Delighted to be guest spotlight speaker today at Ravensbourne University 'Growing Creative Leaders of the Future' centred around building personal resilience, being a leader and a change-maker.
The Living Wage Foundation is pleased to announce that Community Souls, has today accredited as a Living Wage employer.
The Living Wage Foundation recognises and celebrates the leadership shown by Living Wage employers across the UK. There are currently over 3000 accredited employers. The Living Wage Foundation supports employers to voluntarily go further than the government minimum and pay the real Living Wage, to all their staff, so they can earn enough to meet the cost of living.
The London Living Wage is currently £9.75 per hour (increase to £10.20 ph in Jan 2018). This figure covers all boroughs in Greater London. These figures are calculated annually by the Resolution Foundation and overseen by the Living Wage Commission, based on the best available evidence on living standards in London and the UK.
You can see more information about The Living Wage Foundation here
This summer Community Souls wins a ‘Do It Award’ from UnLtd, the UK’s foundation for social entrepreneurs. The funding and expert support from UnLtd will help the organisation make lasting social change in the community.
About UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs - UnLtd funds and support passionate and committed social entrepreneurs who are determined to tackle the key issues facing society. UnLtd began in 2002 and since then has given out over 13,000 awards of support and funding, direct and through partners, to social entrepreneurs to start up and scale their impact. It supports individuals running ventures firmly rooted in delivering positive social change. On top of this, UnLtd has developed a vibrant network of supporters in the UK and across the globe and is at the heart of a thriving movement for social change. Social entrepreneurs have solutions to some of the most pressing issues faced by society. UnLtd brings together insight and innovation from across the world so that social entrepreneurs can fulfil their potential to change the UK for the better.
For more information about the support offered by UnLtd go to www.unltd.org.uk
Rickardo, founder of Community Souls, said: “Working with UNLTD will enable Community Souls to approach the following 12 months with more confidence. The support will stabilise our business and allow us to focus on growth. It will also provide quality assurance, having support from such an established funder will allow us to showcase the quality of our work. Most importantly it will support us in increasing our social impact.”
Mark Norbury, UnLtd CEO, said: “Tackling society’s most complex challenges requires a radical shift in thinking and practice. That’s why social entrepreneurs are so important – they create bold, sustainable innovations based on their lived experience of the issues they are seeking to address. It is wonderful to see this summer’s cohort of award winners creating such social and economic value for their communities, while collaborating so well to get the most out of all their ideas, energy, resources and talent.”
Community Souls would like to welcome our newest volunteer;
Tess is our newest volunteer, who will be helping out primarily with marketing. Tess studied Philosophy at the University of Warwick, and then spent a year working in marketing at an e-commerce startup. She is also an art enthusiast and likes to paint in her free time!
This month Community Souls was successfully awarded a small grant from the Young Barnet Foundation #Space2Grow micro fund. The grant will be used for equipment and materials for our mentoring programme currently being delivered in the Barnet Pupil Referral Unit 'The Pavilion'.
Our mentoring programme has been running in Barnet's pupil referral unit since 2015. We deliver weekly sessions in the school, supporting the students' academic and personal well-being.
Over the past 4 months we've been working with year 10 & 11 students to set-up and run a juice bar. This has become a spot within the school where we talk about health, food, enterprise and everything in between.
Together we've researched, explored and tasted fruits and vegetables that prevent illnesses such as colds and sore throats, and those that promote concentration and energy. Some students have used the juice bar model as part of the GCSE business coursework.
Dave Fitzsimons from The Quaker Factory - 'Community Souls Logo(s)' for the D&AD awards 2016/17. Good Luck Dave !
Over the past 4 months Community Souls has been running our mentoring programme at The Barnet Pupil Referral Unit, The Pavilion. We have been working with a group of year 10 and 11 students, improving their personal and academic development. Below is a snapshot of some the outcomes we achieved.
18 x STUDENTS HAVE ACCESSED FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT THROUGH ART AGAINST KNIVES YOUTH PROJECTS
20 X STUDENTS HAVE DEMONSTRATED AN IMPROVEMENT IN THEIR EDUCATIONAL GRADES AND PERSONAL CAPABILITIES
1 X YEAR 11 STUDENT SUPPORTED INTO FURTHER EDUCATION
1 X YEAR 11 STUDENT WORK READY AND IN PART-TIME EMPLOYMENT
2 X STUDENTS HAVE USED COMMUNITY SOULS CLEANING COMPANY AND ART AGAINST KNIVES 'VALES NAILS NAIL BAR' AS CASE STUDIES FOR THEIR BUSINESS STUDIES GCSE COURSEWORK
Community Souls Cleaning Company has been awarded with a British Cleaning Certificate.
On Friday we were asked to share our story as part of Ravensbourne University's leadership development programme, 'Growing Creative Leaders for the Future'.
The theme of this workshop was 'Me as a Leader - Developing Resilience'.
We talked about the personal journey behind Community Souls and what drives our business. We shared some of the challenges we've faced in getting to where we are today and our positive solutions. We also gave advice on personal development, working on yourself, positive thinking and well-being.
A massive thank you to Fiona Dawe of Vital Space, Paul Sternberg from Ravensbourne and all the students for listening !
This week Community Souls and a talented young basketball player from North London Tobi visited The Nike Regal Court at The Black Prince Community Hub. Tobi had the opportunity to work on his handling and jump shots in a great training session ran by Reach and Teach. Thanks Coach Jay !