Since March 2018, Impact Funding Partners have been proud to be a part of the Kindness Innovation Network (KIN), a group of people and professionals from across Scotland who were brought together by Carnegie UK Trust to encourage kindness in their organisations and communities.
This week, Carnegie UK Trust have launched ‘The Practice of Kindness’, a report of their findings from working with the Kindness Innovation Network and North Ayrshire Council who established a partnership with Carnegie UK Trust to promote kindness as a value throughout the region.
‘The Practice of Kindness’ brings together examples of what can be changed within our communities and organisations to help promote kindness. It points out that there is a growing recognition that kindness can help in our approach to a wide range of challenges within our society and can have a powerful impact on our wellbeing.
However, despite this the report also found that while the idea of kindness is becoming more widely discussed, there is still much to do to understand what kindness looks like in practice.
Keith Wimbles, Chief Executive of Impact Funding Partners, was one of the 100 people from across the sectors who made up the Kindness Innovation Network. Speaking about the report findings, he said:
“When the Kindness Innovation Network (KIN) was established I was intrigued by the concept and what it could realistically achieve in 15 months. But I have to admit that I was also one of those people who thought ‘why do we need to talk about kindness in the first place?’
However, it became apparent from the early research carried out by Carnegie UK Trust and energetic discussions at our first meeting that there was definitely a lot of potential in the KIN. During the first meeting we explored common areas of interest and a number of themes emerged. One of the suggestions was around Kindness in Procurement and Commissioning. After much thought I decided that perhaps we could make a bit of a regularly to discuss Kindness – the human aspect of procurement. Working together we developed a shared belief that – A kinder procurement process which fully involves people and communities at every stage leads to better procurement outcomes, and products and services which are better designed, more sustainable and give real value for money.
With the support of Carnegie the group developed some case studies on innovative procurement practices which demonstrated commitment to kindness. We also ran a session at Procurex 2018 and an event as part of the Fire Starter Festival in February this year.
It was great to work with a group of enthusiastic people who were driven by a desire to bring about change in procurement and commissioning, which are currently viewed as predominantly transactional processes. The plan is to continue our work and extend the group to other key influencers.
Overall, the KIN and our thematic group has been a thoroughly enjoyable and inspiring experience. But there’s much more to do to make kindness universal practice.”
The full ‘Practice of Kindness’ report can be downloaded from the Carnegie UK Trust website here.
There is a short film accompanying the report which explores the learning and experiences of some of the participants in the two projects. It showcases some of the interventions and approaches that enable kindness while also highlighting some of its complexities and challenges. The full film can be viewed here.
