 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:
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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. Read more: Entre-perp-neurs? Turning prisoners into entrepreneurs could save £1.4bn "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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Enterprise Exchange
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info@enterpriseexchange.org.uk Phil: 07740022797 Benna: 07811058500 |