Aston Villa Football Club

Issue:
Aston Villa Football Club identified a need for their Chief Executive and Senior Management team to undertake a refresher day of Equality and Diversity Training.

It was highlighted that the facilitating company must be able to offer a more robust, innovative and bespoke level of training, generating practical outcomes that met the needs of AVFC.

Solution:
Cultiv8 Solutions were referred as the most suitable organisation to meet the objectives above, based on individual referrals provided by West Bromwich Building Society and Matthew Boulton College.

It was felt that their grass roots knowledge, dynamic and 'out of the box' approach to Diversity, could help to increase both social advantage in the marketplace and commercial productivity.

Result:
After an initial consultation, Joel Graham-Blake, MD of Cultiv8 Solutions personally:

• Delivered a bespoke One Day Equality and Diversity Training Course, to twelve senior managers at Aston Villa Football Club.
• Provided Executive Coaching sessions to the Chief Executive of Aston Villa Football Club.

"Thank you very much for what I felt was a highly inspiring senior management training session. The message of Equality and Diversity was delivered well; I was very impressed with the response from our senior management team to your exercises and your insights to me".

Joel Graham-Blake was then invited to continue supporting Aston Villa Football Club as an external Consultant to the AVFC Villa In Harmony Committee.

The role included:

• One to One confidential Coaching with senior management members and Villa in Harmony Committee members.
• Monitoring and evaluating progress on specific outputs created through the Villa in Harmony campaign.
• Advising and facilitating the continued delivery of diversity training to staff

Aston Villa Football Club achieved the Intermediate Level of the racial equality standard in May 2008.

Issue:
Aston Business School had found that a number of students, from their Business Management courses, were lacking the motivation to find a suitable work placement - this is a statutory requirement of the degree courses identified.

Having researched a number of options, Aston Business School contacted Cultiv8 Solutions, to offer energetic, inspirational and empowering Personal Development sessions to the students.

Aston Business School wanted these sessions to be created and designed specifically for those students who were at risk of failing their degree, but delivered in a way that they could all engage and interact in without the fear of ridicule.

Solution:
After meeting to discuss the initial brief, Joel Graham-Blake, MD of Cultiv8 Solutions was asked to deliver:

• A series of bespoke Motivational Workshops to 25 placement students based on a pre-assessment of their current issues and barriers.
• Advice & Guidance to placement staff as required.

• 15 of the students that attended the workshops, subsequently identified and are currently on a 12 month work placement of their choice and are on course to complete their degree as desired.
• Joel Graham-Blake was asked to become a Placement Mentor to 7 of the students, which he has been doing since January 2009
• Joel was also asked to deliver a Motivational Talk on Inter-culturalism to staff members from Aston Business School, in May 2009.
• Joel has also been asked by Aston Business School, to continue his mentorship of placement students throughout 2010.

Issue:
University of Birmingham had identified a need to use more innovative approaches of ensuring the effective integration of Diversity, Equality & CSR strategies.

Cultiv8 Solutions were asked to identify and recommend practical ways of implementing new methods of meeting the above objectives, based on a grass roots understanding of identified issues, as part of their overall review.

It was decided that the results of the consultative and recommendation process would be put into practice, within the largest department of the University.

Solution:
After meeting to discuss the initial brief, Joel Graham-Blake, MD of Cultiv8 Solutions provided the University of Birmingham with:

• One to One Executive Coaching in Diversity for Ten Senior Managers.
• Consultancy and recommendations of best practice to the Department identified.

Result:

• Joel Graham-Blake was asked to provide a further Nine Months Executive Coaching to the Director of the supported department (accountable for over 850 staff members) to help the implementation of suggested recommendations.
• The department were able to build new relationships with local communities.
• Senior management staff felt more informed and were less fearful of exploring genuine ignorance's, with diverse colleagues in the future.
• The University have enhanced their international reputation through their support of a number of activities and events, created by people from the region's diverse communities.