The Steve Sinnott Foundation (SSF) work at a grassroots level to make a change to education across the globe - working in partnership with educators to deliver projects ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. 

We were so pleased to have The Steve Sinnott Foundation sign up as Big Draw Sponsor Partners for this year's Festival: Make the Change. It was a treat to catch up with Ann Beatty, CEO of The Steve Sinnott Foundation, to find out more about the important work they do and how they have celebrated The Big Draw Festival #MaketheChange...

Interview: Matilda Barratt in conversation with Ann Beatty.

Could you start by telling us about Steve Sinnott’s life and work?

Steve Sinnott died suddenly in April 2008. He had devoted his career to the achievement and provision of Education for All. As a teacher in Liverpool and Preston, and as General Secretary of the National Education of Teachers (NEU). Steve’s story was one of commitment to education that grew to encompass ever greater spheres. From his Toxteth classroom to Addis Ababa prison that held the president of the Ethiopian Teachers’’ Association to the Halls of the United Nations and the Commonwealth Secretariat, where he pushed tirelessly for international cooperation to broaden access to education across the world. Steve’s vision was that teachers, educators, local initiatives and international agencies could unite around a common goal: Education for All.

As Steve said when presenting the Hugh Gaitskell Memorial Lecture in 2007, “I think there are those who are hopeful supporters and activists for justice, human rights and equality; and there are the rest. Those who exude hope and optimism, generate the energy and stimulate the progress that we in education and progressive trade unionism, for example work for. I find such people are as fascinated as I think I am by the liberating power of education in this country and across the world”. The Steve Sinnott Foundation was established to continue this work.

Why was the Steve Sinnott Foundation (SSF) established? Tell us a bit about the work that you all do...

Our work comes under 3 main themes: Access to education; Resources for educators; and Education Dialogue.

The Steve Sinnott Foundation works with teachers and educators to deliver projects that progress the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4 - ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. We are proud to work toward making this goal a reality.

We are working at a grassroots level to make a change to education across the globe. We do this by working in partnership with educators on the ground, who scope and manage each project locally, so it is fit for purpose, respects the local culture and is sustainable and where possible replicable. We work with teachers to create independence not dependency. 

And what about yourself? What is your role within the organisation, how long have you been there and what did you do before?

I am the CEO and I have been with SSF for 5 years. My background is in community development and my passion is supporting people to access education and live their best lives, particularly women and girls. I have worked internationally as a coach and mentor and I have recently discovered my creative side which I am now enjoying sharing and developing my learning with others.

These past 18 months have had - and continue to have - an enormous impact on vulnerable people who do not have access to adequate learning resources. Could you share a bit about your work assessing education during Covid?

We have seen schools closed to over 1.6 million students globally. Although schools have reopened in many countries, globally many children may never return to school and for those that do, their education has been interrupted. We have had to be flexible and open-minded to how projects might work in the future and adapt our work to fit the local needs.

One thing that the pandemic has illustrated to everyone is just how connected we all are to each other. We do not exist in bubbles, our groups are made up of people in other groups, who are connected to more groups and so on. We have seen not just the virus spread rapidly, not just through a country but across the world. We are all connected across the world.

Lack of education, and therefore opportunities, is something we are passionate about changing. We believe that Education is a human right for all children, it should not matter where they were born, who they were born to or their gender; children should expect access to a quality education as that is what gives them choices for their future.

Within the U.K. people may be concerned with how we can fix our own problems, but without fixing problems globally new challenges will be created, which affect us all equally. The thing about the international work we do is that it can get forgotten at a time like this, as we are all heads down dealing with similar problems here in the U.K. 

We are continuing to work in solidarity with our colleagues across the globe who are doing amazing work, educators who are often on very low salaries, who often do not have electricity and running water let alone connectivity to on-line learning. In some places gender-based violence has doubled during the pandemic, women and girls are still using rags when they have their period and children are not learning at all.

We are continuing to invest in safe learning and we are asking you to continue to support us, where you can:

• Girls in many countries are missing 50 days a year just because they have their monthly period. We are continuing to roll out our training programme in The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Uganda, Cuba and Haiti which teaches girls and women about menstrual health, how to take care of their bodies and to make their own period pads. These pads are locally made using locally sourced materials, affordable, sustainable, reusable and washable, yet long lasting, comfortable and very importantly eco-friendly.
• Global digital divide – In some rural areas the internet is not available or if it is, it is not affordable. We have so far kept over 5,000 children learning in The Gambia through the provision of solar radios and setting up a digital classroom and a learning resource centre.
• In certain areas in The Gambia and Sierra Leone, gender-based violence has more than doubled during the pandemic. We are continuing a teacher training programme which works to prevent, recognise and support women who have experienced GBV.
• We have been sharing learning through the Lifelong Learning webinar series. The partners and teachers we work with are doing amazing work across the globe, and we have been trialling ways to share some of this learning so it’s available to an ever-widening audience. The webinars are carefully selected to support teaching and learning, mental health and wellbeing and creativity and entrepreneurial skills.

You can read more about our work here.

We use the term ‘visual literacy’ a lot - regarding its relevance across a breadth of different professions as well as its vital role in day-to-day life. I’m interested to know what it means to you?

Visual literacy feels very important to me. Not everyone has access to learning to read and write and certainly not in their mother tongue language so it can be extraordinarily challenging for them to communicate their feelings and be heard. I think visual imagery, whatever the form, plays a vital part in communicating and knowing each other. In another life we worked with a group of people living in a shared setting and they put together an amazing comic book explaining some of the do’s and don’ts of shared living which worked so much better than a list of rules.

This year’s Big Draw Festival theme is ‘Make the Change’, looking towards a more balanced and sustainable way of living, and challenging the status quo. How does this theme resonate with you and the work that you do at the Steve Sinnott Foundation?

Our work is all about change and we have been giving a voice to young people for many years through storytelling and advocacy. The last 18 months have allowed us to explore the arts through the lifelong learning webinars and this has resulted in a real sense of belonging for us as an organisation. Many of our partners have said “it feels like being part of a family’. 

What motivated you to take part in The Big Draw Festival, and what do you hope to achieve?

It felt like the right time to think about how we can support creative learning through the arts, whilst thinking about how young people can be heard and make a difference in their communities and the wider world. So, we decided the theme of human rights was a really relevant topic for this time. We reached out to The Big Draw to learn from you about the arts and how we might develop our learning.

Do you have any exciting things in the pipeline for #MaketheChange?

We are launching a global competition for schools: Creating Change – The World I Want to Live In. The link to the competition page can be found here, and resource page here.

I would like to thank all our partners for their collaboration, the educators who brought the resource pack to life, the artists for their inspiration and everyone who played a part in making this happen. 

Myah Jeffers

Ellie Barrett

Alfonso Montellano Lopez

Finally, for anyone reading this and wanting to know how they can support the Steve Sinnott Foundation - how can people get involved, and what can they do to help?

These are some of the ways that you can support the Steve Sinnott Foundation:

• Spread the word to schools and colleges and youth groups. 
• Follow us on social media and share and like our posts.
• Write a guest blog or deliver a creative webinar.
• Sign up for our webinars and join the conversation.
• Buy a charity gift to support access to education.

Thank you Ann!

If you were inspired by this interview with Ann and would like to find out more about The Steve Sinnott Foundation, head to their website here.

There's still time to register for The Big Draw Festival 2021: Make the Change! Find out more about the benefits of becoming an organiser here and other ways to support The Big Draw's mission here.