How Social Enterprises reshaped how we view Disability

The Young Royals join the celebrations on World Mental Health Day, Photo Courtesy of Getty

This is our final blog in a series of blogs celebrating Social Saturday, and since this year’s Social Saturday coincided with World Mental Health Day we will also pay tribute to mental health patients in the UK who had to go through an awful lot, through a trip to 19th century England.

World Mental Health Day is the annual global celebration of mental health education, awareness and advocacy. It is held annually on October 10, and each year the day focuses on a new topic which is affecting mental health patients in the UK, and this year the focal point of the day was “Dignity In Mental Health”.

The 19th century saw the Industrial Revolution which impacted on the attitude of society toward those who suffered from a physical or mental impairment, an attitude lacking in compassion and sound judgment.

People who suffered from any form of physical disability were regarded as a burden on society, it was believed that keeping them in their own homes would encourage laziness.Therefore, they were kept in workhouses in grim and uninhabitable conditions.

On the other hand, people who suffered from a mental impairment faced a fate which was by no means a lesser evil, they were segregated in purpose built Asylums in dire and inhumane conditions with no prospect of curability or discharge.

The 19th century saw an expansion in the building of asylums accompanied by the introduction of Psychiatry. However, it wasn’t practiced in a proper or ethical manner.

During this century (also known as the Asylum Era) more than 120 county pauper asylums were built hosting 100,000 idiots and lunatics compared to a few hundred people living nine small charitable asylums at the beginning of the century.

There was an urgent need for some form of intervention to relieve the disabled community. Efforts were made by charities, also social enterprises to help in improving the work and living conditions of disabled people.

The social enterprise we are about to discuss today is a branch of one of these charities first to intervene, it is also the first social enterprise in the UK.

Clarity is a registered charity and a social enterprise which has been employing, training and supporting blind people and people with other disabilities since 1854.

Clarity was founded by a blind lady, Elizabeth Gilbert, who realised that amid these worsening conditions, it was virtually impossible for a blind person to earn their own living. In response she set up a workshop to train blind people to make products to sell with the money reinvested into the business to pay the staff and create more jobs.





The Soap Co








The Soap Co became a member of the Clarity family four years ago. It is a social enterprise working with disabled people to provide the consumer with a quality product and the opportunity to provide a disadvantaged person with a career opportunity.

70% of their workforce is blind, disabled or otherwise disadvantaged and all the company profits go back into the business creating even more jobs.

The Soap Co. started as a small shop in the Lake District creating handmade soaps to provide employment for people with disabilities.Today they supply 50,000 customers and businesses with products, ranging from cruise ships to local councils and boutique hotels.

Last month Poached Creative paid a visit to The Soap Co. We also interviewed the manager and some of the workers, who all seemed in agreement that being part of soap co is impacting their lives and well-being positively.

One of those who we met is Darren Sapsford, before joining The Soap Co. Darren had lost both his parents and home, which led to a breakdown in his relationship and understandably a blow to his self-esteem.

He was looking for a way to rebuild his life when he was referred to The Soap Co. through the Job Centre.

Now he is Product Line Operative, his self-esteem is restored and now he is planning to carry on working with The Soap Co. while trying to become a support worker.

Denis is one of the many people who were helped by Soap Co and Clarity, who are transforming lives by the day.

The Soap Co. celebrated Social Saturday by encouraging everyone to make a positive social impact through promoting their new line which was released last month and is comprised of new range of soaps and lotions including Black Poppy & Wild Fig, White Tea & Citrus, using formulations which have outperformed other luxury brands in consumer testing.

Moreover, to mark Social Saturday the two heads of The Soap Co, Jason Norris, and Jeremy Robinson of Clarity took a long distance bike ride, visiting many social enterprises en route.

“Even though, I am 360 of miles away from Clarity whenever I go down there I always feel that I am part of Clarity, part of a bigger thing, a bigger vision- part of something that is achieving and moving forward. So yes, that is why I enjoyed it, enjoyed being part of clarity, definitely.”


Jason Peter Norris, manager at The Soap Co.- Keswick

My journey with The Camden Youth Hub Project Board

Catherine and Amaan at the Poached Creative offices

By Catherine Capaldi

A new youth space is about to open in the centre of Camden designed by young people for young people, on 12 November.

As one of the young people involved I am excited and nervous about the space being open to the public. On one side I’m excited because its finally going to be open and on the other side nervous because I’m scarred that people will not want to go to the place I and my fellow Camden Youth Hub Project Board members helped create.

We designed the hub for young people to go and chill out, meet new people and make friends.

I have now been involved in the development of the hub for 18 months, during this time I have learnt to not judge a book by its cover and have developed more of an open mind.

The Camden Youth Hub Project Board has worked alongside Camden Council to design the look of the space and the services it provides. Highlights have included working on the design and colour scheme, working as part of a team, making a documentary with Poached Creative and Mediorite, working with Maria, Lizzie and Dionne from Camden and making new friends.

Part of my role as a board member has been to promote the needs of disabled people. As a wheelchair user I find it is important to show people the importance of access at the beginning of the design process. This has been really important to me as I want disabled people to be able to ask for help, feel part of something and not an outcast for having a disability.

I have met allot of new people through this project and made some close friends, like Chris. When we first met he was very quiet but being part of the board has helped him come out of his shell and show more of his great personality.

This is a great example of what the hub will achieve when it opens.

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Social Saturday 2015 almost upon us

By Yousif Farah

One in a series of blogs celebrating Social Saturday

In the build up to Social Saturday 2015  Poached Creative is profiling social enterprises that trade with the public in East London.

In our previous blog dedicated to celebrating Social Saturday 2015, we went through the concept of social enterprises, its history  and development, and how in a short space of time they have become an integral part of everyday life, impacting individuals, societies and the economy.

We also embarked on a voyage aboard the Hackney Pirate’s ship of adventures, but this week we will focus on a sports social enterprise which we are immensely proud to have in our local area of Dalston, East London.



Circle Sports

Photos by Stephen Archer
 (Big Issue Online Journalism trainee).

Circle Sports is a social enterprise trading in sport’s clothing and equipment. They provide practical customer service work experience, training and mentoring to young people aged 18-24, in their trendy Circle Collective shop on Kingsland High Street,

In their four short years of existence they have helped many people progress through their lives, pulling them out of hardships and into a stable life and promising future.

Denis is truly a shining example and testament to the outstanding work Circle Sports is providing to young people. He arrived from Lithuania and managed to teach himself English in less than seven months, after which he was referred to Circle Sports via the Job Centre. It took Denis no time to prove himself as an asset to the company; he shone as a diligent young man. However, he then suddenly disappeared.

Staff tried hard to track him down until they managed to find him and found out that he had been made homeless. They provided him with help and assistance and helped him get back on his feet and find accommodation. Eventually - with some help from Circle - he secured a trainee role in construction with their sponsor Land Securities.

Inspirationally, since starting work at Land Securities Denis has won their Employment Strategy Award in the 18-24-year-old category.

Denis is just one of the countless people guided and assisted by Circle Sports, who will be joining in the celebrations of Social Saturday 2015 on the 10^th of October.

Turly Humphreys, Founder and Managing Director at Circle Sports says:

“Since we started in 2011 Circle has helped many young people discover their true potential and secure full-time employment, alongside improving workplace skills, confidence and a positive mind-set.”

“My advice to new and emerging social enterprises is to have a commercial aspect to help them cover the cost of running a social enterprise."

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.

The Pavement celebrates its tenth anniversary

The Pavement Magazine celebrated its tenth anniversary on 11 September with a star-studded comedy night at the Pleasance Theatre in Islington. 

The event was a real blast and featured renowned comedians Stewart Lee and Robin Ince, whose performances highlighted the support the small-format magazine has gathered during its first decade in print.

The Pavement Magazine is a homeless publication founded in 2004 and designed to fill a vacuum by producing content featuring essential practical information alongside hard-hitting and entertaining reportage primarily aimed at and tailored to a homeless readership. In the past ten years the Pavement has gradually established itself as not just a useful magazine but an entertaining publication with the magazine’s Word on the Street programme encouraging contributions from homeless writers.

Karin Goodwin, the magazine’s editor says  “The founder, Richard Burdett, saw a real need for a publication that put information straight into the hands of those who needed it most; homeless people themselves….We believe that our readers themselves are the experts on homelessness”.

The night was not just about celebrating The Pavement’s anniversary. It also aimed to raise awareness of the charity, boost the magazine’s profile and generate desperately needed funds.

Ince's strong support for the cause is the only reason for his performance, coming as it did six months into a five year sabbatical from the stand-up circuit. Indeed, all the performers talked about the need to support the Pavement with a genuine passion that fuelled the joyful and positive atmosphere of the celebration in the theatre on the night. Sandwiched between the two featured comedians were strong performances from the comedy duo Read-Wilson and Hughes Hughes and the singer Barb Jung whose distinctive voice has lost none of its soulful power.

Robin Ince rocked the house with the stand-out performance on the night. His wickedly clever style of of jumping from one story to another was delivered at brisk pace, developing themes that eventually found their way back home, all the while stabbing logic in the face with a dagger of razor sharp reason.

In contrast Stewart Lee’s act, delivered at slow pace, was all about deconstructing the art form of stand up comedy. Throughout his career he has chosen to tread his own path, pushing the boundaries set by the mainstream in order to continually develop his own routine.

The same could be said of The Pavement’s journey over the past ten years. In Karin’s words "The night itself was a great mix; there was caustic wit, warmth and laughter, political agitation and generally an outpouring of support and goodwill for The Pavement and all it stands for”. She adds "Not only does the money raised help us to keep printing copies of The Pavement, which are in constantly high demand; it also encourages us to keep working harder to make sure The Pavement goes from strength-to-strength."

All in all the night was a worthy celebration of the ten years in which the Pavement has struggled on a shoestring to establish itself as a publication that genuinely helps those on the street. Laughter maybe the best medicine for life but for some of the disenfranchised on the street there is no better tonic than The Pavement Magazine. To find out more, visit the Pavement Magazine website.

Comedy night marks ten years down the Pavement

By Yousif Farah

Pavement Magazine is celebrating its 10^th birthday on Friday 11 September, a milestone that will be marked with a high-profile comedy fundraiser featuring the exceptionally hilarious Stewart Lee.

The event will be held at the Pleasance Theatre in Islington’s North Street, off Caledonian Road, and the all-star line-up will also include Robin Ince, winner of the Time Out Award for Outstanding Achievement in comedy and music from Barb Jungr whose album of Bob Dylan covers was once described by the Wall Street Journal as “the most significant vocal album of the 21^st century”.   

Also joining them will be Tom Read Wilson and Gary Albert Hughes who are both known for performing satirical and political songs.

The Pavement hopes the event will raise much-needed funds to help them further pursue helping homeless people through their unique publication. 

Its sole purpose is to support people at times of crisis, aiming to make life that bit easier for homeless people through providing them with information that can both help reduce short-term hardship, as well as enable them to guide their own lives.

The publication is pocket-sized, concise, providing homeless readers with news from the streets relative to their situation and often neglected by the mainstream press. Alongside the news stories they run monthly updated lists of day centres, soup kitchens and places to gather advice and assistance regarding housing.  It also has features on health, legal advice and an insider’s view of life in hostels.  

The publication relies entirely on donations from the public and volunteers. However, these volunteers are highly skilled writers and cartoonists, some of whom work for reputable media outlets such as Private Eye. 

At Poached Creative we work closely with the Pavement magazine. Some of our own Big Issue online journalism trainees have contributed articles to The Pavement. We also recently ran a four week media training course for budding contributors. Furthermore, the writing panel meetings are held at our premises and are attended by our writing mentor Grant and I.

Grant says: “The listing section is a revelation especially when you first find yourself in that situation. The news story covers topics that you will never see in the mainstream media.”

The proceeds of the forthcoming event will help more homeless people through their ordeal.

For tickets, bookings and information on how to get to the venue visit The Pleasance Theatre website.

To donate visit The Pavement website.

Youth recognition

by Yousif Farah

Youth is a critical period, it is where a generation is made or failed; it is the bridge linking childhood to adulthood and without the right support and guidance the transition can be wobbly and precarious. Ultimately, societies as a whole reap the benefits or bear the burden.

Therefore, it was only sensible of the United Nation to dedicate a day to raise awareness of youth, their achievements and their struggles also highlighting the vital role youth play in shaping our future while enriching the present through skill, talent or through simply being young and progressive.

This week, on 12 August, people from around the globe celebrated the 15^th anniversary since the establishment of International Youth Day.

The day covered 15 areas which affect youth, including education, employment, environment, poverty and health.

Last year the day focused on youth and mental illness, as it stands 20% of youth around the world experience a mental health condition.

This year the focal point of discussion will be youth and unemployment. Ban Ki-moon Secretary General of the UN says in his Youth Day 2015 speech:

"I applaud the millions of young people who are protesting for rights and participation, addressing staggering levels of youth unemployment, raising their voices against injustice, and advocating global action for people and the planet.

Volunteerism is an ideal way to improve society – and it is open to virtually everyone. Youth can also join forces with the United Nations as we move from forging the new sustainable development goals to implementing them. That spirit of action is embodied in the theme of this International Day: Youth and Civic Engagement."

In the UK according to the House of Commons as of May 2015, 15.9 per cent of young people (aged 16-24) were unemployed, that is down 1.9% from the year before. 21 per cent of these young people are long-term unemployed for 12 months or over.

The research reveals a gradual increase in the number of young people securing employment post the economic turmoil. However, if contrasted to periods prior to the economic crisis the figures remain lower.

In this calculation the Commons relied on the definition set out by the International Labour Organisation which includes everyone actively seeking work whether on benefit or not.

According to the organisation, the world as a whole is facing a worsening youth employment crisis, with young people three times more likely to be unemployed than adults. It also warned of a “scarred” generation of young workers facing a dangerous mix of high unemployment, increased inactivity and uncertain work conditions in developing countries.

The ILO estimates the number of youth looking for work worldwide at 73 million.

The International Labour Organisation is based in Geneva and was founded in 1919 in the wake of the Labour crisis which was triggered by World War 1. It later became the first specialized agency in the UN, currently operational in 60 countries around the world.

At Poached Creative we have always been sympathetic towards young people and supportive of their causes, as well as encouraging young people to join our Big Issue Online Journalism Course, we’ve run numerous projects with young people, for instance our latest collaboration with our partners Mediorite to help Camden Council’s youth project board plan, film and produce a documentary. To read about more about our work with youth and youth campaigners visit our campaigns page.