Spring to Action Ltd

Inspiring Enterprising Communities

(C) www.talgarthmill.com

Village SOS has been made into a TV programme, fronted by Sarah Beeny who seems to be everywhere right now.  It shows us the stories of how villages have spent their cash, raised from a competition last year to find 6 communities to revive their communities through enterprise.

When I wrote about it back last year it was hard to imagine the wealth and variety of ideas communities would come up with. They didn't disappoint tonight. Talgarth village in Wales resurrected an old mill, turning it into a working flour mill where they create local bread in an artisan bakery and have opened an on-site cafe as another income source.

65 years on from its last use, the mill has been bought back to life by talented and inspiring villagers in just a single year.

At a time when the UK faces internal challenges threatening our community life, this is a tale of people coming together, sharing skills, talents, experience and a desire to make positive change. 

This show was so popular I can't even get on their website to tell you more - maybe you'll have more luck in a day or so - check them out at www.talgarthmill.com and support them if you're in the area.

 

Board Members Wanted

Leicester and Leicestershire's new Local Enterprise Partnership has announced it is seeking new board members to develop a robust strategy to improve the economic performance of local businesses.

The partnership is seeking experienced Private Sector board members with "both commercial acumen and the ability to help contribute to reaching agreement on complex issues that cut across both the public and private sectors. They will have broad experience both commercially and geographically, an appreciation of, and an ability to work with, public sector bodies, whilst demonstrating resilience, diplomacy and influencing skills."

This is a fantastic opportunity to get some fresh blood and new thinking for our city and county, with a range of expertise and experience.  The deadline is 14th February - find out more here.

Enterprise and Regen Round Up

Amongst the election headlines there are some enterprise and business related headlines, although perhaps difficult to spot amongst the political statements.

Some of the interesting news sourced by the team at Spring to Action is:

• Rise in business failures - 26,000 businesses failed last year in the UK, despite the governments efforts at stimuli. Corporate insolvencies were 59% higher than in 2007 (before the recession) but that is lower than expected.
• The Queen's Awards for Enterprise have been announced, winners in the East Midlands include Tamper Technologies (Derbyshire), Garford Farm Machinery (Lincolnshire), Newtons4th Ltd (Leicestershire), Reeves Wireline Techologies (Leicestershire), Prof Simon Denny (Northamptonshire) of the University of Northamptonshire and Maureen Milgram Forrest (Leicestershire) of LeicestHERday Trust. Many congratulations!
• The East Midlands Funding Forum has released the findings from it's Future Funding event.  Outcomes appear to be a stark warning over funding in 2011 from funders, and increasing competition for charitable funding.  Organisations are advised to make themselves lean and mean, to compete more effectively.
• SEEM are offering the chance for 3 lucky winners to participate in an advert worth £1,000 by the Social Enterprise Mark, for a publication of their choice.

After Thursday, I suspect there will be more news to report.  I'm not clear though, on whether there will be any drastic changes to policy for the coming weeks.  But it certainly feels like lots of organisations are unable to commit to anything until they know the outcome of the election.

Leicester Benefits Hotspot

News broke today that Leicester has a third of it's residents on benefits. Leicester City Council's benefits team are handling 500 more claims each month - a staggering and worrying figure.  Leicester appears to be slower than other UK cities at leaving the recession behind and this can only mean more difficulties for its residents.

Whilst there are some schemes to help people back into jobs, notably the Future Jobs Fund which assists young people, there appears to be a lack of focus on unemployment in the area.  Most people want to work, though there are a small minority for whom it doesn't feature in their lives.  As well as the Jobcentre Plus advisors, there needs to be more support for people when they want to get back into work, no matter how skilled they are.

Anecdotally, I have heard that careers advisors have suggested people visit dubious private enterprises to build up their CV - isn't this something we should be better equipped to help people with? Isn't this a core component of careers advice?  A bad CV will result in no interviews, no application form and ultimately begin the spiral of low confidence and low self-esteem which is difficlt (and expensive) to build back up again.

We need to take action NOW, not in 6 months time, to help people back into employment and that surely must involve agencies working together with businesses to assist people.  And where there aren't jobs, work with businesses and the public sector to provide work experience (hopefully paid) to keep people's confidence up and help them gain further expertise. 

So, as a first step, whenever I find a job I'm going to post it onto the Spring Facebook group for everyone to see and do a roundup here every once in a while.  Please feel free to post your opportunities there too.  It's only a small thing, but lots of small things could add up to something bigger.  And if you'd like to do more to help people into employment, contact me with ideas and let's see what we can achieve together.

New Year: New Resolutions

First I'd like to wish all our blog readers a Happy New Year for 2010.  2009 proved to be an excellent year for Spring (the best yet!), and we're delighted to have gained some interesting, challenging and exciting new customers which we hope to continue working with throughout 2010.

As well as writing new materials for a marketing workshops to be used tby People 1st hroughout the UK, we are currently working with a local community enterprise organisation to assist them to develop materials to help disadvantaged communities to get involved with entrepreneurship. This is work we hadn't anticipated, alongside some of our other work.

What about these resolutions for 2010?  One of my key resolutions is to improve our website further and maintain our blogging profile. 

We also want to:

- Support smaller community organisations to help their clients develop enterprising skills

- Reduce wastage in the system, so that the public gets more for their money

- Help other organisations and ourselves to improve the quality of enterprise support, particuarly in the East Midlands

- Keep our eyes open to new opportunities

What about you?  Where do you want to improve your business or take it in new directions?

Kate

Peepul Centre Needs Regeneration

Disappointing news in saturday's Leicester Mercury - Leicester's Peepul Centre is struggling to be financially sustainable, despite the support of LHA-ASRA.  They stepped in during 2007 and have reduced the Centre's losses by 60% which is a fantastic achivement within 2 years.

They've already invested £350,000 and say the Centre needs another cash injection of £50,000 next year.

The Centre was originally devised, built and managed by Belgrave Baheno, a women's support group based in Leicester.  They had a vision for a multi-use centre in the heart of the community and for the community.  It includes a multi-use gym, meeting rooms, theatre, a nursery and other spaces. 

It is the kind of building many communities aspire to having - light, bright, airy and well-situated.  It would be an excellent venue for conferences, and I've been to a few that have been successful there.  In my limited experience of being at the Peepul Centre, it is a building full of friendly people (with excellent food!) but is underused by the community it was supposed to support. 

In order for the building to make sufficient revenues all the functions need to be working properly - and as regeneration professionals we need to make our own impact by ensuring we use it for our many functions, meetings, conferences and events.  Sometimes it's overlooked as a venue, and I think that's a shame, because it has everything you need - parking, on site catering, good sized rooms, friendly welcome and flexibiliity.

It would be such a shame to lose this building situated in the heart of some of Leicester's most deprived communities.  

Getting Project Management Right

Today I thought I'd talk a bit about project management... because it's what we do!  As well as working with individual businesses to help their business succeed, we also work at a more strategic level, running projects and influencing stakeholders.

Have you ever seen a project fall apart?  I have and it's not a pleasant sight.  Often, the early tell-tale signs are ignored - no one's heard of the project, there's no plan, and no idea of where the project is heading.  But these warning signs are just the beginning, because if you don't start off a project on the right foot (whether your project is large or small, regeneration-related or business focused) there's very little chance you will achieve your objectives. 

You can apply this to a business project too, perhaps if you're implementing a new marketing strategy or taking on a new client. 

I'm proposing some key questions to ask yourself:

• What is the aim of the project?
• Are all they key people involved at a strategic level and do they agree with your aims?
• Have you got all the resources you need? (people and budget especially)
• Have you written a clear and comprehensive plan?
• What are the major and minor risks to the project and what contingencies can you put in place?
• When will you know the project has been completed satisfactorily?

I hope this list isn't contraversial, I think these are project basics.  Good project management isn't something you learn overnight, but it's a process, an artform in itself.  All these lists can be a touch dry, but great project management is an awful lot of fun too!  There's nothing like a plan coming together.

Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion

Local community groups and people who've experienced social exclusion have been invited to an informal get together and lunch.  The group will help local grassroots activity that will combat poverty and social exclusion in the East Midlands.

The next meeting is to be held in Leicester on Wednesday 9th September 10.15am - 12.15am followed by lunch at Voiluntary Action LeicesterShire.  CEFET will pay travel and childcare costs for participants. Contact Clare or Stuart on 0115 911 0419 or email info@cefet.org.uk for more details and help make a difference to the lives of your community.

Village SOS: Share in £3million for enterprise in your village

The BBC is seaching for 6 rural villages to share in £3million of prize money - to develop exciting new business ideas, through its campaign Village SOS.  They are also looking for 6 enterprise champions, willing to move to a village and help them make their idea work.  Perfect timing for anyone looking for a new direction during this economic situation?

The journies of the villages and the champions will be captured on a primetime BBC programme, highlighting the untapped potential of our rural communities.

Applications for Village SOS should be received by 14th August.

It's a cracking idea, and will no doubt capture all our imaginations and hopefully inspire new people to get involved in enterprise and recognise the value it plays in all our communities.  Examples of possible ideas include the vital village shop, a whisky manufacturers and my favourite, a village entirely powering its cars by eco fuel made my local farmers.  What idea will your village come up with?

Kate

Business Support and the Joys of Spring

It's amazing what a difference a week can make. Last week, I was full of the joys of Spring (I mean the time of year, not us as an organisation!) and really positive about the future of enterprise after attending
Unleashing Enterprise, a new high profile regeneration project in the East Midlands working in partnership with business support agencies across the region.

This week, however, I am both shocked and amazed at some of the attitudes that exist around business support. Derby needs aspiring entrepreneurs to enable to grow and thrive, particuarly in the tough economic climate we find ourselves in. Yet I've been clearly shown that there still persists the notion amongst some people that we will somehow achieve this by providing business support that delivers the same old support, by the same old people they know - how will this ever reach new people (latent entrepreneurs) and inspire them to take a chance on running their own business? If we truly want to support people from disadvantaged communities to take up the entrepreneurial baton, we simply can't waste any more time or money on regneration projects that don't achieve anything.  We need to spend our money wisely.

Its widely accepted that it is the UK's entrepreneurial spirit which will help bring back jobs to the country. The breadth of projects supporting enterprise have demonstrated what we as support agencies need to do to help this happen. We need to inspire and motivate people, we need to work in partnership, to engage people's imagination and to support people at a time, place and pace that suits them. Research has proven this time after time. Let's listen to our communities and the experts who work in them and support real change.

Kate