Small Works report 14-15

Report Small Works July 2014 - June 2015

Introduction This year has been an exciting one for Small Works. We have opened a brand new space in Kings Cross and continued to expand the range of community services and activities from the Small Works Victoria space.

Some of our social entrepreneurs have outgrown the space and moved on, while new entrepreneurs have moved in and started to grow. At Small Works Victoria we have had well over 300 people visiting the space, while providing space to volunteers to organise community-led activities.

From this foundation we aim to expand our impact over the coming year. We are full of ideas on how to expand our impact for social entrepreneurs as well as community members and are looking forward to growing the Small Works programme as a whole.

Supporting social entrepreneurs Space use Small Works currently hosts a total of 13 social enterprise or non-profit members at Small Works Victoria and Kings Cross. Both spaces are close to being fully occupied.

Small Works Kings Cross opened in October 2014 and currently hosts 6 social enterprises, ranging in size from 2 to 6 team members. 3 social enterprises have left the space in the past year and have been replaced.

Small Works Victoria currently has 7 social enterprises, with the number of team members ranging from 1 to 4. 2 members have left the space in the past year and have been replaced.

A full list of our members can be found in the Appendix.

Activities to support social entrepreneurs Throughout the year Small Works staff has been in the spaces to provide support to social entrepreneurs. This support varies from help in using the space to ad-hoc advice on running an enterprise and topics such as governance, policies and fundraising. In the coming year we will add more formal business support mechanisms for our members through facilitating networking between Small Works spaces and organising talks, workshops, and other activities. More details of this are given in the conclusion of this report.

Impact on social enterprises We have held an annual survey among our members to measure the benefits Small Works brings to them. The survey consisted of a personal conversation guided by a structured questionnaire.

The questions were aimed at getting a mix of quantitative and qualitative data on the benefits of Small Works and how members have grown their businesses. 9 members participated in this year’s survey.

We asked members what benefits they have experienced by working from Small Works and which are most important to them by freely dividing 15 points among a list of benefits.

The answers were as follows: (39 points) Low cost: this remains the most important benefit of the space, as it gives members the opportunity to spend their money elsewhere: one organisation said that the low rent allowed them to hire an apprentice, while another was able to maintain staff levels and give staff a pay rise. One member said that she wasn’t able to afford other locations and can now work from an Prioritisation of the main benefits that Small Works office rather than home, while another brings to entrepreneurs said he was now investing more in his website.

39 LOW COST (27.5 points) Exchange with other 27.5 Other social entrepreneurs social entrepreneurs: this exchange takes different forms. Members 22 central location participate in each other’s activities (e.g. in Kings Cross several members reported participating in the Sunday 19 in the community Assembly events and in Victoria one member participated in the online 7.5 support Digital Detox sessions from Consciously Digital). Participating in each other’s 5 network events provides opportunities for networking, with one member in Victoria reporting that she had substantially Small Works is a great programme. increased her network in Westminster in We love being located with social this way. Knowledge exchange is another enterprises, who share similar goals way members benefit, whether it’s about and challenges to us, and having governance, legal issues, fundraising subsidised office space really helps or dealing with larger clients. Finally, in us as a small organisation. We love particular in Small Works Victoria there has feeling part of a wider community and been an exchange of volunteers between hope to get more active still in the organisations. future.

PRoject dirt - small works kings cross

(22 points) Central location: the central location of the Small Works spaces is viewed as being extremely valuable for meetings and saving time.

One member also said the location is attractive as it provides a central London address that gives more credibility to the organisation.

Working from Small Works has helped me to expand my networks 6-fold. For example, I have established links to Peabody and we’re collaborating on a parenting programme and digital safety. Thanks to these links I got to present my work at the House of Commons.

(19 points) Opportunity to connect to community members: our members value being located on a social housing estate and report that the community give-back process and community events are good opportunities to meet Clay Media - small works victoria community members. This gives them the opportunity to gain feedback on their services and test their services with local communities.

One Small Works Victoria member said community give-back is useful to explore ideas around cohesion and feedback on marketing of activities. Another member said it gives them a chance to try out collaborative work in a community setting, while another member reported having met a lot of community members, which would hopefully help her to hire a local apprentice.

(12.5 points) Other benefits: 2 members in Small Works Victoria mentioned the support they got from Small Works staff (for example with outreach). One member said she had benefited extensively from the links Small Works helped her establish with Peabody.

Organisational growth We asked entrepreneurs if their organisation had grown in the last year/ since joining Small Works:

4/9 grew in staff

Growth in staff allowed members to increase their output. One organisation mentioned that thanks to Small Works they had been able to retain staff whom they would otherwise have had to lay off.

6/9 have more clients

One organisation acquired 25 new clients since moving into the space.

Another organisation increased their membership from 10.000 to 11.500 people

4/9 have more turnover

One organisation increased turnover by 600%. Some of the organisations are still in an early development phase and don’t yet have any turnover, one delivers services for free.

7/9 have a larger network

3 organisations emphasised that they increased their network through the other organisations in the Small Works space.

Community activities Small Works Victoria has seen a range of activities, events and services organised for the Peabody residents of Vauxhall Estate and neighbouring areas. They have been organised by Clear Village Small Works staff, our members, other space users and community volunteers. At Small Works Kings Cross we have not yet had a large number of community activities, primarily because the space is still new.

Small Works Victoria offered a wide range of activities and services, part-funded by the Westminster Foundation. Many of these activities are aimed at improving health and well-being. Examples include Fresh Perception Mindfulness Therapy, Sheng Ting Acupuncture and NHS Health Training organised by Antonella Pandolfino. Other services on offer this year included Resilience and Emotional Intelligence workshops organised by Family Matters, English for Foreign Speakers classes organised by Anne Stafford and Arabic language classes organised by Victoria School for Arabic Language. Small Works Victoria and Peabody together organise weekly Networx classes, which are regularly attended and run by a volunteer.

Larger community events organised by Small Works this year included the Open Day on April 14th, which showcased the services on offer from the space as well as an art exhibition organised by SW1 Art Group.

Another large event was the Sustainable Living day on 29 March with workshops from the Westminster Recycling Team and a Sustainability talk by Small Works Kings Cross member the Grub Club.

803

hours of activities, of which:

214

community activities

403 186

health-related activities skills/education activities

At Small Works Kings Cross our member Project Dirt organised a workshop about Getting into Green Volunteering and Community Centred Knowledge organised a Balcony gardening drop-in. The Open Day/ Big Lunch organised in partnership with Peabody was a big success and had a good number of local residents participating. Two local resident groups use the space weekly for Bingo and the space has also functioned as an overflow space for activities organised by the Hugh Cubitt centre.

A full list of community services, activities and events organised in the two spaces can be found in appendix B.

SW Victoria Sustainble Living Day On 29 March 2015 we organised a day programme full off workshops around the theme of Sustainable Living. We started off with a flower arranging workshop led by Katie Kearns. Next up was a discussion around sustainable living led by Olivia Sibony from Grub Club. Westminster’s Recycling Champions presented their view on recycling and held a bracelet making workshop and we finished off the day with pot painting for kids.

The activities were well visited by a wide range of community members with 15 people joining the workshops.

SW Kings Cross Open day & Big Lunch The Open Day and Big Lunch took place on June 5 and was meant to make Small Works Kings Cross more known among the community. Activities included a treasure hunt around the estate and face painting for children and a gardening taster workshop.

Community members brought food to share and played games with each other. More than 50 people came along and heard about Small Works and talked about the needs of the estate. Most people mentioned a need for activities and spaces aimed at kids and young people.

Visitors Between July 2104 and June 2015 we recorded a total of 737 visits from community members to the spaces. We recorded 339 unique visitors.

Visits*

737

Unique visitors

339

Gender Age Almost half of the visitors were aged between 25 and 49. In total more than 75% of visitors were of working age. Several of those, including many of our regular visitors, could be described as ‘vulnerable adults’. Through the year we had an estimated 35 community members aged over 65 visiting us. In general, it has been quite hard to reach this group and we have not had as many regular people aged over 65, as we would have liked. Equally, it has been difficult to attract younger people to the space.

Age <16 16-24 25-49 50-64 65+ The vast majority of recorded visitors 15 56 146 83 35 visited the space less than 5 2 Visitor age times. About 40 people visited the space more than 5 times, either within a relatively short time span or spread over the year.

No of 1 1-5 5-10 >10 Although we have a small group visits of people who visit us nearly 219 79 20 21 weekly, we would like to see more people come in regularly so that Visitor frequency we can work more directly with them to improve their well-being.

436 recorded visits were made to participate in one of the events or activities. 168 visits were made to use the computers while the rest of the visits were made to one of our entrepreneurs or for other reasons, including enquiries.

Space user Sarah Sarah is in her mid-40s and has lived in Westminster since 2003. She has been participating in Small Works activities for about a year. She is a regular participant in the SW1 Art Group, the SW1 Coffee Mornings and has been volunteering with SW1 Community Organisers. She also visits the space regularly to work on her own art business. Through all these activities she has benefitted from meeting new people from different backgrounds. For example, the social entrepreneurs from Small Works have given her tips on how to start a business, pensioners have shared their life experiences and sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been able to share ideas with other creatives.

On top of that, Sarah now feels more connected to what is happening in London and learned a lot about voluntary activity in Westminster.

* This is the number of visitors who have signed in. We estimate that the real number of visits is about 20% higher

Community Volunteering

One of the main aims of Small Works is to support local community members to set up their own activities or volunteer with the social enterprises. We provide the space, help volunteers develop their activities and give support with outreach and promotion.

At Small Works Victoria we have supported SW1 Art Group, led by Peabody residents Aaron and Sarah by providing them space for their weekly afternoon art sessions. We have also supported the group with promotion and by hosting their week-long art exhibition.

The Networx Classes at Small Works Victoria have been run by two volunteers, Mike and Muzey. We also have free Tai Chi classes organised by Raymond.

Apart from the volunteers we support directly, our members also work with our Small Works Victoria member SW1 Organisers, who works with a group of 5-10 local volunteers. Other members have also regularly worked with non-local volunteers from the space.

At Small Works Kings Cross local volunteers helped with the Big Lunch. The Community Bench Project scheduled for August 2015 is another good opportunity for local volunteers to take part in a Small Works project.

Volunteer Mike Mike is a 54-year-old member of the long term unemployed. He never used his computing degree but now attempts to put at ease those who are unfamiliar with computers and the internet. He prefers to mainly chat to his regular group of attendees, who are mostly aged over 65, discovering what they want from the internet and also illustrating what can be done, for example discovering train schedules, holiday destinations and so on, as and when those topics crop up.

The socialising with the members has helped him regain confidence after dealing with the effects of depression. He finds chatting over a cup of tea and a biscuit with people who have 20 years more wisdom than himself very therapeutic.

Vauxhall Estate repeat Well-Being Analysis

In Autumn 2012, in preparation of opening Small Works Victoria, Clear Village conducted a Well-Being Analysis (WBA) among residents of Vauxhall Estate. The goal of this analysis, which is an essential element of the Small Works programme, was to get to know the context of Small Works Victoria in order to allow us to establish a programme of activities tailored to the needs of Vauxhall Estate residents. The Clear Village team conducted 35 semi-structured interviews, exploring topics as varied as satisfaction with one’s home, feelings of safety and opportunities for personal development.

The repeat WBA carried out in April and May was a shortened version of the 2102 WBA. The aim of the repeat WBA was to check if there has been a significant change in residents’ perceptions of the topics that we believe Small Works Victoria can influence. The questionnaire was therefore limited to 7 closed questions, compared to 10 closed questions and 4 open questions in the original WBA. Further semi-structured conversations with a small selection of residents provided further insights that illustrate some of the findings of this repeat WBA. Our team filled in 36 questionnaires with randomly selected residents, a number comparable to the 2012 WBA. The answers collected have been compared with the results of the 2012 WBA. On two statements, “There are good opportunities for personal development in my neighbourhood” and “People in my neighbourhood look out for one another”, we found statistically significant differences.

We tested the answers for differences between male and female, between different age categories and people that visited Small Works before and those that did not. We did not find any statistically significant differences (on the 5% significance level) in the answers. This means that the issues identified can be said to be perceived across all residents.

It should be noted that the WBA doesn’t give any conclusive evidence about the impact of Small Works on these indicators. Even where significant (positive) differences between the two surveys are found, these differences may be the result of other external factors at work. What the repeat WBA does do, however, is illustrate that perceptions do change and give further evidence about some of the structural issues facing local residents.

Overview of results

1) I feel safe in my neighbourhood The response to this statement was overwhelmingly positive, with 91% of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing that they feel safe in the neighbourhood.

The people that disagree with the statement were concerned about unfamiliar people being able to enter the estate and enter the staircases.

2) I feel I belong to my neighbourhood This statement also received a positive response overall, with the majority (68%) of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing.

Although the number of positive responses to this statement increased compared to the 2012 WBA, we found that the difference was not statistically significant.

It should also be taken into account that whilst overall sentiment is positive, there are also people with strong negative feelings on this topic.

3) People in my neighbourhood look out for one another More respondents agreed with this statement than disagreed, but many respondents were neutral and neither agreed nor disagreed.

We found that the 2015 answers were significantly different than responses in 2012. When calculating the mean scores of both 2012 and 2015, however, we didn’t find a significant difference, meaning we can’t conclude that either the 2012 or 2015 score is higher. One could say though that respondents were more neutral in the statement now than in 2012, when more people either disagreed or agreed with the statement.

“I feel like a stranger here” when I see other estates I see community spirit, here there are lots of tourists, workers”

4) I spend my leisure/free time mainly with people from my neighbourhood Here it is clear that a majority of respondents either agreed or disagreed with the statement, answering significantly more negatively than in the rest of the WBA. This is a similar result as in the 2012 WBA. People who visited Small Works before answered more positively to this question than those who did not*, suggesting that Small Works plays a role in bringing people from the estate together. Some people indicated that they would welcome spending more time with their neighbours.

“I’ve lived here for 12 years but I still don’t know my neighbours.

People don’t talk to each other here.”

“We should have a block party and invite all the residents down”

5) All in all, I am proud of myself A clear majority of 82% agreed with this statement, comparable to the results in 2012. This is significantly more positive than answers to the other statements.

“Yes, I am happy with my professional life; I work hard and come home late.”

6) I am happy with my professional life 50% of people agreed with this statement, which seems on the low side, although it is not significantly different from the average answers to other statements.

* calculated on a 10% significance level

7) There are good opportunities for personal development in my neighbourhood A majority of 60% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with this statement. Interestingly, responses were significantly more positive than in the 2012 WBA. Of course this change of sentiment cannot be ascribed simply to Small Works Victoria, though several respondents did mention Small Works as a place that provides opportunities in the neighbourhood.

“People could benefit from Small Works because they don’t have nothing, to have a conversation to meet somebody.”

8) I can influence decisions affecting my neighbourhood Responses varied widely, with a group of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing, while an equally large group disagreed or strongly disagreed.

Repeat WBA Conclusions

The results of the repeat WBA show a large degree of similarity with the results of the WBA held in autumn 2012. This means that perceptions are quite stable among residents of Vauxhall Estate.

A positive development is that residents feel more positive about opportunities for personal development in the area than in 2012. This might be either through the activities organised by Small Works or by other organisations in the neighbourhood. Yet with only 50% of respondents happy about their professional life at the moment there is good reason to keep focusing on this.

Social cohesion on the estate (judged by how people responded to “people look out for each other” and “I spend most of my time with people from the neighbourhood”) remains a point of attention and something we will be focusing on at Small Works. A positive point in this is that most respondents do feel attached to the Vauxhall Estate neighbourhood. Another positive point is that the Small Works model does seem capable of bringing people together and increasing social capital.

Conclusions The past year has been a constructive one for Small Works.

We are delighted to have opened Small Works Kings Cross, which has quickly developed into a vibrant professional workspace. As our survey showed, our social enterprise members are satisfied with the services Small Works delivers and benefit from working from the space in a variety of ways. Although we have started organising community activities, which have been well attended, a primary task for the coming year will be to increase our offering to the local community and support local volunteers, in particular among young people.

At Small Works Victoria, we have had a few members leaving but have been able to replace these with new ones. Together we have managed to continue our programme of services and activities and have hosted several successful community events. New visitors are still coming in on a weekly basis and there is a small group of visitors attending activities regularly.

Looking ahead to the coming year (July 2015-June 2016), our goal will be to build on what has been achieved and increase the overall positive impact of Small Works in three ways: Firstly, we want to expand our activities to support social entrepreneurs. Many of the social enterprises told us that they would welcome more organised exchange between members, in particular across the Small Works spaces. We are currently setting up a programme to facilitate this, which focuses both on training opportunities and exchanging experiences. Currently 2 workshops are already planned for September. We also plan to increase our support to Peabody residents that are starting up businesses. We plan to organise an incubator programme that will allows residents to benefit from peer-to-peer learning among themselves and from 121 mentoring sessions with existing members. The programme will start in October at Small Works Victoria.

Secondly, we want to grow our impact on community members. The main challenge here is to develop a set of activities that will draw a larger group of more regular visitors to the spaces. Partly we hope to achieve this by streamlining the give-back activities of our members, but we will also look into developing existing activities and starting new ones ourselves. These activities will seek to address the main issues we found in the Well-Being Analysis for the two estates; engaging young people and developing their skills, confidence and employability in Small Works Kings Cross, and increasing social cohesion and addressing social isolation especially for older people in Small Works Victoria. We will seek to organise these activities with the help of local volunteers who often have better local networks with which to reach out to people on the estate. Where opportunities exist, we will fundraise for these activities together with our members.

Thirdly, we will look to expand the number of Small Works spaces across London to ensure the long-term financial sustainability of the overall project. We regularly receive enquiries about desk space from social entrepreneurs and we have established a relationship with UnLtd, who would be able to promote Small Works to their network of social entrepreneurs (which is the largest in the country). Together with the positive feedback we received from our existing members, this makes us confident that we will be able to fill new spaces quickly.

In conclusion, we believe that Small Works is in a good position to increase our support to social entrepreneurs as well as increasing our impact on Peabody communities. We look forward to working with Peabody Trust and other partners during the coming year.

Appendix 1: list of Small Works members in the past year Current Members small works Victoria

SW1 Community Organisers

The Community Organisers programme aims at creating a new home-grown movement of community organising for the 21st century, emerging directly from the strengths, concerns and hopes of all kinds of neighbourhoods across England. The Community Organisers programme is delivered by Locality, the UK’s leading network for community-led organisations.

Fresh Perception Therapy Fresh Perception Therapy, brings innovation and insight to well-being in London. We creatively draw the best from Mindfulness, the art of creative awareness and skilful attunement; CognitiveBehavioural Hypnotherapy, the skill of a relaxed, rational, goal-directed achieving; Yoga, the music of breath and body work; and a range of psychotherapeutic techniques, the craft of personal growth.

CLAY Education CIC

CLAY Education are dedicated to the prevention of psychological, emotional and physical trauma caused by the act of bullying through online, social media and mobile phone activity. We want to safeguard and empower young people where possible from negative cyber activity. We do this by providing workshops, training, talks and a range of strategies to educational bodies, professionals and parents as well as providing support for policy reform.

Anastasia Dedyukhina Anastasia, is a professionally trained coach and start-up mentor. She runs two successful coaching businesses in London – Consciously Digital and Anastasia.tips. Consciously Digital™ is the first UK company that helps businesses and individuals address the issue of productivity and time and self-management caused by inappropriate use of digital technologies.

Mirelle London Mirelle London, is passionate about bringing manufacturing back to Britain and partners with some of the UK’s most respected suppliers to produce their luxury bags. The founder, Shaheda Begum, is a Fellow of the Prince’s Trust and brings her business start-up knowledge to her native SW1 community.

This One Family Matters This One Family Matters is a non-profit dedicated to making every family matter and revolutionising how the family is seen. They run workshops that give individuals and families the tools to build resilience and emotional intelligence. The found Maureen Obi leads drop-in workshops every Thursday evening at Small Works Victoria.

Victoria School for Arabic Language

The Victoria School for Arabic Language was founded by Peabody resident Yawooz Ezzat. Classes are aimed at children ages 6-10 and run out of Small Works Victoria on Saturday mornings.

Past Members CIVA Shen Ting Acupuncture current Members small works Kings Cross

Sunday Assembly

The Sunday Assembly is a secular congregation that celebrates life. Our motto: live better, help often, wonder more. Our mission: A Sunday Assembly in every town, city and village that wants one. Our vision: To help everyone live life as fully as possible.

Year Here Year Here is a full-time postgraduate course in London designed to cultivate entrepreneurial approaches to entrenched social problems. Our Fellows try their hand at building creative and entrepreneurial responses to social problems, supported by industry mentoring and a rigorous social innovation curriculum.

Responsible 100 Responsible 100 identifies and supports open, honest, trustworthy businesses. It empowers consumers, employees, investors – indeed anyone – wishing to discover, challenge and reward them.

The Urban Orchard Project The Urban Orchard Project is creating lush cities across the United Kingdom swathed in fruit and nut trees. They work in partnership with communities to plant, manage, restore and harvest orchards in urban areas to help us all to rediscover the pleasure of eating home-grown fruit.

Project Dirt Project Dirt is the UK’s most active network connecting and resourcing environmental and community projects. It is a “doing” network, showcasing what’s happening in your communities so that people and projects can engage with each other, as well as with the organisations looking to resource them.

Squared Root

Squared Root helps communities to build a more sustainable future. They have many years experience of finding the talents and skills within a community to make it a better, greener, healthier, happier place to live.

Past Members

Scidice Grub Club

Appendix 2: list of Small Works activities, services and events in the past year (activities in bold are currently running) small works victoria Activities/services led by our social entrepreneurs: + 1:1 advice sessions by SW1 Community Organisers + Weekly childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Arabic lessons by the Victoria School for Arabic Language + Discounted therapy sessions for residents by Fresh Perception + Anti-cyber bullying parent/guardian workshops by Clay Education (discontinued July 2015) + Resilience and Emotional Intelligence workshops by Family Matters + Coffee Mornings by SW1 Community Organisers (continued at other location)

External organisation-led activities: + Health Checks and Training by NHS Health Trainer Antonella Pandolfino + Acupuncture by Shin Teng Community acupuncture (discontinued July 2015) + Net Worx IT classes by Peabody & Small Works Community Volunteer-led activities: + SW1 Art group (led by Sarah Kilgour-Gibson) + Tai Chi by Raymond van Neste + Yoga taster sessions by Sahara Evans (discontinued June 2015) + Foot Health Therapy by Jennifer (discontinued August 2015) + English language classes by Anne Stafford (discontinued October 2014) Small Works-led activities: + Small Works Community Computers drop-in + Ancestry workshops (discontinued January 2015) + Social media workshop (one-off) One-off Community Events by Small Works + Community Lunch to celebrate end of building works + Sustainable Living Day, which included:

Flower arranging workshop

Sustainable Living discussion led Olivia Sibony from Grub Club

Westminster Recycling Champions

Swap stall, info and bead making Plant pot painting

+ Open Day

Workshops and talks from all Small Works members Acupuncture taster

Mindfulness taster session

SW1 Art exhibition + Health Day: including yoga, a wild food walk and a mindfulness and meditation session + Umbrellact: Upcycling workshop led by Westminster Recycling Champions + Good Gym: Three sessions of repainting entranceway Small Works Kings Cross Organisation-led activities: + CIVITAS Saturday School + Global Harvesters Fellowship prayer group

Community Volunteer-led activities: + Wednesday Bingo group + Sunday Bingo group One-off Community Events + Getting into Green Volunteering with Project Dirt + Balcony gardening drop-in with Community Centred Knowledge + Open Day/Big Lunch in partnership with Peabody

CLEAR VILLAGE CHARITABLE TRUST Small Works Victoria Old Admin Office Block A Peabody Vauxhall Estate Vauxhall Bridge Road LONDON SW1A 1TV

020 36333296 info@clear-village.org www.clear-village.org @clearvillageorg facebook.com/clearvillage