Resonance - Twenty Years Of Impact - Report - Page 81
REGULATOR OFGEM INTRODUCES A NEW
ENERGY PRICE CAP FOR HOUSEHOLDS IN
ENGLAND, SCOTLAND AND WALES
76 HOMELESS PEOPLE
in England and Wales died in 2018, a 22% rise from 2017
and the highest increase since records began28
JAMES EVANS
CHRIS RAWLINS
Community Mentoring and Support CIC (CMAS) applied
for a SITR investment in 2018 to enable us to grow and
build a community programme to become a regional
provider to meet educational and social and emotional
needs of children and young people experiencing
exclusion. Over the next five years, Resonance and
individuals within their team became far more to us as a
company and Board than just a source of finance.
“You can gamble the daughter’s wedding,
but not the house…”
When I set out as a social entrepreneur a decade
ago, my wife made it clear there were limits to our
financial commitment. She would let me gamble our
daughter’s wedding, but never our house. Consequently,
traditional routes to bank finance were ruled out from
day one. Anyone serious about scaling their financially
sustainable social enterprise at speed will need access to risk free capital from
funds like Resonance’s at some stage. Early stage funding and knowledge from
UnLtd taught us to crawl, gave us the confidence to walk and caught us when
we fell. Soon we could walk alone. The initial spark had become an eternal flame,
a sustainable business. Whilst the flame burned it didn’t grow. Investment from
Resonance, supported by operational changes partly driven by the due diligence
process, enabled us to run and each day we ran faster and faster. After three years of
exponential turnover growth, we are making tangible differences to people’s lives
through employment. We believe the social benefits of production by the masses at
least counterbalance the consumer benefits of mass production.
BELONG LEARNING
With the application for the loan came the challenge and opportunity to look more
forensically at our business model and financial structure, and this provided an
opportunity for us as a Board to focus on our growing specialism of educational
provision and to close departments that were financially insecure. This process was
supported by expertise and advice from Resonance and working with Katalin and
Donna enabled us to make some difficult decisions but ones that have ensured the
sustainability and growth of the company.
In 2020 we were invited by Resonance as a Board to participate in an event in
Bristol where many of the social enterprises that Resonance has invested in were
given the opportunity to tell their stories, promote some of their achievements and
meet some of the fund’s investors. As CEO, I was invited to speak at this event. By
sharing some of our journey and meeting individuals at our marketplace-style stall,
this brought us into contact with someone who went on to provide consultancy in
enabling us to create a new business plan. This working relationship led to them
becoming a non executive director and he now works with us on a consultancy
basis as a financial lead. This connection was invaluable for CMAS and enabled
us to build a model of delivery that ensured we continued to effectively operate
throughout the COVID-19 crisis.
Our ongoing relationship with Resonance also enabled us to successfully apply
for a Social Enterprise Support Fund grant and this ensured not only our survival
through this very challenging period but enabled us to grow our service at a time
when more and more young people and their families needed our support. This led
to the creation of two new school centres and the transformation of the company
from CMAS to Belong Learning, with a vision to be the specialist learning provider
of choice in the UK, enabling children and young people to ‘all belong’.
Our mission, to create educational communities where children and young people
with unmet needs can learn, grow and thrive. Again, Resonance played a vital role
in this rebranding exercise, with Resonance providing pro bono expertise and
resources in enabling our staff and students to create our new logo. Throughout
our six-year journey, Resonance has provided far more than financial support
and we are extremely grateful to the wisdom, expertise, opportunity, connections
and inspiration that individuals within their team have provided. We look forward
to continuing this relationship and congratulate them on their 20th anniversary,
enabling organisations like Belong Learning to turn vision into reality.
SOFAB
David v Goliath
Our workforce comprises a mix of young and old, housed and homeless, abled and
disabled, with criminal records and without. Our eBay store ranks best in class out
of more than 10,000 sellers in the categories we sell within, including some of the
country’s best known brands. We compete with Britain’s biggest retailers at their
own game, in their own back yard using a workforce they overlook. Ours is a story
of David versus Goliath in which David wins every day.
Our employees’ story is our story
Social businesses with real social impact have increasing importance as the current
level of charitable giving and funding surely can’t be sustained. Our mission is to
support the helpless and those in need of hope. Everyone has strengths and we
must enable them to achieve their potential - that starts with a first step.
A decade ago in the social enterprise world, I was both helpless and hopeless,
overwhelmed by the social injustice around me and unable to tackle it. Then came
the spark from my son’s idea and through grants and knowledge, the spark became
the eternal flame. Today driven by investment from Resonance the internal flame is
a raging inferno.
Our employees’ story is our story. The author of the latest chapter is Resonance.
“EVERYONE HAS
STRENGTHS AND
WE MUST ENABLE
THEM TO ACHIEVE
THEIR POTENTIAL THAT STARTS WITH
A FIRST STEP.”
CHRIS RAWLINS,
SOFAB SPORTS
Source:
28 Office for National Statistics - Deaths of Homeless People in England and Wales
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