YouthNet blog
An insight into youth issues, volunteering trends, charity life and more from the UK charity YouthNet
All | Events | Youth | Technology | Volunteering | YouthNet | Charity World
Friday Jul 07, 2006
Name calling
Spare a thought for the trustees of the Leonard Cheshire Foundation. It's difficult for any charity to consider changing its name, but you don't expect to be vilified by Max Hastings in The Daily Mail (that sort of treatment is normally reserved for charities like YouthNet).
Max is is typically understated form. Angry that a name change is being considered in order to make the organisation better understood, he calls it "a sordid business, which leaves a rotten taste."
Sordid? This is the largest UK voluntary sector provider of support to disabled people. They are trying, presumably, to make sure that they do their work as effectively as possible. The charity is there to do the work, not to serve as a memorial to war hero Leonard Cheshire.
Had the management and trustees tried to do this in private without any consultation that might be different. But in fact they emailed supporters well in advance to say that this was being considered. Stung by Hastings' attack they have now issued a statement to further clarify the situation.
Despite being one of the largest charities in the country we are not well known - only one in five people under the age of 35 recognises the name ‘Leonard Cheshire’ and an even smaller number associate us with the support of disabled people. In view of this we are exploring options that would give an immediate clear understanding of our support for disabled people whilst still maintaining “Leonard Cheshire” in the name.
A name change might, of course, be counter-productive (free registration required) but Leonard Cheshire should be allowed to have a full and reasoned debate without being distracted by the hysteria of Max Hastings and The Daily Mail.
Posted by Tom Green ( 9:07 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]