CHARITY FOCUS
Hip Hip Hooray Social Enterprise Jenny Adjene and her husband Emiko founded Hip Hip Hooray in 2014, supplying a range of stylish and original stationery for weddings, parties and celebrations. Jenny taught herself graphic design and created all the original artwork herself, quickly finding that there was a market for interesting designs which could be customised online at accessible prices. The business was set up to fit around her family’s requirements, and the model was very successful for a number of years until the start of the pandemic. Celebrations and events disappeared overnight, with no certainty of when they would return, and the business ground to a halt. Jenny has been employing people for the last eight years and was relieved when she was able to retain all her staff through the furlough scheme. The forced break gave her time to think about how she
could move the business forward and she came to the conclusion that she had reached a plateau where she was going through the motions rather than pursuing a goal. Jenny had previously worked with the youth offending service, and volunteered with a drug rehabilitation centre so she had a good understanding of the difficulties people faced when trying to get their lives back on track. She realised that the pandemic presented an ideal time to repurpose the business to create a social enterprise, providing training and employment for women in recovery from addiction, or domestic abuse, or who have experience of the criminal justice system. She recognised that there are many hands-on work opportunities for men, but it can be a much more daunting prospect for women to find a job, especially as they We’ll help you find your style using the latest sustainable products that work in harmony with the environment, so you’ll look and feel
your best self …naturally!
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THE ROCK COMPLEX YELVERTON PL20 6DS 01822 853020
WWW.OCHREHAIRLOUNGE.CO.UK
We manage our waste responsibly with the
often have responsibility for finding childcare. She took advice from a consultant about setting up a social enterprise and contacted two charities: Trevi, an award-winning South West women’s and children’s charity, which supports women moving on from addiction and abuse, as well as Pause, which helps women break the cycle of having children removed from their care. Jenny and her husband then developed a 12-month programme to help women get back into the workplace and support them in learning practical skills such as packing products, answering the phone, customer service, printing, IT and admin skills. They created two placements, and Trevi and Pause helped them find two candidates, ready for a chance to re-enter the workplace. The placements have gone well – in fact so well that the trainees have become OPENING HOURS
Mon: 9.00 - 5.00 • Tue: 9.00 - 7.00 Wed: 9.00 - 5.00 • Thu: 9.00 - 5.00 Fri: 9.00 - 5.00 • Sat: 9.00 - 5.00 • Sun: Closed
