humber Bridge. We still have hundreds of children who have never been to the MKM Stadium and don’t know anything about Hull City or Hull FC.”
Apparently the climb to the top of the West Stand during a Run With It session gives many children their first view of St Stephen’s shopping centre. I’m reminded of a visit to Sirius West and a chat with a 14-year old student who said he had no idea what the city centre was like because he’d only been there once or twice in his life. He lived on Boulevard.
So although Run With It is, on the face of it, about improving English and maths, it’s got more to do with opening doors, broadening horizons, helping young people to look up and find their way in life.
We discussed it at the Humber Business Week launch lunch. I’d heard a bit about the charity in the past and I wanted to know more so we met again at Larkin’s.
The first venue was the MKM Stadium, which is also the headquarters of Run With It. As its Director, Lisa urged the audience of business leaders to get behind a learning programme which is designed to help children, young people and adult learners develop employability skills.
She drew a parallel between the charity’s work and the aims of Humber Business Week: “We take children out of their everyday environment and they meet new people and they come away inspired and motivated and with a good understanding of why they are learning English and maths at school.
BROADENING HORIZONS: Lisa Dawson with a group of Run With It learners at the MKM Stadium
“We talk about those key work skills, being on time, being able to speak to people and look them in the eye, getting a good night’s sleep and looking after themselves.
“It’s learning for life and we are really proud of what we have achieved and what we can do in the coming years. We can’t do that without the business community.”
That resonated with everybody in the room. Hundreds of employers who responded to a recent survey about skills improvement each reported that employability is a concern. Can anybody remember a time when it wasn’t? Can anybody remember any government offering a joined-up approach to address it properly?
We also talked a bit about football. Lisa’s dad played professionally. Husband Andy is the first team coach at Hull City and sat on the other side of Lisa at the lunch. They have three boys who are all making their way in the game, hopefully inspired rather than intimidated by the achievements of their illustrious yet understated dad. We’ll come to that later; this piece is about Lisa.
Run With It was launched in 2017 as the independent successor to a public-funded programme which operated nationwide from 1997 and came to Hull after City’s promotion in 2004. The new project stayed at the stadium and opened additional centres at Bridlington Town FC, then the Flemingate Centre in Beverley and, just a few weeks ago, Sewell Group Craven Park.
Its board comprises various people from business and two head teachers. It employs around eight people, a mix of full-time and part-time, who plan and deliver sessions at all four centres to show how some of the most important things children need to learn at school fit into everyday life.
At school, at some point, we all heard the question: “But why do we have to learn all this stuff?”
Lisa has some of the answers: “By coming to the stadium and measuring the pitch, when they are asked about area in their exams they can remember how they did it.
“If they are going into the club shop to buy the Hull City kit how do they knock ten per cent off the price? Also, designing new products for sale in the shop and producing a piece of persuasive writing about why their product is ideal. At 11 they are assessed on persuasive writing. This enables them to do it in real life.
“At Beverley they design a shop unit and the Flemingate manager comes in and they have to persuade us that it’s amazing. They also work with Beverley Travel and organise a holiday, understanding the cost of everything and planning a budget. They understand the importance of getting a good job.
“They go to the cinema and watch a mini trailer and write a film critique. Art & Soul is one of the shops at Flemingate and they have been amazing. The young people go in and design their own cards and sell them for £1 – all the proceeds go to Run With It. Then they go back on a Saturday with their parents to buy the card and if it’s been sold they get upset, but then they get the message that somebody liked their card so much that they bought it.
LIVING WITH A LEGEND: Lisa is married to Hull City first team coach Andy Dawson. Picture credit: Hull City
“Local sports reporters do workshops with the kids about interviewing. At Bridlington Town they get on the microphone and that helps their English and their delivery. They are also allowed on the pitch there. It’s different experiences. I love it when we take the kids to Bridlington Spa if they have never seen the sea – we have only started there this year so we are still working on how we can use it fully.
“Everything we do at all four centres supports the national curriculum. We are not taking them away from that. It’s what they would do at school, but in a different environment that’s more experiential. If they didn’t come to Run With It they might not get those chances.”
Evaluation is everything. Run With It’s 2022 annual report indicates that 1,161 young people from 43 schools in East Yorkshire “had learning experiences” with the charity during the year.
But Lisa maintains: “I never chase numbers. I could give you more numbers but for me it’s about impact. Someone walking through the door is not impact. We could double it quite easily but whether we would make a difference I’m not sure.”
The children love it:
“Can I come here for more weeks?”
“I enjoyed being a commentator and reading my report out over the microphone.”
“Visiting the MKM Stadium for the day was the best.”
The teachers have no doubt as to the value:
“The hands-on approach and practical opportunities have meant that children have developed both academic skills and confidence – it’s been an invaluable experience.”
“It is wonderful to observe the interaction of the children in new situations of learning, which resulted in quality work due to the stimulation provided.”
‘FINDING ITS FEET AGAIN’: Lisa at Larkin’s Bar in Newland Avenue
“We can come to you with exceptionally shy, under-confident children who, by the end of the Run With It programme, are out of their shells, volunteering ideas and show improving self-belief and make huge progress in their communication and perseverance.”
As we’re noting firsts, Lisa revealed she had never been to Larkin’s before. Pre-Covid it was one of my favourite destinations and although it’s taken time the place is now finding its feet again. Still no sign of the haddock and chips which were among the best in the city, or the magnificent Mahou lager which I haven’t found anywhere else round here. But the menu is more adventurous than for some time and there are plans to serve up a few gourmet specials.
There’s also been a bit of investment outside, initially because three years ago it was the only place you were allowed to serve anybody, and more recently to add a bit of style and character. The weather was uncertain so we took a table in the bar. The food options were extensive but not expensive but we kept it simple. Ham and cheese omelette, fish cakes, chips, bit of salad, all excellent. Cola and a lager shandy.
Lisa was born in Portsmouth, where her dad, Phil Ashworth, played for the local team among other English clubs. His last club in England was Scunthorpe United, where the family settled, but he’d been born in Burnley, which became pivotal in Lisa’s career.
She left education at 16 but was never far away from it, working in a council planning office at Brigg and helping out at the school doing netball and hockey. She did a BTEC at Grimsby College then studied PE and maths at Leeds Metropolitan University. She stayed with her nanna when she did a work experience placement at Burnley FC.
“It was still teaching but it was education through the power of the sport environment,” she said, introducing that concept which remains at the heart of Run With It.
In addition to a full-time teaching role there was a job on the side helping a council-funded project that was trying to set up activities for children in North Lincolnshire. A similar project was in operation at Scunthorpe United but Lisa couldn’t meet the requirement of three years’ teaching experience.
“Then Hull City got promoted for the first time in a long time and somebody approached me when I was on the bus tour with Andy,” said Lisa.
“They said they were setting up an education project at the new stadium and they invited me in for a chat. That’s how I got into it.”
She joined Playing for Success, a new project in a new stadium learning from pilots at three Premier League clubs. The scheme expanded to Hull KR with staff employed by the local authority and the clubs contributing their venues and facilities. Public sector, private sector and community working together on a venture which the National Federation for Education and Research identified as in the top eight of 150 for raising standards.
The austerity government killed it in 2011 and, typically, left the community to pick up the pieces. Lisa harnessed support from the JF Brignall Charitable Trust, the Stadium Management Company and Wykeland to take things forward. Wykeland Managing Director Dominic Gibbons later became chair, until he handed over earlier this year to Shaun Watts of Chameleon Business Interiors. As a charity seeking sustainability, Run With It has moved away from the local authorities yet still provides a vital service, as demonstrated by those testimonials.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Lisa Dawson, third from right, with colleagues from education charity Run With It
Lisa said: “We were worried when Dominic stepped down because he had been brilliant for us for so long. Shaun brought fresh eyes and a fresh view.
“Local businesses support us and there are sources such as lottery funding that we can apply for. We also have fundraising events – the Biz Week lunch, a gala dinner last year which was fantastic. We’ll do it again this year to get local businesses to come along and support us and to say thank you to them. It’s great for networking and raising awareness. There are also school contributions. Some schools pay and others are able to get funding.”
The football thread runs through Lisa’s life. Joey is at Celtic but currently side-lined with a long-term knee injury. Lucas has just signed for City as a scholar. Ethan is at City’s academy. Stability is everything – Andy has only ever really been part of the Tigers and Scunthorpe United, whereas dad Phil flitted between the north-west and the south coast with a few clubs in between.
“We still live on the south bank and we travel over here to City and all over the country for away games,” said Lisa.
“It’s a lot sometimes, running a charity alongside home life is challenging, but the strength of our family and the fact that we were always able to stay here helped us avoid the pressures faced by a lot of football families.”
Andy was a Scunthorpe United legend and played against City before he signed for them. With the Tigers he won at Wembley, played in all four divisions, won four promotions, made nearly 300 appearances, served as captain and as caretaker manager. He’s one of the reasons the club, the stadium and the city have so much to inspire young people, if only they get the chance to experience it.
“On a normal day the children go to school and then go home again,” said Lisa.
“At Run With It they walk out into the stadium and it blows their mind. Their reaction still floors me. We provide an education about the city where they are growing up. That’s why it’s important that we do it.
“We do evaluations and we ask the children and their feedback generally is about the power of the environment and the English and maths, but we also add confidence and self-belief from the importance of doing well in those subjects.
“With children and staff we have a new skip in our step to do something new, bring them out of their everyday workplace and learn and inspire children and build relationships.
“It might be a lightbulb moment – there’s a big wide world out there. I had those moments as a kid. Going to Burnley was one of them.
“It was later in life that I was given the opportunity to do something that said to me that’s what I want as a career. One lightbulb moment might be wanting to be a sports reporter or the chef at City preparing the food. I was lucky I had that opportunity because otherwise I would not be here.”
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