WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOUR COMPANY GIVES A DAMN?

I am lucky to work for a company where the company values were not created by a marketing wizard or deduced from high street focus groups but were crafted by the tribe members that make up our company, Virtual Clarity.

My favorite tribe value is, ‘we give a damn.' It's edgy, uncompromising, and very compelling. It is a permanent call to action. We give a damn about the people behind the client project; our tribe members beyond their employment contracts, and the world around us, beyond our revenues and profits.

This article is about what happens when this captivating value comes to life, in partnership with others who also give a damn. In this case, The Turn-over Foundation. Virtual Clarity is proud to work with the Amsterdam Rugby 7's to actively support Project Turn-over, founded four years ago, by Joeri Peperkamp and Olga de Graaf.

Let me explain why?

Project Turn-over is dedicated to giving wayward youth a second chance. Inspired by the original School of hard-knocks in the UK; over the past four years, Joeri, Olga and their team of dedicated coaches have taken 250 young adults out of prison and helped them into full-employment or back to full-time education.

It works like this; convicted criminals get an opportunity to choose between a jail sentence and a year of rugby-centric rehabilitation. The first phase of Turn-over instills the values core to rugby into these delinquents, who often have a damaged moral compass.

For three months, they get up at the crack of dawn to learn the tenets of rugby. They learn that respect is more than a rapper’s meme; how a team as opposed to a gang, functions; how self-discipline is more potent than a big ego; how aggression is a good thing when controlled and harnessed.

After the program, they either move into full-time employment, full-time education or for those who sadly can't adapt, back to jail. Turn-over has an astonishing 80% success rate. This success is good news for the kids who get a new start in life, but also for the taxpayer. Turn-over is 80% cheaper than the costs of incarceration.

As a committed partner of Turn-over, I was recently privileged to attend the conclusion tournament of the Turn-over draft of 2017. This is organized together with the Amsterdam 7's. (Eight of the class played with ankle braces.) As they shared varied life stories, common themes emerged; a flawed family, a few critical bad choices and a life that had veered dramatically off course.

Turn-over isn't about alternative punishment or saving money, it is about a group of people, working together, who give a damn. People who are positively changing the lives of these young adults, offering them a shot at redemption. Rens Troost, my colleague, and Virtual Clarity board member, summed it up, ‘Normally we make our money fixing broken companies; how much better is it to help broken people fix themselves?'

So how does Turn-over achieve such high success rates, especially given that comparable programs using other sports, like football fall short? Marischa Riethoff of The University of Applied Sciences InHolland, recently researched Project Turn-over, she concludes that there are three pillars to the success of Turn-over:

The Rugby Program. Even though most of the participants in Turn-over had never heard of let alone, played rugby before, they have grown to love the sport. Rugby has a very distinctive Esprit de corps. The participants learn to treat the clubhouse as their second home; the turn-over team is their other family. It is also a game where every size and body shape can play. It is, in other words, a match in which people can revel in their differences. Rugby is fierce, competitive and hard. As such it is a sport that molds bands of brothers and sisters for life.

The Bonding Process. Many participants in Turn-over have spent a life on the outside of society looking in. Through Turn-over, they get a chance to be part of a team that they form from scratch. It is their team, their band of brothers and sisters; forging friendships through the game and the tournaments they play together.

The Coaches. Without a doubt, the coaches make the difference. This folk is salt of the earth. Massive, strong, ferocious rugby heroes with big hearts. They continuously support and reassure their charges that they will always be available to assist them, even after the program. Turn-over supports them for life; they can always come home, they always have a safe place. During the 2018 awards ceremony at the end of the Turn-over Conclusion tournament, one of the participants spontaneously asked to say something. He didn't get beyond a tear-filled eight words. ‘Thank you, Joeri, you are a good person.' In other words, Joeri gives a damn!

Nelson Mandela famously used rugby to help unify a divided nation. He once said, ‘A kid in sport, is a kid out of court.' When you give a damn, your passion can make the difference.

If you give a damn and after reading this, are interested in understanding or supporting the Turn-over mission, please contact me or [email protected]