 On 3rd July I attended a Youth Mental Health First Aid (MHFA England) conference at Birkbeck College, London. Here’s what I took from it. The interactive conference consisted of talks from different professionals from the Mental Health industry speaking on the effects of mental health in schools, on teachers and students and how this heavily affects the overall environment. They also spoke about what support can be offered in educational facilities to help this and shared some very incredible (and some quite shocking) statistics on these subjects. The conference then introduced selected pupils from a few schools around the U.K and also a campaign started by a group of young people called Stamp Out Stigma (S.O.S). The students from the schools varied in age from about 7-16. They all revealed their presentations they had been working on in school in small groups. They varied from talking about the effects of mental health during unemployment, homelessness and other hardships of life that a lot of people face. They included drawings, speeches, powerpoints and animations to showcase these findings and ideas. It was truly inspirational to hear people of such a young age with such a genuine care for others. I think the way today’s society is shaped, there really isn’t enough of that. The kids were all really polite and confident and created a really cool atmosphere by basically taking over and running the session. They also created games to get everyone to introduce each other and talk about their favourite things to do etc, which created a really comfortable environment. Again, it was honestly amazing to see kids that young taking such initiative and really having a positive effect on those around them. The session then drifted towards S.O.S and here is a short summary of what they are about (taken from their website): ‘Stamp Out Stigma is an initiative spearheaded by the Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness (ABHW) to reduce the stigma surrounding mental illness and substance use disorders. This campaign challenges each of us to transform the dialogue on mental health and addiction from a whisper to a conversation.’ They were also really thought-provoking, they talked about their roller-coaster of a journey in which their head teacher had tragically taken their own life and how this affected the school and the pupils. These girls (who are about 15 I believe) had then used this horrible situation to create something genuinely amazing. They have now hosted conferences across the UK with thousands of people and even the Mayor has been involved! The session then wrapped up with an activity where all the adults sat in a circle facing outwards in groups of three and a group of children would come and talk to us for a couple of minutes about whatever popped into our heads (mostly mental health related). It was actually really interesting to see some of the things that people came up with. Some of the things the kids were talking about were really touching, this one girl (couldn’t have been older than 8) stood up and was talking about how she just wished everyone could be happy, she explained she wanted everyone to have a voice and wanted more young people to get involved in doing good things related to mental health. I thought this was a really incredible mindset to have at such a young age. In conclusion, the conference was really motivating and I learnt a lot from it. I hope more people can learn from these guys as they are most definitely going to make a massively positive impact. Thank you for reading! If you’d like to learn more about S.O.S you can find out loads of stuff on their website here. For more information about MHFA England, here is their website here. Written by Kya McCartney (Senior Admin Assistant, Enterprise Exchange).
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Dinner at the Clink, Brixton Prison
Our fundraising event on 5th July 2018 at the Clink, Brixton Prison was a brilliant success. We invited some key potential funders and everybody was surprised by the unexpected and un-prison like restaurant atmosphere, except of course for small practical restrictions with no alcohol allowed, not being able to bring anything into the restaurant and having to be escorted in and out of the prison in small groups. Inspirational speakers and entertainment One of the main speakers for the evening was Carl Elliott. Carl was supported in prison a number of years ago by Enterprise Exchange and is inspirational in that he left prison and is now running three very successful businesses. He illustrated to the potential funders how extremely vital a service like Restart is to someone in his position. His speech was inspirational and it was moving to see the changes somebody can make in their lives when given the right support. The rest of the evening was filled with singing from a male acapella choir, joined by the bar tenders who clearly also had a passion and talent for singing and a quiz based on questions around the number of people in prison, how many get jobs and how many reoffend. This became quite a talking point as lots of the figures were shocking even to some in the know. Two attendees, Carl and Jason stood up and talked about how the support they had received from Enterprise Exchange had helped them in their lives and without it they would probably not be here. The food was excellent and of a very high standard and there was a huge round of applause at the end for the ten large amount of offenders who cooked and served the meal. At the end we were all escorted out of prison and picked up our belongings, inspired and moved to be part of a compassionate and supportive organisation where there is a place for everybody no matter what they may have been compelled to do or believe they are capable of. Those with the most challenging backgrounds in life are often the most inspirational.  Lucy Wilkes - social media managementQ: Why did you decide to follow this path/business?
A: Social media came about from my time running a print business. I had opened a print shop in Lewes in 2010 and needed to advertise and took to social media (Twitter in particular) and found it very interesting and successful. I then began to talk to my print customers about it - and they asked my advice on how to 'do it'. I then began to work on some training sessions focussing on business social media. These courses ran in Lewes and then for the last 3 years I have worked with The Swift Project helping women in business alongside my private clients and retained business clients. Q: Has it always been a passion? A: I was always a natural writer, and so now I write in sound bites rather than essays! Social media hasn't been around for long enough for me to call it a passion but I really love what I do for each of my clients. Q: When did you decide to follow your passion? A: I had to make the difficult decision to sell my existing business (The Print Shop) where I had been in a retail environment for 15 years, to follow the social media path. It was very challenging for me to accept that my life had changed (for the better!) and that I was scared of the change from having the security, social interactions and security of my shop; to working on a laptop - just me and my thoughts! Glad to say it was totally the right path, and I may not have been so able to take it without the support of my business mentor. Q: Were you encouraged at school? Were your talents recognised? A: My parents did everything to send me to a private school where success was inspired in each person. I was very lucky to have had that experience - but I left at 16 to continue my education in the state system and was completely unprepared for the change. I would say my education came from work - part time work in kitchens through to American Express where I worked in a dream job for many years! Q: What were the most difficult things to overcome when you decided to try and make money by following your dream rather than getting a job. A: Chasing invoices, so time consuming! I now have an accountant who is on hand to write heavy handed letters incase people don't pay up - thankfully I have done my time on this and now work with larger companies on retained contracts. You are not alone in worrying that you have made the wrong choice in life - but i try to remember and appreciate the freedom I have to be my own boss and work when I choose. The downside is you have to be very disciplined to do this job - in some ways I could work 24/7 and it still wouldn't be enough in the fast pace world of social media - so I have learnt to try and switch off client accounts at weekends! Q: Did you think you would never make it happen? Did you feel you weren’t good enough to make it happen? A: Always! Still do! New clients come through the system and you have to work out how they work so you can do your job - and usually after 6 weeks I mutter to myself - 'Thats it! I cant do this anymore! 'My job sometimes involves going into companies and taking over the social media from other people who will naturally feel resentment towards me - and I try to make them feel OK and support them in their job.. Q: If so how did you move through those thoughts? For many these thoughts can seem so real and limiting. A: Take the emotion out of the situation. Look at things rationally. Do the best job you can and be brave enough to say to a client - 'I am not right for you - Thank you but no thanks' I have done that on several occasions and the clients appreciated it! Q: What do you love most about what you do? A: Creative freedom! To make a real difference to my clients business and back this up with data! Also when I am training a business and they come back to me a few weeks later saying that they actually 'get it' now and see them moving forward. Q: I am sure many people must benefit from your service - does this give you even more satisfaction? A: Absolutely - it is gratifying to have so many testimonials and watch businesses utilise the tools that I have taught them - The Swift Project has been particularly gratifying on this level. Q: Where do you see yourself in five years time? A: Hard to say with the increase in bots - ask me next year'! Contact Lucy here We start to realise there is nothing wrong with self doubt, fear, feeling not good enough - they are all completely normal and we can relax and see they aren't who we are and don't mean anything - and carry on.  Louisa Michel - Founder and owner of Brighton LaceQ: Why did you decide to follow this path/business?
A: I didn’t plan on going in this direction, I was just doing it for fun really, experimenting, and it turned out people liked what I was up to. Q: Has it always been a passion? A: Colour has always been a big passion. I heard a talk recently where the speaker said if you think back to what you were doing when you were very young - the kinds of activities you naturally loved to do - this speaks volumes about what your adult passions are. I realised this is very true for me; I was always ordering things into colour groups - pencils, toys, books...it was just a fascination I had! Today one of my biggest passions is dyeing our laces and thinking about the colourways in our collections. Q: When did you decide to follow your passion? A: I didn’t really make the decision to go for it, in a way it made itself. I thought I was going to end up using my journalism qualification for my work, but my pieces kept selling (I was doing this on the side of my training) and I started to realise I could make this work as a ‘proper’ business. Q: Were you encouraged at school? Were your talents recognised? A: Yes, the focus of my school was very creative, I was lucky in that way. Also my parents helped a lot just in role-modelling that this is a viable career path. Q: What were the most difficult things to overcome when you decided to try and make money by following your dream rather than getting a job. A: It’s taken me a few years to realise that running a business or being an entrepreneur is just like any other career path, it requires a skill set that needs to be learned and honed over time. The business emerged through passion but I had very little concrete business knowledge and this is something I’m definitely still learning today. Thankfully I have some amazing resources and people in my life who help me learn and grow. Q: Did you think you would never make it happen? Did you feel you weren’t good enough to make it happen? A: Oh yes, I doubt that ‘imposter’ feeling ever goes away, but I ask myself how many nice reviews will it take for me to realise we do actually make something beautiful that people love?! Q: If so how did you move through those thoughts? For many these thoughts can seem so real and limiting. A: I relax with those thoughts, I don’t let them get in the way of doing what I love. I also think about all the other people who run small businesses and I realise we all have the same worries and doubts and still we continue on making beautiful things that people cherish. Q: What do you love most about what you do? A: Working with dye, shopping for fabric, going to markets and meeting wonderful customers. I also love the network of makers around me, some of my dearest friends also run small design businesses and I’m so grateful to know them and work alongside them. Q: I am sure many people must benefit from your music/service - does this give you even more satisfaction? A: Yes absolutely. Even now I do a little happy dance when a customer messages us to say thank you, or a lovely review comes in! I also love that it creates work for other talented women in the Brighton community. That is something I feel very proud of - being able to employ the skills of other talented women in the city. Q: Where do you see yourself in five years time? A: Running a Brighton Lace studio that customers can visit, with a few more team members, making lovely lingerie of course, but also producing a small fashion collection, and perhaps a swimwear line too…so many ideas! Contact Lou here In our new series of blog posts we asked some of our clients how it was for them to take the step to self-employment and stick at it when the going gets tough. It's interesting to see we all face the same internal challenges no matter our backgrounds . . .  Max Mezzowave - musician and songwriter at MezzowaveQ: Why did you decide to follow this path/business?
A: It was always something I wanted to do and never felt happy working in a 9 to 5 situation. Q: Has it always been a passion? A: Yes more so in my 20's. Q: When did you decide to follow your passion? A: Age 16 I was in bands before that too. Q: Were you encouraged at school? Were your talents recognised? A: Not really it was outside of school with friends there was music but it was very limited, my mum got me piano lessons at a very young age, so mainly outside of school. Q: What were the most difficult things to overcome when you decided to try and make money by following your dream rather than getting a job. A: I'm not business oriented so I had to learn to be better at it and to accept other jobs (DIY, decorating etc) too to subsidise my passion and when its tough, to not focus on lack and remember the creativity is at the core. Q: Did you think you would never make it happen? Did you feel you weren’t good enough to make it happen? A: Regularly! It goes in waves it can really be on and then just feel like it's a million miles away. Q: If so how did you move through those thoughts? For many these thoughts can seem so real and limiting. A: Probably gratitude and to reflect on previous work I know has kicked ass, so to remember I'm not useless and that it is possible again. Q: What do you love most about what you do? A: When the song/tune has written me and it's really sonic soup feeling the spirit at the core of it, there's nothing like that, it stays with me for days and writes me! And to feel I've created real art and have moved consciousness through my art. Q: I am sure many people must benefit from your music/service - does this give you even more satisfaction? A: Definitely when we've created great work that touches and moves people and being rewarded spiritually and financially too! Q: Where do you see yourself in five years time? A: I'd love to be touring and playing to much larger audiences bringing my sonic soup to more people. Like to be selling many more albums, being played on mainstream radio, have a hit record. I'd also like to have my music in a major consciousness lifting mainstream movie! Contact Max here  Being unemployed in our society can happen for any number of reasons – stopping work to have a child, being made redundant, not able to find a job after school or university, ill health, anxiety …and countless other reasons.
Judged by our ability to earn money The well-being of society in the UK and in much of the Westernised world is judged by the prosperity of its economy. Unfortunately this has led to the underlying belief that people aren’t good enough unless they are earning money and contributing to the system, it has also lead to the belief that the more money you have the more successful you are and oddly, that ultimate satisfaction and contentment is found in having enough money to do nothing. It creates fear and tension in society and hopelessness and depression as people worry about earning enough to keep a roof their heads and support their families and the shame of not being able to do so. In many cases it leads to depression, anxiety and sometimes suicide. Low self esteem and lack of motivation If you find yourself in the circumstance where you have no job and although you are looking nothing seems to work out and you are feeling low, depressed, no motivation, tired and hopeless then that is completely normal and there is nothing wrong with feeling like this. Most of us tend to focus on these feelings and describe them as negative and wrong and then we can easily become lost in a whole world of stories and get into a downward spiral. One self-empowering technique for these so called ‘negative’ feelings such as low self-esteem, pointlessness, shame and lack of motivation is to make friends with them and see that they are not your enemies. A negative feeling is just the same as a positive feeling of happiness or confidence - they all simply come and go and we can’t control them. We have just been told that negative feelings are ‘bad’ and there is something wrong if we feel them. We are conditioned to focus on and analyse the negative and try to hang on to the positive. We have been told that we need to feel ‘happy’ in order to be okay. But if you start to get to know your negative feelings you will see you are still okay even when feeling depressed or anxious. They are all part of what it is to be human. We all feel both the negative and the positive. That is wholeness. Get to know yourself and master your thoughts and feelings Being unemployed and then facing the ‘negative’ feelings as they arise is very empowering and freeing. We see that when we are no longer afraid of the feelings we can do anything. This isn’t a quick fix or a be-positive attitude, this is a getting real and getting to know yourself and how all human beings work. Being unemployed could be seen as a great opportunity to really get to know yourself and finally love yourself fully instead of believing there is something wrong with you because you have ‘negative’ feelings. Many people don’t get to experience this as they are caught up being busy and successful in order to avoid these ‘negative’ feelings. Being able to be okay with everything you are feeling means you can carry on, regardless of your circumstances. Even if you get a thousand rejections there will be a solution. Maybe this is the time to start up your own service, something you are passionate about but immediately tell yourself you could never do because of a list of reasons you believe are real. These ‘reasons’ are also just thoughts. They are not real, just a thought that you have given belief too. You can step by step look into following your ideas and dreams and with the support of a mentor and advisor you will be able to move forward through all of your limitations.  Restart is a new Prison Programme developed to help reduce the cycle of reoffending by supporting ex offenders to develop the skills they need to start their own small business or find work on their release. We are working with two other innovative organisations, Enterprise Inspiration and Beating Time to run this programme.
About 80,000 people come out of UK prisons each year – most of them do not find work. Around half re-offend. Restart is about reducing reoffending. We work weekly with serving prisoners to help them:
Work to offer self-employment workshops has received a funding boost in Eastbourne.
£5,000 of ‘Safer in Sussex’ funding from the county’s Police & Crime Commissioner, Katy Bourne, has been awarded to Enterprise Exchange. Commenting on the grant award, Benna McCartney said: “This is vital funding for us and means we can offer people with additional barriers in Eastbourne, the opportunity to become self-employed or start their own business, through our self-employment course”. Commending Enterprise Exchange on its successful bid, Mrs Bourne said: “This fund is about helping local community projects make Sussex safer and that’s exactly what this self-employment course is doing”. “Since launching the Safer in Sussex funding scheme in December 2013, I have made over £1m available to more than 220 local crime reduction and community safety initiatives.” “The scheme is making a real difference to communities across Sussex. The high numbers applying shows that local organisations and community groups care about, and are committed to, helping keep Sussex a safe place in which to live.” “I will be following the progress of Enterprise Exchange closely over the coming months.” ENDS Notes to Editors For further information about the Safer in Sussex funding scheme and how to apply visit: http://www.sussex-pcc.gov.uk/apply-for-funding/ You can watch a selection of videos about Safer in Sussex funding on our YouTube channel here. Read the most recent Enterprise Exchange interview article with SME Magazine here, where we talk about what we want to achieve, our biggest challenges, our work in the criminal justice system, our management development program, success stories, highlights and more. Thanks again to Dan Evans for inviting us to do this, when we met him at the National Enterprise Network Award Ceremony in December 2017.  Serious about starting a business but not sure where to begin?
Come and join our free, relaxed and fun Self employment course in Milton Keynes The Enterprise Exchange and Thames Valley CRC course consists of 3 x FREE self-employment workshops, teaching all the basics of working for yourself and more. Personal one to one coaching and access to Start-up funding included. Where and when? Thames Valley CRC 301 Silbury Boulevard Witan Gate East Central Milton Keynes MK9 2YH 14th, 17th and 20th July 2017 10am-3pm each day Please contact Sarah.Mayson@thamesvalleycrc.org.uk 01869328500/07464647566 ASAP to book your place  We are very excited to say that we came Highly Commended for the Enterprise Engagement award at the NEN conference and award ceremony on 1st December in London! We would like to thank everyone involved and congratulate all of the other well deserved winners! Here is a photo of Phil with our award :)🤞
Ex-prisoners will receive support to start their own businesses
with a new fund backed by London's high sheriff James Furber, the high sheriff of Greater London, has thrown his weight behind a new fund that aims to help people leaving prison become entrepreneurs. The programme will provide inmates with peer and professional mentors who will assist them with business planning and personal development. Successful candidates will be given the cash they need on release to start their own business. The scheme was launched by Beating Time, an organisation that provides choirs in prisons, and Enterprise Exchange, which runs self-employment courses in prisons. Entrepreneurs Turning prisoners into entrepreneurs could save £1.4billion, read more here. "Visiting prisons I see huge potential in many prisoners," said Furber. "We’ve doubled our prison population in the last 20 years. If we want change, we have to create the opportunity to change, which is why I’m supporting this initiative by Enterprise Exchange and Beating Time.” In the year ending June 2016, 74,713 people were released from prison in England and Wales. Only 27 per cent of those people found work. Re-offending is another common problem that stable employment could help solve, the two companies said. The current prison population is around 85,000, yet for those serving sentences under 12 months, 60 per cent will go on to re-offend in the year after their release. Stable employment reduces the probability of re-offending by up to 50 per cent. Beating Time and Enterprise Exchange are approaching entrepreneurs and businesses to contribute to an opportunity fund to finance the entrepreneurship programme and provide the seed capital to kick-start the businesses that emerge from it. "This is the kind of collaborative, innovative and entrepreneurial approach we need, if we are to turn people who have served prison sentences into societal assets, rather than liabilities," said Phil Ashford, director of Enterprise Exchange. Ashford added: "In addition to a well thought through business plan, we will have had the chance over a 10-week period to see how well candidates cope with new challenges, interact, collaborate and network. We’ll see how committed they are. We’ll put them under the pressure of a performance and know how they react to that. "Building a business is about more than a good idea and a business plan. Our investors, want to know who we are investing in, not just what." Read article here: http://www.cityam.com/267110/ex-prisoners-receive-support-start-their-own-businesses-new Hi Phil,
We are hopeful that you will be able to provide further training for us as all previous courses have been a resounding success with positive feedback from all attending. I know that at least one of the entrepreneurs from the first course continues to trade and now has a successful business. Another is employed full time and has been for over 12 months. As many of the initial course participants are no longer supervised by probation it is difficult to advise on the continued employment success for these people but as they are no longer with us we can take that as a successful outcome. The last course that was sponsored by John Lewis is more recent so we can report that 7 service users took part and all have reported a significant boost to motivation and positivity as a result. There seemed to be a real group bonding amongst this cohort and they expressed how supportive they had found the group. Even before they embarked on the 1:1 support element of the training, 2 of the participants reported positive results in relation to their business development. Cliff secured a contract with a local gym to allow him to work from their premises and Adam was successful in presenting his pitch to ‘The Entrepreneurial Spark’ project and has been offered a place. Both Cliff and Adam have advised me that the course played a significant part in achieving this success. Cliff continues to work via the gym several months later. Whilst the course is not necessarily suitable for everyone, not all of our services are budding entrepreneurs, it has a significant impact on those who have the most limited options. This type of training is not readily available, especially not free of cost and without the sort of restrictions that would exclude our more difficult to help service users, therefore it makes a huge difference to those that take part. With thanks, Loraine Loraine Harbage ETE advisor Thames Valley Community Rehabilitation Company Ltd |
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