Chris Hill, empowering young people

In this show, Chris Whitehead turns the tables on Chris Hill. Chris regularly interviews young people in a ‘Dragons’ Den’ environment in his role as CEO of Element Society.

Element Society is a charity that “empowers young people to make a positive change in their communities.” Over 2,700 young people have participated in the programme since its inception six years ago. Element Society facilitates young people to tackle social issues that the young people believe are important. At the moment those issues include mental health, knife crime, and community cohesion.

By way of example, the young people have designed a peer-to-peer support project on “how to be a friend to someone with mental health problems” that has been delivered to 2,000 teenagers across Sheffield.

They assembled a hard-hitting video from mobile phone footage to counter child sexual exploitation that has been adopted by the NSPCC at a national level. The teenagers involved spoke at the NSPCSS ‘red carpet’ event about how they researched and built the video.

Making use of his business background Chris has secured funding for Element Society from the National Citizens’ Service Trust, the English Football League, the People’s Postcode Lottery, The National Lottery Fund and also Sheffield organisations such as Westfield Health.

As CEO Chris does everything from strategy, through governance, to “hoovering and mopping.” He has 10 in his core team, 50 in his delivery team (working on a sessional basis), and 400-500 young people on the programme every year. By the end of summer 2019 Elements Society will have delivered 150,000 volunteer hours in Sheffield.

Chris’s key leadership principle is to act as a facilitator, recognising that his young volunteers are “closer to the issues than I ever will be.” The charity has a youth board that helps shape the strategy which is then shared with the volunteers, who in turn are empowered to design initiatives that fits with the strategy.

Chris’s involvement in the voluntary sector started in his undergraduate years at Newcastle University. His masters at Sheffield concerned the measurement of poverty in the UK. On leaving university he became a consultant in the youth and health sector, then a consultant to social enterprises. Element Society arose from a desire to fill the gaps he had observed during his early career.

Chris has drawn his inspiration from local business coach Jill White, who assisted him initially as a business mentor, and local businesswoman Faye Smith. He advises leaders in a similar situation to “look locally” when it comes to advice and inspiration.

One of the highlights of his career is putting a care plan in place for Jack Marshall, a sufferer from Moebius Syndrome, in order to enable him to participate in the Element Society programme. Jack went on to win the Stephen Sutton Award at the Radio One Teen Awards for his fundraising efforts. He was named Law Student of the Year at his sixth form college and has now made it onto a law degree course.

For Chris, self-care is about maintaining relationships and spending time with friends and family.

His goals for the future include providing more services for young people with special educational needs or disabilities, and creating a platform for youth voice in Sheffield, a vehicle that permits them to have a stronger influence on local decisions.

His advice to up and coming third sector leaders is to learn to say no. You need to develop the ability to prioritise and delegate.

His recommended Youtube video is Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why.” At Element Society they have developed a Theory of Change, which explains why they do what they do, how they do it and what they aim to achieve through it. It’s Chris’s roadmap as Chief Executive. Julie McEver of Local Partnerships helped Elements Society develop this.