2022 was a turbulent time for many charities, social enterprises and community organisations. We wanted to start the year with a bit of positivity, celebrating the impact created by inspirational individuals, with help from social investment.
Our Celebrating Changemakers campaign spotlighted five individuals from five organisations that have secured social investment to enable them to grow and scale the impact they are able to create for the communities they serve, truly changing the dial for the social issues they tackle in 2023 and beyond.
Halting Homelessness
In 2022, the risk of homelessness in England rose by 11% in just three months, demonstrating the magnitude of the challenge facing vulnerable individuals in society in 2022. With the Cost of Living Crisis likely to push a further 1.7 million UK households into homelessness, something needs to change – and quickly.
Greater Change is a Community Interest Company that helps individuals to become free of homelessness. The organisation was formed to overcome the lack of safe savings-means for people experiencing homelessness, an empathy-driven, online giving platform to work closely alongside existing support services.
In our first podcast of the series, we caught up with Jonathan to chat through their journey so far, including their experiences with social investment; they secured Crowdfunding Investment with support from Ethex, and were able to raise £400,000 to help them to scale the impact they deliver.
“We have been able to bring more capable hands-on board and this has allowed us to grow our reach and support even more people to take large steps out of homelessness. It has meant we are able to concentrate on important tasks at hand and we are able to stop having to spin 20 plates each.”
Listen to the podcast today to better understand the impact of homelessness in the context of 2022 and how Greater Change is helping to build financial resilience within their clients to create a lasting impact.
Defeating Discrimination
A Stonewall survey in 2022 revealed that 41% of trans men and trans women said they had experienced a hate crime or incident because of their gender identity, while 1/10 LGBT people have faced domestic abuse from a partner in the last 12 months. This is telling, not only of how long we, as a society, have to go to tackle the disproportionate barriers facing LGBTQI Communities in the long-term but also the essential need to provide safe spaces in the short-term.
Circus Strong is a Community Organisation dedicated to providing friendly, judgement-free aerial and fitness classes, particularly welcoming the LGBTQ+ community and those suffering with poor mental health.
The next episode features Founder, Holly Hutchinson, who reflects on her own lived experience of transitioning and the discrimination she experienced as a result. They secured £35,000 in an unsecured loan from Key Fund to help them to provide a fantastic space and high-quality equipment for the communities they serve.
“Trying to do something that would help reduce the discrimination against the LGBTQ community was always key to me. Getting to combine it with my passion for aerial circus and quit my old project management job was a dream come true. Knowing I’m helping others feel safe and build confidence genuinely brings a smile to my face every day.”
Listen now to explore how social investment can be used to kickstart an organisation and create real impact for underrepresented communities.
Empowering Employability
In the UK, 771,000 young people are not in education, employment or training (NEET), representing 11.2% of 16-24 year-olds and young people receiving free school meals are twice as likely to be NEET. This is particularly concerning, given the need for them to gain work experience, build confidence and begin learning key life skills while in employment.
ThinkForward is a charity that works to empower young people in the UK through an innovative long-term coaching programme, equipping young people with the skills and experience they need to move into work after they finish school.
The third episode of this series spotlights Ashley McCaul, CEO of Think Forward and focuses on their DFN (Delivering Future Now) Move Forward programme, which works with young people who have mild disabilities in London, Kent and the West Midlands to support them into sustainable employment. They borrowed £400,000 in the form of an unsecured loan from Big Issue Invest to support them in delivering this programme.
“Social investment has presented us with an opportunity to innovate and test out new ways to support more young people. Without this flexible and long-term financial support option, creation of new programmes would have been slower and potentially less impactful. Our experience with our social investor has given us the confidence to learn “what works” and to keep pushing to identify ways to improve employment outcomes for young people.”
Listen to the podcast now to understand more about the current challenges facing young people in entering employment and how ThinkForward is detrimental in supporting those journeys.
Spotlighting Sustainability
In today’s consumerist society, garments are the second highest at-risk product for modern slavery while fast fashion produces more carbon emissions per minute than driving a car around the world six times. Harrowing figures for an industry in desperate need of change, at a pivotal point in time for the Climate Emergency.
Amschela is a Bristol-based affordable luxury accessory design brand, that is clear on their social responsibility to protect the environment and seeks to serve a circular business model with 100% traceability of all materials used in products by 2025. They are also a PETA-approved brand and a keen supporter of young persons from disadvantaged backgrounds wishing to enter the fashion industry.
This episode focuses on Keri Andriana, and her journey with Amschela from start to finish.
“My hope for the future is that we see a more sustainable world and a lot more businesses taking on the challenge of climate change and thinking about what they can do to help others.”
Listen now to learn more about her experiences of running a small business, taking on social investment from Bristol and Bath Regional Capital last year and what that’s meant for her and Amschela moving forward…
Fighting Food Poverty
Annual food inflation jumped to 13.3 per cent in December 2022, up again from 12.4 per cent in November, meanwhile the latest statistics provided by Government show that 4.6 million people (6%) are living in food poverty. This includes 9% of all children in the UK. The UK’s rate of food poverty is among the worst in Europe and community organisations across the country have had to pivot their services in line with this need.
Poole Communities Trust aims to promote economic and community growth across Poole. They run a community food store once a week in both areas, which provides surplus food from supermarkets, local allotments and other essentials. People join for a £1, and they are then entitled to a large bag of shopping for £2.50.
The final episode of this series features Debbie Dixon, Project Manager at Poole Communities Trust who shares her warts and all journey of social investment, and how they used £160,000 of blended finance from Charity Bank to achieve their fundraising target. This enabled them to deliver crucial impact to the disadvantaged communities they serve.
“There’s been so much written about the importance of volunteers throughout the pandemic and beyond and I can only echo that notion. My key learning for 2022 is to find your brilliant volunteers and work with them – it’ll make a huge difference!”
Listen to the final episode of this series to gain a true, frontline perspective on how community centres, like Poole Communities Trust, have adapted to support their local area through turbulent times.
Inspiration comes from many sources but we’re sure these five peer stories will provide motivation and learning to ensure your 2023 gets off to a great start. So get your headphones out and podcasts loaded.
Social investment may not be the answer but being sure it isn’t part of the solution you are looking for is a great New Year’s resolution to set yourself in order to find out. Try our ‘Is It Right For Us’ tool today to get started…