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.

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.

Poached trainee launches own bike hire business

Anil, founder of Buzz Bikes

By Yousif Farah

2010 saw the launch of the Barclays bike hire scheme in London, developed by previous Mayor of London Ken Livingstone. Now colloquially known as ‘Boris Bikes’ after Livingstone’s successor, the bikes have gained popularity among cyclists old and new in the capital.

Anil, one of our former trainees at Poached Creative and The Big Issue Online Journalism Course, contemplated the idea of bike hire long before Boris Johnson was even elected as Mayor.

However, not equipped with pockets as deep as those of the City of London, and lacking the necessary resources, while also struggling to find his own way in life, it took Anil some time to put the pieces together.

In November 2013, Anil applied for a grant, and less than a year later, the application for a loan was approved by Start Up Loans, a charity operating in partnership with the Government.

Despite the current climate of adversity, and despite the Financing Start-Up Enterprise reducing the grant initially applied for, Anil has hit the ground running. The idea progressed steadily from a plan to becoming another new aspiring small business – which is no mean feat in today’s economic climate.

Anil said “It’s been daunting going into business because it’s something that I've never done before and you don’t know how it’s going to be received. It’s also difficult to set up a business with as little money as possible but I appreciate all the help that I have been given.”

It has taken him less than one year from applying for a grant to launching his new service. Today, Anil proudly runs Buzz Bike Hire.

The business comprises of high quality bicycles run by Lithium Ion Polymer or LifePo4 Phosphate Batteries. The bicycles are environmentally friendly, lowering the carbon footprint of the rider. The bikes are power assisted: you can peddle or let the bike do the pedalling for you.

He launched the business at the recent RideLondon FreeCycle event in the city, London.

The future looks promising for Anil, if his business runs parallel to his personal success and triumph, we could hear more about Anil’s Buzz Bikes. Looks like Boris Johnson has some competition on his hands!