Kisharon’s first major event under Richard Franklin’s stewardship was the topping out ceremony for its £13.6 million new school campus in Hendon, which is due to open in September 2020.
The state-of-the-art free school will enable the learning disability charity to educate 72 pupils from the ages of four to 19 in four dedicated educational units. The current Kisharon school in Golders Green has 33 pupils and it is a measure of the growth of the charity that Mr Franklin anticipates demand outstripping supply for the enlarged facility.
He took over as CEO, initially on an acting basis, following the departure of Dr Beverley Jacobson to become Norwood’s chief executive.
The Highgate Synagogue member brings financial acumen to the role (he joined the charity in 2013 as fundraising and communications director) as well as a background in the legal world.
Although the school project will understandably be his key focus, Mr Franklin is equally keen to develop educational, training, work and housing opportunties for those with significant learning disabilities.
“It is about maximising people’s talents, enabling them to live in their own homes and ensuring they have meaningful lives beyond the formal education we offer.”
Kisharon currently has 350 clients, ranging in age from children at its integrated Tuffkid nursery to people in their late 40s.
The core clientele is around 150, predominantly from North and North-West London.
There is a popular misconception that it primarily supports the strictly Orthodox community but service users hail fairly evenly from Charedi, mainstream and secular families. “People come to Kisharon because of its quality learning services, run with a Jewish ethos.”
Thirty-two people reside in its supported living schemes and the acquisition of another property in Temple Fortune will take the total to 38 within the next year. There are around 30 on the waiting list for places and Mr Franklin hopes Kisharon can house an additional five or six every year.
Those in the homes receive 24/7 assistance with life skills such as washing, dressing cooking and shopping. “Cooking is important as some people with learning disability have to understand moderation in appetite, otherwise weight complications can set in.”
Each new home costs the charity well in excess of £1 million, once refurbishment is included. These funds have to be raised separately from the £2.3 million Kisharon has to find from the community to make up the shortfall in its £7 million annual budget.
The charity also had to raise £8.5 million towards the cost of the school campus and is within £750,000 of its target.
“We live in a cynical age but people really do respond to us for community-minded reasons,” he said. “It’s the stuff that gets me out of bed in the morning.”
Kisharon clients complete 6,000 work hours a year (80 per cent of them remunerated) and Mr Franklin is ambitious for them, saying: “This may sound very New Age hippy but I don’t see any limits.
“Evaluating risks is a part of learning and you have to take really challenging decisions.” He cites the example of clients being taught to use public transport. “But what happens if their train doesn’t turn up?”
Some hold down jobs in accountancy firms, bakeries and central London hotels. “One wanted to work in a hospital so we arranged it with Great Ormond Street. It didn’t work out but it was still a positive.”
The charity continues to provide a variety of training and employment opportunities through its social enterprise programmes. These include a well established bike repair operation, plus gifts and homeware and print and design ventures, which connect to its Temple Fortune retail outlet, Equal.
There is also Kisharon’s administration of Childs Hill Library, about which Mr Franklin is particularly enthusiastic. As well as dealing with lenders, clients liaise with community organisations which hold activities there.
“One takes a storytelling class for a mums and tots group. It gives them confidence and experience for entering the wider workplace.”
