Changes at the top
New service leadership
Ryan Bish, our Head of Service, left us in September 2022. What happened next?
Having joined us as Head of Service in 2019, Ryan let us know he wanted a change. He’ll stay on as Seniors Team Leader until winter 2023. He does not rule out a return to youth work but has decided to follow another career path. We had a special farewell for Ryan in early September at Wey Island.
In his younger years, Ryan was a member of our Trainee Youth Leader Apprentice Programme (TYLAP) which provided in-house training and experience for young people interested in pursuing youth work as a vocation. In his various roles at Knights he sought to encourage the growth of all young people, but particularly those who wanted to be more involved in the planning and decision-making within the club. 'Grow your own' became an important theme within his tenure at the club - continuing the desire to see young people move into leadership positions at Knights.
Seeing Knights through the challenging periods of the pandemic will be another key element of his legacy. The programme required constant adaptation, creative responses and decisive leadership to lead his staff and young people through this time. Ryan provided food support for struggling families, guaranteed a range of vital activities to members and sensibly utilised online conversations with young people to consolidate and embed relationships.
Ryan's re-establishment of a Seniors group at the Knights has been critical and was no easy feat. The introduction of structured activities including music and basketball helped regular attendance and the opportunity for further needs and concerns around identity, employment and mental health to be considered. Thursday evenings have once again become a significant part of life at Knights.
‘Ryan is thoughtful, committed and enthusiastic and always has the needs of young people front of mind. He brought passion and determination to his many tasks and will always be welcome here.’
Elsewhere, Lucy Green came to Knights in June 2022 as a senior youth worker with significant youth work experience to help us cover the maternity leave of Ellie Giles (huge congratulations to Ellie and her husband Ben after the arrival of their baby girl, Marnie).
Lucy quickly established herself at Knights within many of the evening sessions and was successful in taking on the acting-up Head of Service post (with a short crossover period with Ryan). Lucy is now developing into the role and making sure we maintain our existing high standards across Knights’ entire programme.
Ellie returned part-time from maternity leave in January this year with an increased focus in her role on quality assurance and performance management. Both these areas of work are critical to improving our practice and providing richer updates to our board and funders.