Much Valued Recognition
Posted: May 10, 2012 Filed under: Community, CSR, Cyrenians, homelessness | Tags: Charity, Volunteering, Working with Businesses 1 Comment »The founders of Cyrenians pitched our tent way out on the margins of society. Our purpose is to be ‘out there’ for the people who are not generally cared for. A champion of unpopular causes. It goes with the territory that we struggle for resources. Or that people sometimes question why we are trying to help those who are deemed to have contributed to their own downfall. There are many causes and charities ahead of us in the queue for funding or charitable donations. That’s just how it is.
It was therefore with genuine shock and delight that I heard “Cyrenians” being called forward at last night’s Scottish Business in the Community Dinner and Awards to go up and receive the Social Enterprise Award from HRH Prince Charles. The particular commendation is for the impact our social enterprises make in combating poverty and getting people into a working life. It was also great that amongst the hundreds of guests applauding Cyrenians win were many people and organisations from the business community who are real and enduring contributors to that impact.
Standard Life provided the secondment that helped start our journey into social enterprise in 2005. J.P. Morgan helped us establish the programme that transitions trainees through our enterprise workplaces and into jobs. PwC has given invaluable business advice, especially in commercialising CORE. NHS Lothian has given access to the land for our Community Gardens enterprise. A team from Scottish Gas is helping us with processes and efficiencies. There are dozens of companies who support our social enterprises by being paying customers of our excellent Team Challenge Programme – too many to mention. And dozens more who donate goods in kind – like surplus food that we re-distribute to community kitchens through Cyrenians FareShare, which has been passionately supported for years by The Townhouse Company and Artemis.
Des Ryan receives the SBC Social Enterprise Award from HRH Prince Charles on behalf of Cyreniansrtemis.
Cyrenians Social Enterprises are helping 50 people a year into employment. More than 30 people a year are enabled to make other big changes to their lives by working in the enterprises. Between them the Farm, Gardens, Cook School, FareShare and organics recycling mobilise over 20,000 hours of volunteering, involve schools and dozens of community groups and support us in developing more environmentally and economically sustainable lifestyles.
After this becomes yesterday’s news and the tuxedo is closeted in mothballs we’re back to the hard reality of bringing in enough money to keep these good things happening for people in tough times. Let no-one think that the Award means we’ve made it! We’re certainly not fooling ourselves. We need – and make great use – of every bit of help we can get.So please be encouraged by this to help, and get in touch.
Like this:
A Hand Up, Not a Hand Out
Posted: October 3, 2011 Filed under: charity, Community, CSR, Cyrenians, environment, food, homelessness | Tags: Environment, Food, welfare benefits, Working with Businesses Leave a comment »FareShare has hit the media big time over the weekend. Cyrenians provides one of 17 services across the UK that together contribute to 8.6 million meals a year with surplus product donated by the food industry. Donated fresh food is quality checked and distributed by volunteers from our Leith warehouse to supply 43 charity kitchens around Lothian to supplement their food budget and add value to their menu. (“Aw no, not salmon en croute again,” a customer of a local shelter kitchen was famously heard saying to a delivery team!)
As the National Survey reports, we’re looking for more food donors in Scotland, more volunteers to help run the Programme and financial support so that we can increase the impact we’re making.
It’s a brilliant service: “A triumph of common sense,” as Sir Tom Farmer called it on one of his visits. Charities for the homeless have some decent fare to put in front of folk, as well as help and advice from our food team. Large quantities of food is diverted from land-fill. And dozens of people who were homeless are helping run the warehouse and delivery vans; helping their recovery while helping others. To that we add cookery classes for over 200 people a year and their carers. From Day One - back in the year 2000 – we’ve been determined that the Programme is a hand-up, not just a hand out. We want to see food used to bring people together and forward in their lives.
For that reason we’ve not publicised our limited work to date in distributing Emergency Food Packs to individuals and families who are receiving other services. We think we’d already be swamped by demand and this will certainly rise as the welfare reforms roll out.
But our Thinking Hats are firmly on again given the evidence of growing need. We welcome ideas and suggestions – even proposals – about how else to provide food help in tackling the poverty in our midst without creating dependence or tackling a mountain with a teaspoon.
Click here to support the work of Cyrenians
Dealing with Reality
Posted: September 23, 2011 Filed under: charity, CSR, Cyrenians, volunteering | Tags: cyrenians, employment, welfare benefits, Working with Businesses Leave a comment »The Scottish Budget debate is taking place in Holyrood as I write this but we already know the outcome. It may have been delayed in coming to Scotland but the new reality has arrived. We might wish things were different but Cyrenians’ challenge from here is to adapt to being a force for good with much less public funding to hand and many more people in need of help.
One way of doing this is through our partnerships with the business community. There are lots of examples if you read down this blog, but it’s always exciting to start new relationships. Last Friday we started a new 12 week project with a team from Scottish Gas. They are going to work with our front-line teams to research the mounting financial challenges faced by tenants on the fragile margins who are one bad break or one mistake away from homelessness. We’ll use that research to create some better help for them. This new corporate relationship is brokered and faciltated by our friends at the excellent Three Hands: lovely people doing a great job, and ever more important job in the new reality.
Our Community Gardens ventures typify another creative approach to the problem: bringing together volunteering, local community activism and local assets – like unused land – to make lots of good things happen for relatively low cost. Look at this link to see how busy the calendar of activities is at the Royal Edinburgh Gardens. Inspiring Scotland is currently rolling out a new initiative called Link-Up to promote low cost/high impact community activity.
Alongside the development of Cyrenians Social Enterprises, we’ve these few things to build on to ensure that Cyrenians remains a force for good whatever happens with public funding.
Harder to deal with will be the reality facing people who no longer have jobs in the public sector or the housing benefits to afford their home.
More than ‘Just the Job’
Posted: August 24, 2011 Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: Charity, cyrenians, employment, Homelessness, welfare benefits, Working with Businesses Leave a comment »Typically, people affected by homelessness and associated difficulties face major barriers in getting into a settled working life. However, getting into a settled working life is often fundamental to their full recovery and resilience to repeat problems.
There is research evidence that:
- Over 80% of the long-term homeless are also long-term unemployed
- 77% or respondents were ready & willing for some sort of work with 97% wanting to work in future
In April 2010 the JPMorgan Chase Foundation began to support us to put homeless people on a path to employment and a settled working life using our own social enterprise workplaces to build experience, skills and self belief. Financial investment came with support from the firm and its workforce in Scotland through employee-led initiatives in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
In that year we’ve increased the passage of people fro
m homelessness to a settled working life from 14 a year to an average of over 1 a week. To some that might not seem like much, but each case is literally life changing. And the service to people is top quality – making sure that people are really prepared, ready and supported to progress in their working life. It’s not a quick fix or a box tick.
The people from J.P.Morgan have been absolute stars! As well as financial and business help, more than 30 of the workforce have volunteered at two of our social enterprise workplaces, Cyrenians Farm and the Good Food Depot.
MITIE Good Partnership Announced
Posted: July 8, 2011 Filed under: Community, environment, homelessness, Work | Tags: Charity, Environment, Homelessness, Working with Businesses Leave a comment »It’s been so so hard to keep quiet about this! But we can finally announce a ground-breaking new partnership between Cyrenians and FTSE 250 firm, MITIE, the strategic outsourcing and energy-services company, to work together in taking forward CORE (Cyrenians Organics Recycling Enterprise)
Our motivation for seeking this partnership was for the CORE social enterprise – operating since 2009 and now in profit – to get the investment and business muscle it needs to survive and thrive in a very competitive and fast changing commercial market place.
CORE now has serious ambitions of being a UK market leader in taking food waste out of harmful landfill and into renewable energy, while generating new work-place opportunities for Cyrenians service users and income for investment in improving lives.
The better CORE does in winning customers and turning waste into an asset, the more benefit to the charity in our twin mission of improving lives and the environment. So if you work for a business or public organisation generating food waste, send your manager in CORE’s direction!
The process of establishing the partnership has demonstrated that both organisations – despite the difference in size and sector – share high standards, strong values and a passion for better futures. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with MITIE.
Cyrenians income from the growing CORE will be channeled into our ‘Enterprise to Employment’ programme that Cyrenians has developed over the last year with support from JPMorgan, who have been brilliant supporters, training and supporting people affected by homelessness back into a settled working life. (More about that in the next blog story).
see more about the CORE story in last September’s blog
The charity really benefits from your support: Click Here to Become a Friend of Cyrenians
Looking for Great People & Ideas
Posted: May 9, 2011 Filed under: CSR, Miscellaneous | Tags: Charity, cyrenians, Working with Businesses Leave a comment »Cyrenians thrives on having great people involved and a regular flow of great ideas.
Tomorrow we’re having a Thinkathon. In this instance it involves a dozen or so employees from Pfizer, (the world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical company), joining five of us to put our brains together and come up with some fresh, inspirational thinking about Cyrenians journey ahead. This has been pulled together by the aptly named Collaboration Company.
We’ve done this before with other companies and to great effect. It provides a great day for the business with a lot of team-building and learning going on. Their fresh pairs of business eyes and different angles of thought inevitably result in some excellent new ideas.
A team from Shaw spent a challenge day with us to imagine and plan new horizons for Cyrenians Farm. In the time since that enterprise has gone from strength to strength.
The focus of tomorrow’s thinking is on how Cyrenians can go yet further in working with business to create a fairer and more sustainable society. We want to go beyond philanthropy and CSR box-ticking and to imagine how commerce and charity can seriously combine our efforts so that its both good for business and business for good.
I said great people as well as great ideas – and we’re just now advertising an interim post to join our Leadership Team on Pam’s departure to become CEO at Providence Row and a new Enterprise Manager to take over at Cyrenians Farm, with Rob moving to fresh pastures. See the link below to the job opportunities.
Des Ryan
May 2011
A Spring in Our Step
Posted: April 1, 2011 Filed under: charity, CSR, Cyrenians, environment, Homeless, welfare benefits | Tags: Homelessness, welfare benefits, Working with Businesses Leave a comment »I find it impossible not to be optimistic at this time of year.
Even with the first wave of cuts beginning to bite from today. Even knowing much worse is to follow, slicing not just into our funding but – more devastatingly – into the personal and housing benefits of the people we’re trying to help; people already living on the fragile margins.
Ah, but the warmth in the sunshine, the longer days… It’s also the time of year at Cyrenians when we emerge from our corporate reflection and planning season with a cartload of fresh ideas to make the world a better place – albeit in small ways.
Readers of this blog are always very welcome to throw in more ideas and suggestions. We might even give prizes!
We’ve got some fantastic research coming out soon that will demonstrate that the Homeless Prevention Service saves money as well as misery, and we’ll be arguing that every local authority should have one. We’re looking to make Cyrenians Communities even better at helping young people to turn their lives around… In fact all of the services have plans to step forward.
Stirring at the bottom of the garden?
It looks like we’ll be growing more Community Gardens in partnership with NHS Lothian and our friends at Standard Life are lending us a staff member to help expand our surplus food distribution enterprise. Continuing the food theme we’re beginning to look towards setting up a Cookery School that provides the same great service to those that want it and can pay for it and those that need it and can’t pay. There’s even thought of a Fifteen-style restaurant if we can find a building, business support and start-up investment.
And if I was ever tempted to indulge in self pity, our customers are on hand to bump me out of it. The young woman recovering from heroin addiction who we helped with our crisis fund to buy a fitted bra (see Canary in the Coal Mine, below) sent me a wonderful letter of thanks with these words: “You wouldn’t believe how much it’s helped. Not just the back ache, but its given me that bit of confidence and helped me walk taller. It’s people like Cyrenians that give people like me a second chance and they believe in me. Thank you so much.”
Being able to help someone else is the best feeling in the world. If more people realised that we wouldn’t be talking about cuts.
CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT CYRENIANS
Posted: October 4, 2010 Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: Working with Businesses Leave a comment »
Cyrenians has been gifted a unique second chance to be a host to a team of three business high-flyers.
The Responsible Leadership Programme (RLP) is in its fourth year and has been developed by PricewaterhouseCoopers UK in collaboration with Common Purpose. The course works by placing groups of two or three PwC Partners with host organisations for a period of four weeks in September/October 2010, where they immerse themselves in the charity and work alongside the host organisation’s leaders.
Cyrenians was selected as one of three UK hosts in 2009. PwC partners Andy Boucher and John Higgins came to live and work alongside us in Edinburgh. Andy writes about the experience here. Partners stripped down for charity | The Sunday Times
It was the sort of experience that money can’t buy. A journalist recently asked me that the partners did for us: probably expecting something about having devised a new strategy or winning new business. My answer was that the
Amanda, Ken and Mark
scrutiny of such intelligent outsiders enabled me and colleagues to better see the charity as others see us. From those insights comes better leadership and better strategic planning.
I was surprised and delighted to discover that the origin of the saying is Rabbie Burns and the full quote is even better: To A Louse: On seeing one on a lady’s bonnet at church;
O would some Power the gift to give us
To see ourselves as others see us!
It would from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion:
Our unforeseen second go at this came about through being a last minute substitute for another third sector host and we didn’t have to be asked twice. Hence PwC partners Amanda Clack, Ken Walsh and Mark Hughes are with us as I write… getting up close to our activities and the issues we wrestle with as we try to create a charity that is robust and which makes as much of an impact as we can.
Des Ryan
October 2010
A CORE Mission
Posted: September 15, 2010 Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: Environment, Working with Businesses 1 Comment »Cyrenians Organics Recycling Enterprise (CORE) is at a critical stage of its development as a social enterprise and really needs to raise profile and customers, so if readers have any customer leads or offers of help, don’t hesitate to push these for us or to get in contact.
CORE provides a segregated food waste system and collection service for restaurants, hotels, works canteens, food producers – anywhere that generates quantities of food waste. Hitherto this has gone into general waste and been sent to landfill. With CORE the segregated food waste is taken to composting – and, in future – to supply AD plants for producing energy. It is the first and only business service of its kind in Scotland and can play a major part in the country’s Zero Food Waste targets. The recycling service CORE offers is reliable and customer focussed, but most importantly is very competitively priced.
As if that wasn’t enough it is also providing traineeships for people on our budding Enterprise to Employment programme.
For participating commercial companies, like Radisson, and public sector customers, such as the Scottish Parliament, there’s a triple benefit of cost savings, hard evidence of carbon savings and contribution to CSR by supporting job creation and traineeships.
The challenge for Cyrenians is growing the customer base and income streams quickly enough to break-even in a very challenging marketplace. Our business offer is compelling and the requirements to meet carbon saving targets are pressing, but dealing in practice with food waste comes way down the list of a business’ priorities for the day!
CORE has huge potential to scale up its contribution to Cyrenians mission of creating a fairer, stronger and greener Scotland but starting and consolidating a new business is tough. For a social business it is even tougher and we need every bit of help we can get from friends and supporters over the next period in realising its potential.
Out of recession?
Posted: February 2, 2010 Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: Working with Businesses Leave a comment »This is welcome news and I hope it injects some confidence into the economy for further and more substantial recovery. I also hope it enables our many business partners to invest with greater freedom in community involvement, such as the up-lifting Team Challenge Days at Cyrenians Farm, and philanthropic minded individuals to put their support to some of the life changing initiatives for which we are looking for backing.
Optimism is tempered by listening to all the main political parties talking about cuts in public expenditure as the way to reduce the national debt. Is that the only or the best way of doing it?
I will ask the politicians to look at enterprising charities like Cyrenians as part of the solution rather than the problem. If seem as a small business, Cyrenians last year grew by 25%; created new jobs and traineeships and created a new business that will generate wealth, jobs and environmental benefit in the years to come… all over and above helping over 1,000 people in crisis.
