Getting out more than you put in

Mat interviews Georgina Innes at Dalston Roof Park.

by Mat Amp
 
I came across Poached Creative when they ran a journalism course with the Pavement Magazine in May 2015. Looking back, I can’t quite believe I came close not to going just because it was going to take me 45 minutes to get there from Brixton. But then, I really didn’t think it was going to be anything like as rewarding as it has been.

The course itself reignited my love for the written word. We covered a hell a lot in a short time, with a couple of genuinely inspiring guest tutors who brought us their experience of storytelling and grassroots journalism.

I loved the atmosphere on that course and, although I’ve spent my life avoiding offices, I really jumped at the chance of volunteering when, after the course, Poached and The Pavement asked me. 

By the time I started, Poached had moved to the Bootstrap building in Hackney. For those of you who have never heard of it (or the Dalston Roof Garden that sits proudly on… well.. the roof) Bootstrap is a fantastic, chilled out maze comprised mainly of social enterprises. It really is an inspiring place to work.

Writing for the Bootstrap blog and Poached Creative clients, I’ve learnt how to structure articles, how to edit copy and above all how to write about things outside of my experience. The relaxed atmosphere suits me and I’m finally starting to get my head around the meaning of the word deadline. 

Some people look at you like you’re a mug when you say you're volunteering. Right now, it would be enough for me to know I’m giving something back, but, and this is the trick with giving I guess, I am getting so much out of it myself: training, working with people and now I’m beginning to get paid for my trouble.

All in all it’s been an extremely rewarding three or four months and without Poached Creative and The Pavement I may just have been another ex-addict with nothing to do.

Social Saturday 2015 is coming on 10 October

Social Saturday is a nationwide day dedicated to promoting social enterprise.

Following the enormous success of the inaugural Social Saturday 2014, Social Enterprise UK, and more than 70,000 social enterprises across the country are preparing for this year’s event. 

Their activities will raise awareness of the significance of the social enterprise sector to individuals, communities and the economy as a whole.

A social enterprise is a business model that works to achieve a social mission. Profits are usually reinvested in social causes and sustaining the business.

When you buy from a social enterprise, you buy social. Buying social means you provide an unemployed person with a career opportunity, or provide a homeless person with a bed for the night, or help the environment, as well as saving money and challenging profit-driven only businesses through competition.

Social enterprises have been working hard to elevate communities since the nineteenth century when workers in Rochdale formed a co-operative in response to the exploitative working conditions. However, social enterprise as we know it today re-emerged in the mid-nineties.

When a new social enterprise emerges, entire communities reap the benefits. Varying in size, purpose and industry, they range from small social enterprises like Poached Creative to nationwide enterprises like the Big Issue. 

Being a social enterprise ourselves, specializing in writing and design we completely understand the importance of buying social. We are also pleased that in recent years social enterprises have become an integral part of everyday life in London. 

Over the years we have had many partnerships with social enterprises across the country, including Social Enterprise UK – who we proudly created the original Social Saturday marketing materials for. We buy social whenever we can. 

To mark the occasion, in the lead up to Social Saturday we will shed a light on different and unique social enterprise in our local area of Hackney. 

The Hackney Pirates

Part of the Hackney Pirates Ship of Adventures
Courtesy of The Big Issue Online Journalists

The Hackney Pirates is an enterprising charity working to develop the literacy, confidence and perseverance of young people in Hackney, so that they achieve both in school and in the world beyond.

The educational social enterprise was thought of by Catriona Maclay, who at the time was a teacher at a primary school based in north London. Through her experience as a primary school teacher she realised that a change in the learning environment could benefit pupils aged 9-12 and make them more receptive to learning.

The Hackney Pirates began as a pilot scheme supported by Bootstrap, now it is well established. They work together with local schools, volunteers and families providing local kids with the dream class room: a Ship of Adventures complete with secret passageways, an underwater cave and a ship’s cat. 

During the voyage participating pupils receive support in order to enhance their writing and reading. They are also encouraged to take part in a unique creative publishing project in which young people work with professionals to write their own books, CDs and websites, allowing them to practise their writing skills as well as see the whole project through to publication.

Catriona Maclay, Founder of The Hackney Pirates says:

"We believe that young people learn best when there's a little adventure involved, and when they can see that their work has consequences in the real world, so our publishing projects are a great way for young people to develop their literacy while also building up their confidence and perseverance.

 If you would like to spend your Social Saturday supporting The Hackney Pirates, then pop by our Ship of Adventures - a unique gift-shop, book-shop and cafe where you can see all the fantastic work of the Young Pirates on display."

Read our Social Saturday blog #2 on Circle Sports.

Fair Pay

By Yousif Farah

Last week saw the launch of the Fair Pay Fortnight, which is an awareness fortnight sponsored by TUC. The fortnight is held to raise awareness about the cost of living crisis in the country, mainly caused by the imbalanced policies regarding pay rise verses rocketing prices.

In the past five years general commodities’ prices have gone up by almost 20% whereas, pay rises for the majority of the public have only increased by a modest 3%.

Government officials blame the lag between pay rise and inflation on the recent economic turmoil. However, in research carried out by Landman Economics, who provide Government organisations and think tanks with consultancy services, it was established that for every 1% increase in public sector pay rounds, £675 million of extra value is injected into the economy and around 14,000 full-time jobs are created. 

Francis O’Grady head of the TUC says:

“The simple truth is that many employers can afford to pay more. For large companies in sectors such as food production, banking, construction and software/computing - which employ over 1 million low- wage workers - paying all staff the living wage would mean an increase of less than 0.5 per cent of the total wage bill.”

Another topic which is expected to be highlighted in the campaign is zero hour contracts, which are spreading rapidly, according to the Office Of National Statistics 3.4 million of the UK workforce are on such contracts and 1.3m where no hours were worked. A zero hour contract is a contract with no guarantee of hours, only those benefits protected by law, such as holiday leave, are guaranteed.

The irony is that many of the organisations implicated in zero hours contracts, or those who are falling short of paying their employees a fair living wage, are mega organisations such as Sports Direct and McDonalds who both have 90% of their workforce working under zero hour contracts.

Pub chain Weatherspoon, Burger King, Starbucks and many other big names including The Church of England, have also been heavily criticised in the mainstream media and accused of sending mixed messages. See the In My Shoes blog on the same topic.

Mr Justin Welby, head of the Church of England, had called on employers to be responsible and pay their fair share of tax as well as pay their employees a fair living wage. Mr Welby admitted that it is embarrassing for the church to be found to be not paying the living wage. However, he puts it down to the complex Administrative nature of the Establishment.

“The Church remains committed to all parishes, cathedrals and dioceses paying the rate as soon as possible. But due to the make-up of the Church of England - the fact that each church and cathedral is a separate charity - this had to happen gradually.”

Such organisations are leading in their fields and should surely be leading by example, providing a guide to smaller and emerging businesses and also sending a message that employees are the backbone of any business and should be treated accordingly.

At Poached Creative and in many social enterprise organisations, despite our limited resources, we always aim to create suitable and fair working conditions for our employees, that includes paying them a living wage.

Last spring we received an award for our commitment to pay the London Living Wage at the Hackney Citizen Mayoral Assembly.

Jessica Smith director at Poached Creative says:

“The cost of living in Hackney is rising and we would like to see more businesses in the borough supporting their employees with fair pay and good employment conditions.

“Helping unemployed and disadvantaged people into employment is what Poached is all about and we have always aimed to be a model of good employment practice. The London Living Wage accreditation is public recognition of our commitment to our employees and our community.” 

To find out more about the living wage campaign visit The Living Wage Foundation or to take part in the fortnight visit Fair Pay Fortnight.

Putting the enterprise into social enterprise

“Not limited by the resources currently in hand” is how J Gregory Dees, known as the father of social entrepreneurship education, describes one of the characteristics of social entrepreneurship.

He goes on to explain that social entrepreneurs are skilled at doing more with less and at attracting resources from elsewhere – drawing in partners and collaborating with others.

There are, of course, other more common characteristics: a mission to create and sustain social value goes to the very core of social entrepreneurship. This is what defines the growing number of social enterprises in the UK – estimated at more than 68,000. According to Social Enterprise UK, the national membership body for social enterprise, a substantial 39 per cent of them are concentrated in the most deprived communities (compared with 13 per cent of SMEs).

Social enterpreneurs are, as if by definition, social first.
It’s the entrepreneurship that proves evasive. For those with social values as their raison d’etre, it becomes a means to an end, part of the fight for survival in an economic climate where funding and compassion are fast drying up.

In time, it’s very likely that the difference between those social ventures that survive and those that fail will be the entrepreneurial element.

J Gregory Dees’ description above brought to mind a friend and colleague who, for me, embodies the collaborative, resource-mobilising characteristic so well. Lucy Ferguson runs a youth media agency, Mediorite, out of an office we share in Hackney, London.

Read the full article in ISBE's Enterprising Matters e-magazine.

The rise and rise of Kayla Whiting

"Are you God today then?" asks Amber.
"Not yet," says Kayla.
"God with L-plates on," Amber suggests.
"Yeah," Kayla grins.

My 19-year-old administrator is bossing around a film crew, interviewing me, arranging the room to get a better depth of field and negotiating with the builders downstairs to get some quiet while we film.

In the eight weeks since Kayla started with us she's learnt more than she ever imagined possible about social enterprise, and her own strengths. Turns out she's a brilliant networker, relishes searching out funding opportunities and loves new media. Fantastic for me. She's also in the process of becoming God - of our multimedia production projects at any rate.

One of her questions to me, on camera, was what's my biggest achievement since starting Poached. I had to answer that it was hiring her. I've been a manager in various organisations for nearly 10 years now but having my own business and my own staff to develop is more rewarding than I could have ever imagined.

Kayla's throwing herself into everything she does and getting more and more excited about the idea of social enterprise. She's got some fantastic ideas about how to engage young people in Hackney, but I'll let her tell you about that.

See her profile on our who's involved page (photo shoot scheduled for a sunny day), follow her on Twitter and read her first blog.