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Equal-Invest
- About Equal-Invest
- Participating Social Enterprises
- Achievements of Equal-Invest
- Benefits of Equal-Invest
- The Story in Pictures
- Evaluation Reports
- Project Record
Resources
Participating Social Enterprises
Brighter Future Workshop
Social mission
The Brighter Future Workshop (BFW) project aims to create a unified community that helps remove barriers for those with disabilities and disadvantages.
Beneficiaries
Young disadvantaged people with disabilities gain skills and employment experience. Users of mobility equipment gain free or low-cost refurbished equipment.
Activities and brief history
BFW collect donated mobility equipment (e.g. electric mobility scooters and wheelchairs), which is repaired in a disability-friendly workshop. Supervised by trained technicians, young disadvantaged people with disabilities assist in the refurbishing of the equipment, which helps them upskill and removes barriers to employment that they face.
BFW opened in June 2005 and grew rapidly in response to demand. BFW has recently moved into premises nearly four times the size of its previous accommodation and now employs six staff. This expansion has mostly been achieved on grant funding.
Aspirations and constraints
To overcome the problem of being dependent on funding, BFW has been working towards self sustainability, for which a larger scale of operations is essential. Opening its larger new unit will stretch BFW's finances, but will also mean that it can take in more fee-paying trainees.
Lack of quality mentoring, especially on how to market its service, has slowed BFW's growth. Finding staff with the right experience and empathy is another problem the company faces.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
The main benefit for BFW would be the professional service provided, especially in areas where they lack sufficient expertise, such as marketing.
The publicity generated by the high profile of this programme will contribute to the growing demand for BFW's outputs - more people with disabilities will learn about the services BFW provide, and all would be aware of all the benefits that BFW brings to its local community .
Key people from organisation involved with Equal-Invest
Peter Cousins, Chairman/Director
GERI Project
Social mission
The GERI Project is a not-for-profit company working to promote all aspects of equality and diversity, challenge outdated gender and ethnic occupational stereotyping, and develop intercultural understanding and respect.
Beneficiaries
GERI offers a wide range of services and skills to public and private sector businesses. It does this through developing and selling learning materials, training, consultancy, events and e-learning.
Activities and brief history
The organisation has been trading since November 2005 and has won some notable contracts from the likes of the LSC. First year turnover was circa 170k, and it is looking to hit between £150k-170k this year.
Specific activities include development of state of the art equality and diversity learning resources, equality and diversity training and consultancy, seminars, workshops and live interactive drama, equality and diversity project and event management, and multimedia, DVD, website and e-learning development.
Aspirations and constraints
GERI hopes to expand its business to achieve comprehensive UK Market penetration as well as develop its products for other EC Partners, in other languages.
The primary obstacle to expansion is that the organisation does not have a business or marketing plan. The foundations of the business were derived from the closure of an Equal project, and the opportunity arose to market the products that had been developed from the project. Immediate success prevented any planning from taking place, as all energies were channelled to delivering work for clients.
GERI has further found it frustrating to experience the wonderful feedback about its Equality & Diversity Learning products, but been unable to develop new resources because of lack of capital and manpower. GERI did manage to invest £16,000 from its first year's earnings into producing a 2007 Equality & Diversity Training Toolkit, but it also had to set up offices, buy capital equipment and pay for professional services from the first years' earnings.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
GERI management believes that the business advisory/mentoring support can help the company to obtain a professional, impartial advisory service in order to better plan and move forward.
Access to further investment for its Equality & Diversity Learning products would also be valuable and welcome, but even if this is not achieved, the basic support described will be very valuable to the company in itself.
Key people from organization involved with Equal-Invest
John Flaherty, Director
Inclusive Solutions
www.inclusive-solutions.org.uk
Social mission
Inclusive Solutions aims to be an independent, flourishing social firm that works with employers, service providers and disabled people to increase opportunities and to assist disabled people in achieving their full potential and independent living.
In so doing Inclusive Solutions will promote social and financial inclusion of disabled people through being a centre of excellence for disability equality training, consultancy, advocacy, career guidance, advice and information.
Its mission is to build a business that will maintain and foster skills to provide a meaningful, quality service for the community. It aims to promote an inclusive society where new opportunities are created to assist, motivate and empower disabled people.
Beneficiaries
The major beneficiaries will be the Local Authorities of Haringey, Enfield, Barnet and Waltham Forest, as well as other public sector organisations, Voluntary and Community Organisations, and businesses providing services to the general public, disabled people and the local community.
Activities and brief history
The organisation was formed as result of the management meeting at the Haringey Equal Access Training programme. HEAT was a 12 day programme for disabled people to train as disability equality consultants. The programme objectives were to:
- develop presentation skills & confidence to enable participants to communicate disability issues to others
- identify helpful tools for participants to plan and deliver disability equality training
- provide knowledge of the Disability Discrimination Act so participants can raise awareness of disabled people's rights to goods and services, employment and training
- provide participants with an understanding of the social model of disability
- promote human rights for disabled people
- provide an opportunity for disabled people to form a training team of consultants to deliver programmes across the Upper Lea Valley.
Inclusive Solutions has been trading informally since January 2006.
Aspirations and constraints
Inclusive Solutions' core business is delivering equality and awareness training to a range of clientele including employers and service providers in the statutory, voluntary and private sectors. It also plans to offer a “training for trainers” type of inductive training for local disabled people who wish to gain skills that will help them engage with local services, the labour market or possibly join Inclusive Solutions itself. It is a small organisation built with staffers who all have personal experience of disability, and have identified the need for guidance on business planning and marketing their services.
The key constraints preventing growth of the business are:
- Time, to establish client relationships;
- Image, to present dynamism;
- Marketing, to establish reputation;
- Planning, to cope with traversing benefits barriers, transitioning, increased growth and profitability;
- Finance, to achieve cash flow from sales income;
- Competitiveness and staying abreast of market developments and changing legislative environment.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
Inclusive Solutions is hoping to obtain assistance in raising finance to build capacity in the form of staff, operational resources and validating market research.
It hopes to benefit from leveraging the professional expertise that this programme provides. This includes:
- writing a professional business plan that will help secure finance from potential investors
- developing financial models and projections to guide decisions
- acquiring powerful marketing packages and high exposure through events, to facilitate penetration of the market
- engaging in an action-learning programme for fast-track development.
Key people from organization involved with Equal-Invest
Kenneth Kowa, Secretary/Business Development Lead
Muddy Icon
Muddy Icon is a not-for-profit dance company which offers young people the opportunity to experiment with dance as a way of promoting social inclusion and combating antisocial behaviour.
It aims to promote dance to men and boys, explore issues relating to young people, create professional performances and offer young people positive artistic experiences working with professionals and other young people.
Beneficiaries
The primary beneficiaries of Muddy Icon's work are disadvantaged young people who are able to take part in its community-based workshops.
Activities and brief history
The group began in April 2006 as a result of having identified a gap in the market in Slough. Young people had restricted access to free provisions in dance training; previously there had been a high number of alternative activities for 13-19 year olds. The existing organisations for dance training were elitist, offered a stilted academic programme and were delivered by female professionals (which can deter young men). Muddy Icon can deliver diverse training in various techniques, open classes to the wider community through funding and competitive prices, and has a mostly male workforce.
Since its establishment, Muddy Icon has received funding for a number of specific projects, and now offers 13-19 urban/commercial dance classes, 13-19 commercial technique intensive summer programmes and 16-25 film making courses. In the future, it will open a theatre school and dance studio using revenue to offer subsidised dance and creative workshops for young people from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds, enabling access to an alternative artistic activity.
Aspirations and constraints
Over the next three years, Muddy Icon hopes to build a dance/creative agency by expanding on its existing employee database and continuing to deliver a high standard of services to a growing client base. It also hopes to develop a weekend theatre school by sourcing a venue to act as a hub to work and introducing regular timetable courses in dance open to various age groups. It wants to develop a professional touring performance - 'Spring Rites' - through public funding, and to identify and rent/buy a space to develop a dance studio by researching the local market and generating enough income to sustain the venue.
The company is constrained by the fact that it is not yet a company limited by guarantee, and that it is growing too fast for the resources it currently has available. It is also reliant upon its majority of income coming through public funding. This creates a lack of stability and the company needs to create the opportunity for more sustainable activity. This will require putting together a business plan and achieving a substantive grant (i.e. more than £10k). Perhaps the main constraint preventing Muddy Icon's growth is time to develop further relationships with prospective clients. Muddy Icon needs to develop a marketing strategy and some key business opportunities.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
Muddy Icon hopes to receive invaluable enterprise and business support, as well as advice and guidance on improving its business practise. It hopes to further its understanding of the industry and to identify weaknesses to be addressed. It wants to create a strong vision, mission, aims and objectives, as well as to prioritise the products it is currently offering. This will require realistic financial and resource projections, and the creation of a relevant business plan, which requires the kind of expertise not yet readily available within the company.
Key people from organisation involved with Equal-Invest
Kevin Condliffe, Director
The African Families Foundation
Social mission
TAFF's purpose is to strengthen grassroots community organisations run by the African Diaspora in the
Beneficiaries
The principle beneficiaries will be women and girls, with those from ethnic minority groups targeted in particular as they are least likely to participate in mainstream forms of exercise, such as games or going to the gym. In practice, users are expected to come from a wide variety of backgrounds, not limited to African communities or women.
Direct customers will be the NHS and Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). Doctors referring their patients to the African Dance Aerobics classes are expected to be the main source of new business.
Activities and brief history
The African Families Foundation (TAFF) is an umbrella organisation for community based organisations (CBOs) from the African Diaspora, founded in 1998. The organisation provides capacity building support to 73 organisations who between them are responding to the needs of over 5,000 families and over 30,000 African men, women and children in
The African community is concerned that the needs of children and African families are not being met. Policies are designed with nuclear families in mind, and fail to take into recognition the values, obligations and practices of the extended family system practised by many in the African community.
TAFF's member community groups are generally poorly resourced and underdeveloped. The organisation has consequently been unable to fund itself through membership fees, which is a common income model for umbrella organisations. Therefore TAFF has been forced to fundraise for projects and run them alongside its activities supporting the membership. A social enterprise strategy will enable the organisation to generate its own income and reduce dependency on charitable funding. It will enable TAFF to build a sustainable platform to support the community organisations it was created to serve.
Its principle activities are:
- capacity building of African community groups in the
TAFF encourages its members to adopt formal structures and best-practice in order to improve their ability to deliver services cost-effectively and to make them more attractive to funders - fundraising support for its membership:
TAFF also actively supports its members in their fundraising efforts with funding alerts, joint bids, networking, bid editing etc.
Aspirations and constraints
Principally, TAFF is attempting to take its African Dance Aerobics programme to the next level, and principle barriers to achieving this include:
- an incomplete organisational restructuring programme, due mainly to inadequate levels of funding and low human resource base
- fundraising challenges
- governance challenges for an organisation of this size and scope
- effective evaluation of current services.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
The programme TAFF has developed and is looking to launch with the help of the Equal-Invest Programme is the provision of African Dance Aerobics classes for ethnic minority groups. It is hoping that general mentoring support might aid this operation and offer a broader, valuable experience to TAFF management.
Key people from organisation involved with Equal-Invest
Nana Ama Amamoo, CEO
West Anglia Crossroads
www.westangliacrossroads.org.uk
Social mission
West Anglia Crossroads Caring for Carers' mission is to promote, offer, support and deliver high-quality services for carers and people with care needs.
Beneficiaries
West Anglia Crossroads gives carers time to be themselves by providing the emotional and practical support they need in order to continue to provide care at home.
Activities and brief history
West Anglia Crossroads was formed in October 2006 and is an affiliated member of the Crossroads Association, a national charity which provides some centralised services. WAC comprises three formerly independent schemes from Huntingdonshire, South and East Cambridgeshire (merged in 2005) and
WAC cares for adults in Huntingdonshire, South and East Cambridgeshire and
It also supports young carers under 19 whose lives are restricted by their caring responsibilities for a family member who has a disability, long term illness, mental health problem or who misuses drugs or alcohol.
Aspirations and constraints
WAC has an annual turnover of £930k, and has recently grown through four mergers to become a countywide organisation. Its challenge is to now manage this change and to recruit new skills into the organisation. It also wants to explore new enterprise opportunities.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
The programme will benefit from objective, external quality business consultancy and a requirement for them to focus priorities around growth.
The demographics are such that the state will not be the main source of funding for respite breaks for carers in the future. The market will switch into individual budgets with more choice for carers and their families. West Anglia Crossroads has a reputation for excellence in one-to-one care and wants to expand its services to offer more choice and options to carers, whilst offering better margins in order to support other areas of need which attract no statutory funding.
It also wants to expand its children's services to include after school and/or holiday clubs for children with disabilities in line with the Local Authority area plan.
Key people from organisation involved with Equal-Invest
Dr Helen Brown, Chief executive
Whitehouse Enterprises
www.whitehouseenterprises.org.uk
Social mission
Whitehouse's vision is for local people who have been disadvantaged by disabilities and health problem to have a variety of opportunities to maximise their skills and self esteem in the world of work and become valued and integrated members of society.
Beneficiaries
For its employment services, Whitehouse's key customers are its primary beneficiaries, including:
- individuals with disabilities and long term health problems
- Suffolk County Council
- Jobcentre Plus
- Department for Work and Pensions
- local health professionals.
- schools/colleges.
For its business goods and services, key customers include:
- many of the local councils,
- construction companies
- private firms
- individuals.
Activities and brief history
Whitehouse Enterprises was established in 1982 as a 'supported factory' to provide permanent employment for severely disabled people. It diversified into the establishment of different production areas over the years, and in 2001, it changed ethos to move a wider group of people with disabilities and health issues through the factory and into mainstream employment. In 2005, it became a pilot enterprise of REALISE project heading toward emerging from Suffolk County Council as an independent social firm.
Current projects include:
- Jobcentre Plus Workstep/Work Prep Contracts: provision of disability employment services.
- 'Creative Sign Solutions': sign manufacture division providing a design, production and erection service to the business community and general public.
- 'Created for You Catering': provision hot meal service, buffet service, sandwich round and new fresh food vending service.
- Sub-contract assembly: various high value added contracts for light electrical and prestige goods.
- Urban and outdoor furniture manufacture: new venture into production of its own product utilising material made from recycled plastic bottles.
- Sub-contract packing: various low skilled hand and machine packing contracts.
Aspirations and constraints
Whitehouse Enterprises has a turnover of £1.5 million and six staff, but it is constrained by still being a part of Suffolk County Council. The company needs guidance to set itself up as an independent business that is not only sustainable but profitable, enabling it to provide a diverse range of employment opportunities for disabled people through the creation of a number of smaller enterprises.
Whitehouse Enterprises intends to restructure each area of operations as a mini enterprise or social firm in its own right with its own branding under the umbrella of Whitehouse Enterprises. For example, its signs division has been branded 'Creative Sign Solutions' and has its own website. Furthermore it is actively seeking new opportunities to create new enterprises and is currently working on a vending and café venture.
The main constraint is being part of Suffolk County Council. Because it is tied into their terms and conditions of the council, Whitehouse Enterprises is unable to adapt and rebalance its staffing structure to respond quickly to business and market needs. It does not have cash flow as all monies are paid in and out of the Council bank account and VAT is not taken into account. Whitehouse Enterprises has a core group of staff that are more in need of care than employment, as the company was originally set up to provide employment for only those with the most severe disabilities unable to get work elsewhere. Suffolk County Council owns Whitehouse Enterprises' premises and equipment and Whitehouse does not yet know whether these will be donated to it when it sets up an independent legal structure. TUPE (transfer of undertakings) issues also need to be addressed.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
Whitehouse Enterprises is hoping that the Equal-Invest programme will help it operate independently from Suffolk County Council, and help with restructuring and creating a competitive and profitable set of businesses. This will enable it to achieve its mission without reliance on ongoing grant funding.
Key people from organisation involved with Equal-Invest
Peter Cousins, Chairman/Director
Bikeworks CIC
Social mission
Bikeworks' mission is to become a vibrant sustainable enterprise and a community cycling hub delivering many social and environmental benefits. It also hopes to establish a model for replication in other
It is aiming to promote cycling as a healthy option and to provide vocational training and employment to disabled groups through its bike-recycling programme.
Beneficiaries
The principle beneficiaries are community groups and schools based in the London Boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Newham, as well as corporate entities based in the above boroughs.
Activities and brief history
The company has been trading from September 2006 and, to date, has chalked up some notable successes. These include an impressive array of clientele and relationships with service providers and contract providers in the
Bikeworks operates and trades on two principal levels. First, it delivers a variety of bike services to the public, including bicycle and accessory sales (including affordable 'recycled', second hand bikes), bike hire, repairs and cycle training. Second, it delivers community-focused bike programmes on contract through the public and voluntary sector. This includes working with schools, disability groups, health promotion schemes and training into work.
Aspirations and constraints
Bikeworks aims to develop a sustainable model that could be replicable and operational across London and the UK. As a start-up, its primary constraint is lack of capital for human resources and premises to meet demand for growth.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
Bikeworks is seeking professional support in raising funding so that it is able to meet the demand for growth with the necessary manpower to carry it out, as well as to meet the capital costs of the refurbishment of organisational premises.
Key people from organisation involved with Equal-Invest
Dave Miller, director
CDA For Herts
Social mission
CDA For Herts represents the needs and concerns of the rural community in Hertfordshire. The services it provides include a transport project for young people, a village hall advisory service, local affordable housing projects and other community-assistance-related projects. The organisation delivers services on behalf of bodies such as local councils, EEDA and EEFA. Overall, its mission is to enable and strengthen rural communities and to be a champion for rural community sustainability.
Beneficiaries
The organisation's main beneficiary is the Hertfordshire rural community, which has seen tangible results and a betterment of public services as a direct result of CDA For Herts' operations.
Activities and brief history
CDA for Herts was established in January 1966. The organisation acts as the Rural Community Council for Hertfordshire and, in recent years, it has worked closely with five other RCCs to form a regional charity - Rural Action East (RAE). This, in turn, links to a national body that lobbies on behalf of its members to ensure a rural voice is heard.
CDA for Herts has successfully delivered projects under Service Level Agreements on behalf of a number of organisations such as local councils, authorities and Trusts, as well as bodies such as Defra, EEDA and EEFA.
Aspirations and constraints
Due to a new CEO's appointment, there has been a culture change in CDA for Herts, with a focus on the organisation moving towards social enterprises and trading in several services. Its first enterprise is 'Liquid Gold', which is a bio diesel production project for Hertfordshire. It is carrying out a feasibility study on bio-diesel production, and intends to roll out the enterprise in two stages:
- Producing and selling bio-diesel from waste cooking oil collected from local sources.
- Including the farmers in growing the crop and converting it to cooking oil and retailing to local outlets (especially in the public sector).
Structuring and launching this new enterprise is the organisation's immediate challenge. Its principle constraints are capital to purchase processing equipment, and revenue for staffing, set-up and marketing.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
CDA currently relies wholly on grant funding and needs to develop new sustainable revenue streams. Assistance with the business planning process under the Equal-Invest programme would be a great step forward in achieving this aim. The organisation further requires assistance accessing new routes to loan finance that will assist cashflow of the new business venture.
It sees the programme as an excellent opportunity to 'grow' its business, consolidate its position within rural areas, learn from other projects, receive expert support and guidance which will ultimately enable it to be self funded.
Key people from organisation involved with Equal-Invest
Kate Belinis, CEO
Commedia Sheffield
Social mission
Commedia Sheffield is a community media organisation providing training in media and ICT skills, offering public access to the Internet and providing users with access to media production and broadcast facilities.
Its vision is to provide a dynamic, positive and outward-looking urban community media service celebrating the diversity of Sheffield with many voices, accents, stories, music and languages.
Beneficiaries
The beneficiaries are those who have access to the services that Commedia has to offer, including:
- an Internet radio service and full-time community radio service on FM
- a public drop-in facility
- regular training courses
- mentoring support and guidance.
Activities and brief history
Commedia Sheffield started as a radio and ICTs training project for young people. It was contacted by local festival organisers to develop a community radio station for the annual Sharrow Community Festival in 2000. It developed this into an annual short term (28 day) summer broadcast for Sheffield and supported other organisations with short term broadcasts.
In September 2001 it was registered as a company limited by guarantee. It also established a board and took over trading operations of the project from 1 April 2002. In 2002 it relocated to bigger premises with £600,000 capital funding to enable the building of a bespoke training and broadcasting facility. On the back of the funding received, Commedia launched the new company and premises in 2002 with 4 full time staff.
In 2003, it secured a £350,000 ERDF contract for training and support to other community media enterprises in South Yorkshire. It applied in November 2004 for a full-time broadcast licence and established a membership scheme in 2005. To date it has recruited an average of 1,200 new users a year, of which 60% are from BME groups.
In February 2006 Commedia Sheffield was awarded an FM community radio licence to serve the City of
Aspirations and constraints
Commedia needs capital investment for new and replacement equipment, and to expand its facilities to meet demand and to build a long term sustainable economic base. It needs business advice and expertise to assist it to better exploit the potential for the generation of commercial revenue from its media-related activities.
Commedia faces internal constraints in terms of lack of business expertise in some key areas for new commercial development, the need to relocate, and starting from a low capital base. It faces external constraints in that there are few sources of capital and core revenue funding for this type of business and no similar local business models.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
Commedia is keen to call on independent professional expertise at what is a critical stage in its business development as it is looking to adjust its business model to a more commercially facing approach with less dependency on grant income and training contracts.
It is hoped that the Equal-Invest programme can assist with refining a sustainable business model, building a strong marketing and sales package and raising the investment for business development and growth, including investment in the premises relocation, building works and fit-out of the community media enterprise centre.
Key people from organisation involved with Equal-Invest
Sangita Basudev, Chief executive
Compass Peterborough
Social mission
Compass fights poverty, deprivation and discrimination. It provides furniture, household goods and legal advice to people who are in greatest need. It also recycles electrical goods for reuse in the community.
Beneficiaries
Compass's main beneficiaries are the deprived and disadvantaged citizens and communities in
Activities and brief history
Compass is a Peterborough-based registered charity and company limited by guarantee. It is managed by volunteers, including a voluntary Board of Trustees that represents industry, commerce, the community and local city councillors. A CEO with 18 full-time staff and two part-time staff are supported by more than 80 volunteers and trainees run the company.
Compass has been providing goods and services to the most deprived residents of
Compass is made up of many services. These include:
- SOFA: SOFA recycles furniture and white goods, which are sold cheaply to people on benefits. In 2006, it had over 8000 clients.
- Community shops: These are based in the most deprived areas of the city and sell donated clothing and household goods. These satisfy the needs of the customers and are not fundraising activities.
- RESTORE: RESTORE recycles non-toxic commercial waste products, which are then used by community groups on art projects. It has 350 members and has 5500 visits annually.
- IT: IT recycles computers and white goods for reuse. Compass now has all the licences for the WEEE legislation.
- Step One: Step One provides legal advice on welfare, benefits, employment law, debts and employment. It had over 800 clients in 2006, many with complex cases.
- Partnership House: This is an outreach facility on
- Training : Compass delivers training for unemployed people to give them the skills and confidence to re-enter the job market. There were over 75 trainees in 2006.
- Rainbow Credit Union: Compass runs the
Aspirations and constraints
Every year demand for all of Compass' services grows. The advice centre has a long waiting list. It needs more solicitors and interpreters to deal with ethnic minority clients. Simultaneously, the demand for furniture and white goods is also growing with more people on benefit, more single parent families and a growing immigrant population. The introduction of the WEEE legislation, outlining businesses' obligations to recycle electrical and electronic equipment, will increase supply of electrical goods for recycling and reuse.
The biggest challenge faced by Compass is Peterborough's growing immigrant population. 25,000 new immigrants from all over the world have moved to the city in the last two years (particularly from Eastern Europe), and this number is likely to rise. There are now more than 60 languages are spoken in the city, and Compass is finding that it now cannot communicate with most immigrants because of language barriers. Many have arrived with nothing and are desperately in need of housing, furniture and household goods.
The real challenge for Compass came 16 months ago when its chief executive/ accountant resigned. The company quickly discovered £240,000 of hidden debt that threatened the future of the organisation. Through the hard work and dedication of the management and board and the support of Esmee Fairbairn and ICOF, much of the debt has been repaid, other debt has been rescheduled and Compass is again trading profitably. The exercise has decimated Compass' reserves, and cash flow has to be carefully monitored.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
Financial investment is always useful; but the skills, experience and objectivity the Equal-Invest programme will bring to Compass would prove to be more important. Compass managers will increase their knowledge, experience and their ability to think outside the box. Help with specific skills, particularly HR, marketing and PR, will be particularly beneficial. The company is also in need of improved governance, leadership, direction and strategic planning. It sees the programme as an opportunity to grow and to take Compass to the next level and hopes that it will be challenged to reach its full potential.
Key people from organisation involved with Equal-Invest
Stella Keir, CEO
Elemental Worldwide
Social mission
Elemental's mission is to embed human development, leadership capacity and psychological intelligence into social structures and individual lives by designing and delivering state-of-the-art, disruptive and landmark products as well as media content/experiences that individually and together act as systemic change agents for the encouragement of communities that are psychologically powerful, emotionally sustainable (therefore economically and environmentally sustainable) and prosperous all over the world.
'What Jamie Oliver did for cooking, we want to do for mental wellbeing, emotional freedom and human development.'
Beneficiaries
Below are the major beneficiaries, according to the products that Elemental offers:
- Social toolkits: Ethnic minorities, children/parents, prisoners, youth offenders, asylum seekers and immigrants and other marginalised and excludes groups, including child soldiers and former combatants in developing counties;
- Corporate/retail toolkits: Middle and junior management, skilled workers and shop-floor workers;
- Productions: The general public.
Elemental's principle customers will be as follows:
- Institutional: NHS, Prison Service, PCTs, local government
- Corporate: BBC learning team
- Foundations/Funds: ESF, Arts Council.
Activities and brief history
The organisation was started by the founders over two years ago, and has refined and honed its vision, mission and strategy continuously since inception. It was originally envisaged as both a service unit (providing such services as leadership and empowerment training, and coaching) which would be supported by a product line. However, a decision was made to prioritise full scalability by focusing on developing stand-alone products (toolkits) that deliver the most empowerment for human development with the least burden to the end user.
The tools that have been created to date include:
- weCoach: 'for creating in the world'
A peer or 'buddy' based toolkit that delivers state-of-the-art leadership empowerment, leadership coaching and training. It can be customised for different target uses (e.g. ethnic minority integration, social entrepreneurship, success at school etc.) and is currently being tested with the University of Central England. - iFree: 'for getting OK with where you are at'
A self managed counselling and emotional intelligence toolkit that aims to relieve depression, anxiety and psychological pain. It is currently being tested at a women's prison in the Midlands with 30 prisoners taking part in a trial. - @Peace: A specific version of the self-managed counselling and emotional intelligence toolkit focused on post-conflict psychological healing (for which the proposed target beneficiaries will be former soldiers and child combatants).
- Books:
The Nowist Manifesto is nearly complete and will be a further product available as a 'tool'. - Elemental Productions: TV programmes, features, audio content, publications and live experiences that inspire audiences with the benefits of human development, honing life skills, learning mental wellbeing techniques and self-managed positivity. The partners of Elemental, for the most part, present programmes independently.
Aspirations and constraints
Elemental currently has three full-time employees with very strong experience in the field of leadership and marketing, and a strong market demand for their services. It needs financial investment to scale, and is seeking guidance on fundraising and the challenges of doing everything that needs to be done to grow a values-led enterprise.
It is facing a number of significant constraints:
- Bandwidth: At present the three full time employees don't have time to do all the things that need to be done to push the company over the first big growth hump, nor are they sure what to prioritise, let go of, or focus on to remain truly values-led.
- Hiring skills: Elemental needs to find the right values-led, yet technically competent, people, without overspending.
- Expansion capital: The company has a core technology ready to be customised and delivered to needy communities assuming it can generate the funds (investment, income and funding) necessary to create the right infrastructure and team.
- Grant winning, institutional and product sales and investment attracting skills: The company would benefit from increased knowledge on how to write proposals, court investors and sell products on a large scale.
- Non-execs, trustees etc: the company wishes to attract and keep key members on its advisory team.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
Elemental wants to become investment-ready. Being more investment-ready should assist it in the transition to larger scale delivery of its products and events, allowing for scalable social impact.
Key people from organisation involved with Equal-Invest
Nick Jankel-Elliott, Founding partner and CEO
Tom Fortes Mayer, Founding partner and Technology director
Emmaus Bristol
Social mission
Emmaus Bristol's objective is to give home and work to homeless and destitute people in a community setting. Those who join are called Companions as it is through shared experience that people are moved forward from dependency and poverty to interdependency and self reliance.
Beneficiaries
Through its business recycling and reusing donated household goods for resale, Emmaus Bristol provides meaningful work for Companions meanwhile moving towards its goal of becoming self sufficient through its work. Much of what is sold is at a low price and bought by people on low incomes.
Activities and brief history
Emmaus Bristol was formed in 1998 by
In 2000 a suitable building was found and by 2003, £1.3 million had been secured, mainly from individuals and grant making trusts, and the building works were completed. The Emmaus Bristol Community opened in October 2003.
By January 2007 the income from the social business was averaging £2,500 per week. Two former homeless people who joined as Companions in 2003 have also been made members of staff.
Aspirations and constraints
Emmaus Bristol has seven employees, a turnover of nearly £500k and has the immediate need for an expanded workshop area and better marketing of its services. It aims to become financially self supporting and carbon neutral over the next three years.
The primary barriers to achieving these goals are the size of the workshop building, which limits its ability to recycle and sell, and its ability to market itself effectively as it is a very young organisation.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
Emmaus Bristol, through bringing in outside expertise in the form of mentors under the Equal-Invest programme, hopes to move towards its objective of becoming financially self sufficient through its social business. It wants to be able to identify future opportunities and enhance internal competence as well as develop and grow its social business activities. Eventually it hopes to acquire funding for the acquisition of a new workshop and retail space.
Key people from organization involved with Equal-Invest
Richard Pendlebury
Emmaus Gloucestershire
Social mission
Emmaus Gloucestershire offers up to 21 homeless men and women a home, where they can feel safe and secure as part of a supportive community which provides work and the chance to rebuild self respect.
Beneficiaries
The primary beneficiaries are homeless men and women, who are given a home and the opportunity to work full time in the community businesses owned by the organisation. Consequently, the community is also a beneficiary, as the extra help enables it to achieve self sufficiency.
Activities and brief history
Emmaus Gloucestershire is one of thirteen Emmaus communities in the
The major successes of Emmaus Gloucester have been the provision of its services to 21 homeless men and women to date. In the past year, it has increased the number of bedrooms in its community home from 16 to 23.
It has three retail outlets in Nailsworth, Cheltenham and Gloucester all run by staff and volunteers as traditional charity shops selling bric a brac, clothing, books, china, glass and furniture. The company is financially sustainable with 9.5 full-time employees and a turnover of £400k.
Its reuse and recycling operations have further had a positive impact on the environment and public finances. Although the exact measure of the contribution of the
Aspirations and constraints
The new General Manager (appointed July 2007), in accord with the Board of Trustees, has outlined a vision to increase solidarity actions, and grow the area served in Gloucestershire both in terms of homeless persons and reuse activities. This means developing and implementing a marketing strategy to take advantage of new market opportunities.
Significant constraints are the General Manager's newness to the organisation, her lack of retail marketing experience, and the amount of time available to receive training, seek advisors and contributors to develop and execute a plan.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
The organisation is seeking to improve its operations and to understand the options available to it for increasing the number of homeless people it serves.
It seeks to expand its trading activities into the market in neighbouring Stroud where there is currently no furniture recycling operation and anticipates that access to the programme will help it assess the feasibility and viability of these expansion plans in a professional manner.
The organisation needs to raise funding to enable it achieve self sufficiency by reducing its current reliance on both the government and subventions from the central Emmaus community.
As such, Emmaus Gloucestershire believes it would greatly benefit from professional mentoring, consultant support and intensive training, all in support of its desired growth. Depending on the outcome of its Stroud feasibility study, it may also benefit from access to investment funding.
Key people from organization involved with Equal-Invest
Maureen Margrie, General Manager
DHIVERSE
Social mission
DHIVERSE's vision is of a time when people do not die of AIDS, a time when HIV is not met with stigma and discrimination and a time when communities have come together to prevent HIV and sexual ill-health and to provide equal and fair access to high quality services and support.
Beneficiaries
Key beneficiary groups are people living with HIV (largely represented by MSMs/BME groups), young people, who receive general sexual health services rather than HIV specifically, and other target communities - i.e. prisoners, IDU's, the homeless and sex workers. In addition, the general public is a beneficiary for the increased awareness and fundraising campaigns that DHIVERSE brings to the community.
Activities and brief history
Cambridge AIDS Helpline was set up by as group of friends in 1986 who were concerned at the lack of information and support available around HIV/AIDS locally. It changed its name in 2001 to Cambridge DHIVERSE - Developing HIV Education, Resources and Support and is now called DHIVERSE.
It has developed significantly to reflect the changes in the epidemiology of the HIV epidemic within the
DHIVERSE works primarily within Cambridgeshire and the surrounding areas in the East of England. The work of the company can be split into 3 broad overlapping areas: HIV prevention and the promotion of sexual health, support and empowerment projects for people with HIV and campaigning on issues that affect people with HIV and more broadly, sexual health. DHIVERSE has 11 full-time employees, a turnover of £400k and is aiming to increase its capacity, expand premises and build and maintain new partnerships.
Aspirations and constraints
Its internal vision is to grow and develop to become a regional provider of the services outlined (and some specific programme developments), working through partnerships with other local providers, and undertaking direct delivery in the counties surrounding Cambridgeshire. With this vision DHIVERSE would be a powerful voice for people with HIV within the region, and recognised nationally as a centre of excellence.
The major constraints currently facing DHIVERSE fall under three categories:
- Infrastructure and capacity - Its key constraint to growth is infrastructure, particularly internal systems and development/representation capacity. Currently most of its staff members are tied to direct service delivery through contracts and other funding. To sustain its growth in the longer term it needs to invest in functions such as finance, monitoring, evaluation and social auditing, development, and other back room functions.
- Premises - Its main premises is now too small due to the company's growth over the past 3 years, and as it is based in a listed building, it is not fully accessible. If it is to continue to grow, it needs larger offices to support this, which it hopes to acquire as a partnership with other providers to enable the sharing of resources and learning. Its services and what it can offer are also constrained by its premises, which hinders its development in reaching new service users.
- Partnerships and Development - Currently it is constrained in its development by not having the capacity to develop and maintain the partnerships and collaboratives that it sees as vital to consolidate its work in Cambridgeshire and support its growth into the regional market, which is a key objective of the company over the next five years.
Motivation for participating in Equal-Invest
DHIVERSE believes that this programme will give it a real opportunity to develop the skills to underpin its current growth with a sustainable portfolio of resources and further develop its ability to innovate to meet customer and beneficiary needs. It also believes that the skills that it would gain as an organisation from the Invest programme will enable it to market itself in a more effective and targeted way and support its planned growth in tendering for statutory contracts. By participating in this programme, DHIVERSE further hopes that the programme will allow it to make a step change in its development, to move in the regional market place and to achieve this in a sustainable way. DHIVERSE invests in its board, staff and volunteers and sees this programme as a real opportunity to learn and develop to further its ability to make a real difference in the lives of the people it works with.
Key people from organization involved with Equal-Invest
Luke Mallett, General Manager/Company Secretary