A Turning Point

This last 2 weeks we have been a massive turning point and a time that have may made a lasting sustainable impact on our future.
It’s the point we have been tirelessly working towards as a team for the last year or more with our aim to be less reliant on funding and more self reliant on producing our own income.  
The turning point has come through investment and development into staff and equipment to make this happen and through working with partners to understand their needs to find a place for us to fill that gap that makes it win/ win for everyone involved.
Being a CIC we take our work very seriously as when we get it right then the community in which we are well placed can gain great benefit from this. We strive to pay a living wage, we are open to all and willing to train at our expense and we invest in people and the equipment to get it right when we can. Often being heavily reliant on funding we have hurdles to get over in doing this and face massive challenges in doing so but with a shared desire to make this happen, a fantastic team that shares vision we may have just cracked it this last few weeks.
This week we started work on an order that should keep us busy for the next few years, It has produced 6 new jobs and jobs that pay the living wage in an area of deprivation that is so in need of this to happen. The people employed range between 17 and 60 and all come with great attitudes, the desire to learn and understanding of what we aim to achieve. Some we have worked with in the past, students that have now graduated, semi retired people who have taken part in our workshops previously and all with various skills to bring in to share.
This is only the start though and we think that the future will bring in double the work force again on other products that are in development that we think will happen off site and with partners we have identified that share the same values and desires.
Being a social enterprise is very rewarding but we do run like a normal business at times as we understand we have to be competitive in today`s world. Our business side of things needs to be run seriously and this is often a challenge as is all business in today`s uncertain world. Our eye is always firmly fixed on our community, how they can benefit from our actions and most often the environment is better for our work in waste reduction and actions that benefit the climate.
For us, we think that the future is looking very positive and this is largely down to our drive to be less dependent on funding and to be more sustainable in what we do. Its taken a while because of restrictions, silly things like gaining degrees at university and finding the right team that shares vision but it finally feels like its happened and that 2020 is our year of growth and real development.