Smoothie Bike in action!

Smoothie Bike Hire is an innovative and wacky organisation. We hire our awesome, custom built smoothie-making bicycles to events throughout the UK, bringing the ultimate smoothie experience to our customers. We promote healthy eating, exercise, and sustainable energy in a unique and engaging way, and we have the perfect package to add the fun factor to almost any event. Hundreds of councils, schools, charities and major brands such as Disney, L’Oreal and E.On have already loved our pedal-powered approach. You can join them by booking an event at www.smoothiebikehire.co.uk.

0121 456 1818

Smoothie Bike Hire was set up in 2008 by Sport 4 Life, a local charity committed to improving the lives of disadvantaged children and young people in the city of Birmingham. The social mission of Smoothie Bike Hire is to provide unemployed young people aged 16-25 with work experience placements, as well as personal development and employability training, to help them re-engage with education, employment or training.

Shop for Change is just one of the many ways in which iSE is supporting the growth and development of the social enterprise sector and raising awareness of its role in changing lives and communities.

If your a Social Enterprise and are interested in joining the ShopforChange directory just visit:

www.shopforchange.info

Made By Young People Logo

Made By Young People is a Community Interest Company; which works directly with young people to provide them with REAL working opportunities. As a Social Enterprise MBYP also explore the avenue of printing and as a result, run a successful community print company & promotions business. Our mission is to reduce youth unemployment, and as we do so, by providing apprenticeships and work placements to any young person, who shows that they have the commitment and the willingness to learn new skills within business and enterprise.

As well as day-to-day running of the business, Made By Young People also works proactively in getting their message out to young people, by holding Enterprise Workshops, Start Your Own Business Seminars in Schools, Colleges and Youth Centres as well as a wide range of Social Enterprise activities.

Many young people we work with soon realise that they have the capacity to learn the skills that it takes to start and run a profitable business. What we do is provide the: Insight, Opportunities and Environment to help develop these skills even further. We train, coach and mentor young people in the following:

• Communication & Networking Skills
• Correct Time & Finance Management
• Organisational Skills
• Fundamental Sales Skills
• Product Knowledge
• The Ability to Spot Business Opportunities
• Creating & Marketing a Brand

MBYP Sales Repz (That’s Repz with a z!) 

Within the last decade, we have personally helped over 10,000 young people locally. Made By Young People are now looking at ways to extend our reach to even more young people nationally. One Youth Employment Sustem; which, we’ve designed to and implemented, is our ‘MBYP Sales Repz Campaign’. We are currently recruiting Young People aged 16+, all over the country, who would like the opportunity to earn a legitimate income, whenever they see fit.

The campaign structure, is geared to allow young people to promote and sell our print & promotional products within their local area, at nay time, they choose.

From the ‘nearest chippire’, to a ‘friend organising an event’, each Sales Rep, will be issued with an E-learning guide (equipped with business cards and Sales materials) and ongoing support from the MBYP Team, to ensure they have the best head-start for success.

How does it work? 

The ‘MNYP Sales Repz Campaign’ is a simple process; which involves the Sales Rep taking down a customer’s contact details and a simple order description. The Sales Rep then sends this information over to use; where our Sales Team will then take care of the rest. Once a sale has been made, the Representative who initiated the sale, will be notified immediately and they will receive a commission of each sales profit.

 http://www.madebyyoungpeople.co.uk/

+ 44 (0) 871 595 5050 or 07878 156 010

Team Advant~Age

advant~age is a Social Enterprise that started trading in April 2011, it was created to enable its founder charities to generate unrestricted income through offering a range of products and services to their supporters and service users.  From an initial starting point of four founder charities, advant~age has grown the number of charities that it works with and now helps twenty-one charities across England and Wales to generate income to help continue to deliver their charitable aims.

“The main challenge that we are experiencing at the moment is convincing the charities that we are speaking to that there isn’t a catch! Many organisations find it hard to believe that they can generate income using advant~age without any financial investment required. We meet with the individual charities as often as they need to find out what suits them best and then we can start working together to help them generate income. The best part about it all is exploring different options and suggestions that come up and find ways to make them work. Our ethos is to never say ‘no’ but to take ideas away and try and find a way to make them happen” Jenni Brighton, General Manager, advant~age.

advant~age can help to provide everything that charities need to get started. advant~age provides each partner with a web link to their own personalised advant~age web page. This offers all of the products and services that the charity has chosen to include in their product range. The web page is constructed to track all sales that originate from the page, enabling advant~age to identify the sales generated by each organisation. The aim behind this is that supporters will choose to buy their everyday products and services via the charity partner, thus purchasing a good value, quality product and helping the charity at the same time. See www.advant-age.co.uk/prospectus for more information.

advant~age’s mission for the coming year is to continue to expand the number of charities that it works with and also increase the types of charities that it supports. This then benefits all of its partners as it enables advant~age to negotiate better deals on their behalf and increases brand recognition of advant~age which increases referrals for all of the charities involved.

advant~age is also working with new product providers to develop exciting services that will not only help the charitable partners generate further income, but also really help their supporters and service users.

Jenni Brighton, General Manager is thrilled that advant~age is now featured on the Shop for Change directory. “We feel that Shop for Change is a great campaign and really epitomises what advant~age is all about, the aim for all of us is to increase awareness in the general public that they can buy everyday items from social enterprises that both meet their needs, are affordable, great quality but also support fantastic causes!”

@AdvantAge_2U

Akon Window Cleaners are a Window Cleaning Service with a difference. They use a state of the art, award winning, PRO6 Ionic HOT water system that can reach up to 80 feet from the ground. All of Akon’s staff are fully qualified to NVQ level having trained with the British Window Cleaning Academy.

'PRO6 Ionic hot water system' in action!

Akon Window Cleaners CIC are a Social Enterprise with a Social Mission to help change the lives of the homeless. They endeavor to offer training opportunities, within the window cleaning trade, to homeless people. Another objective of Akon’s is to help get people into their first permanent property with basic furniture, this furniture will come from a sustainable social enterprise.

Contact Ian Ross or Angela May at: 

akonwindowcleaners@homtail.co.uk

Tel – 0121 308 7283 or 07854 773 876 or 07857 362 793

Aidem Digital Managing Director Indi Deol

During 2012 Aidem Digital experienced a number of growth spurts that led to 241% growth. ‘From the outset we knew it was going to be a hard year for us as well as many other business around the world so we began early in 2012 planning and strategising our efforts for the year ahead’.

‘Once we had planned what we needed to achieve over the year we rolled up our sleeves and never looked back until now, in 2013. This brings us full circle and starts the whole process off all over again!’

‘We feel that the RBS SE100 index has a fantastic mission and provides a real insight into the state of the economy as well as delivering a positive effect on business within the sector.’ Indi Deol, Managing Director, Aidem Digital.

Aidem Digital CIC is a social enterprise dedicated to developing and delivering media projects that have a social impact. With a specialist interest in social businesses, ethnic minorities and assisting in digital media skills development, the organisation is focused on implementing projects related to these entities in particular.

With a very good understanding of the language and culture of ethnic minorities in the UK, Aidem Digital has found this is a major asset to anyone looking for support to address digital media business needs within these communities or outside of them. With this focus in mind, Aidem Digital has developed a team of cross-cultured individuals both locally and globally. Digital photography, video production, on-line brand development, website design and implementation, graphic design and printing are just a few of the services that Aidem Digital can offer your company.

Commenting on the Shop for Change campaign, Indi Deol, Managing Director said: “Without the existence of campaigns like Shop for Change and organisations like iSE supporting and nurturing social businesses, vital networking and awareness opportunities that they generate would be lost and this sector would suffer hugely”.

Lichfield Scrap Barn is one of many Scrap Stores located throughout the UK and is a member of Scrapstores UK which is its governing body. We wanted to operate as a business which is fun, colourful, relatively light work but mostly a business with a variety of jobs within it to cover the varied skill base of the pupils who will work within it.

Scrap Stores such as Lichfield Scrap Barn collect clean business waste from local businesses and sell this on as low cost arts and craft resources. There are huge amounts of waste going to landfill from businesses that could be used as arts and craft material. Lichfield Scrap Barn will act not only as an arts and craft supplier but a resource and recycle centre as well making a difference to the local community.

As well as offering placements for the pupils at Saxon Hill School we will also offer sessions for other special schools to work within the business with our support. Our focus in supporting pupils for life after education will not end when they become 19 years old. There will be placements available for adults with disabilities to also work within the business. This is a key aspect of the organisation as we want to let pupils and parents know that there is something for their sons and daughters when they leave full time education with staff that fully understand the needs of the individuals.

As a Community Interest Company which is Limited by Guarantee Lichfield Scrap Barn is a not for profit organisation. This will mean that any extra income generated will be re invested back into the business. This can then be used to provide larger premises offering even more placements.

Please contact us on:

Website: www.lichfieldscrapbarn.co.uk with links to facebook and twitter

Email: admin@lichfieldscrapbarn.co.uk

Intelligence Matters Research Consultancy Limited

Through the delivery of services such as market research and mystery shopping, Intelligence Matters are able to help organisations from the Public, Private and Third Sector to shape their organisations, service delivery and save them money.

Project evaluations are carried out by Intelligence Matters and are ideal for end of funding projects and can provide impact evidence.

Intelligence Matters also offers accredited business support services such as business planning facilitation days, written business plans, marketing support and has a core team of business consultants who have expertise in both enterprise and social enterprise. We ensure that all start up and growth consultancy and training services meet the client’s needs, ranging from an individual entrepreneur to an established enterprise.

Shop for change enabled Intelligence Matters to increase geographical awareness via the opportunity to feature in the Birmingham Post. These types of opportunities offered to Shop for Change members are invaluable.

Contact the team today on 01922 659116, visit the website www.imrcl.org.uk to discuss your needs.

“Being a featured shop on the iSE’s Pop-Up Shop campaign has been simply brilliant for us…”

FreshwindsIT is an IT solutions social enterprise that offers professional IT services to the third sector and beyond including Graphic & Web Design, Professional Print Services, IT Training, Database Development, Client Management Software, Procurement and Installation of IT equipment and much more.

The income generated from our commercial work and funding that we secure allows us to fulfil our social aims which are:

• To help individuals that are digitally excluded to gain access to, and knowledge of computers and the internet.
• To capacity build Third Sector and not-for-profit organisations by offering heavily discounted and very affordable IT services and solutions. This may extend to free support and guidance in the field of IT should our current funding allow.
• To work with initiatives, groups and consortia to help achieve a positive social impact on our local communities.
• To support our parent charity Freshwinds by donating all surplus profits so they can continue to offer care and support free of charge to adults and children living with life limiting and life threatening illnesses, as well as those from socially excluded backgrounds.

On Shop for Change

“Being a featured shop on the iSE’s Pop-Up Shop campaign has been simply brilliant for us, it has raised much awareness about the services that we offer. Our shop was only up for a few days and that alone generated several quote requests and 3 new customers, 2 of which we have already had further orders from! Thanks Pop-Up Shop!”

(Adam Carrington-Lloyd, IT Lead)

To find out more visit http://www.freshwindsit.co.uk/
For a quote on printing email ask@freshwindsit.co.uk or call 0121 415 6715

Jim Everett, CEO of bike2life considered being asked to be Shop for Change’s ‘Organisation of the Month’ as the “next step in the journey for bike2life”. Speaking of the start-up and development of bike2life, Jim commented:

“We started off as a project running alongside the youthwork at Four Oaks Baptist Church in 2005, having realised that there was a lot of interest in cycling and more importantly learning the skills necessary to maintain you own bike.

“Matthew Clarke (Maff) and myself, were both keen cyclists, volunteer youth workers and had done some trail leader training to be able to take out groups and so decided to start to develop a project around cycling, initially to get together some bikes for the young people to use on rides. We were enthused by a renovation project running in Yardley and set about building up some tools and spares. Go forward a few years and we have managed to get some space in a disused chapel in Mere Green, we run a monthly maintenance session on the first Saturday of every month, we have launched a Community Interest Company to manage the bike project and we are looking at several other ways in which we can run bike related community projects. We’ve been involved in organising Bike Week “Dr Bike” maintenance sessions, the promotion of  the Connect2 cycle route in North Birmingham and organising fun challenges at community events. We’re also supported by both local Baptist churches and some of the other local community groups are also getting involved.

“Realising that we needed to create a new legal entity to manage the bike project – bike2life as it had become – we sought guidance on what legal structure we should adopt. Actually getting to the point of signing the final documents turned into a long and torturous journey; with all of us learning en route about company/charity law and the different options out there. We started to talk to iSE who gave us lots and lots of helpful and invaluable advice. We took advantage of training courses and advice sessions and eventually, in November 2011, we signed the CIC documents.

“We are still working as a voluntary based organisation. We have the programme set for 2012 and we’ll see what opportunities are presented. Our aims are around getting people to cycle more, recycle bikes more and challenge their thinking on their spirituality using cycling as a way of taking pilgrimages. Journeys can be very spiritual experiences, walking isn’t the only option – in fact cycling opens up many of the ancient pilgrim routes to a lot more people who can’t spend months travelling.

“If you’re interested in getting involved, want to join us on a bike ride or want to see your old bike put to good use check out the website and contact us. There’s usually a cup of tea available on the Saturday Shed mornings on the first Saturday of the month.”

Find out more about bike2life: 07838 890362 | www.bike2life.org.uk | jim.everett@bike2life.org.uk

Managing Director, Indi Deol (left), pictured with volunteer, Byrone Nicholson

Aidem Digital CIC is a social enterprise dedicated to developing and delivering media projects that have a social impact. With a specialist interest in social businesses, ethnic minorities and assisting in digital media skills development, the organisation is focused on implementing projects related to these entities in particular.

With a very good understanding of the language and culture of ethnic minorities in the UK, Aidem Digital has found this is a major asset to anyone looking for support to address digital media business needs within these communities or outside of them. With this focus in mind, Aidem Digital has developed a team of cross-cultured individuals both locally and globally. Digital photography, video production, on-line brand development, website design and implementation, graphic design and printing are just a few of the services that Aidem Digital can offer your company.

Commenting on the Shop for Change campaign, Indi Deol, Managing Director said: “Without the existence of campaigns like Shop for Change and organisations like iSE supporting and nurturing social businesses, vital networking and awareness opportunities that they generate would be lost and this sector would suffer hugely”.

Find out more about Aidem Digital: 07827 914593 | www.aidemdigital.org.uk | info@aidemdigital.org.uk