After new measures released today show that 14 million people live below the poverty line in the UK, we’re opening a new project to add to the mosaic of initiatives trying to reverse this trend.

In 2016 after doing some work with the team at Caritas Westminster, they took us to visit a building. An old, run-down, disused school then social club in Wembly. Surrounded by a massive development project, the question was – sell it to developers or do something with it?

When we first looked, we saw a dilapidated old building. But on second glance we saw a space that could be used to run a social enterprise. In fact, lots of social enterprises.

Now, after a renegotiated lease, £500k of building work, lots of community consultation and two years working with Caritas Westminster, we have planted some SEIDs.

Huh? What on earth is SEIDs?

We know that decent and dignified work is hard to find.

In London, the majority of people living in poverty – 58% – are living in a working family.

That’s 1.3 million people living in poverty while working in London alone. It’s obviously shocking and unacceptable.

21% of people employed in London are paid below the London Living Wage – £10.20 an hour. Even on that hourly rate it is almost impossible to get by.

SEIDs – Social Enterprise Ideas Development – exists to change the lives and opportunities of people who are in poverty, both in work and without work.

The best way to move someone out of poverty – whether ‘in work’ or ‘out of work’ – is to give them a decent and dignified job – one that pays a sustainable London wage and one that provides a working environment where people and profit co-exist together without one at the expense of the other. Social enterprises – businesses that trade for a social purpose – are one way to do it.

SEIDs is a family of social enterprises that create decent and dignified work.

One of the SEIDs family is a social innovation and enterprise hub at Wembley to assist business start-ups to become viable opportunities for decent work. But it’s not like a traditional hub. We have raised over £75k to provide bursaries for people with an enterprise idea that don’t have the financial resources to access all the services provided by the hub, to make sure the opportunity to develop a new business idea is available to everyone.

Another member of the family is a property services enterprise working across north London – to provide training and employment on the job as a pathway into decent work.

And there are more enterprises in the pipeline. It’s a happily growing family!

The goal is for all the enterprises to move people out of poverty and into a job – a decent job that provides financial sustainability and security and the dignity to fully engage with the community.

That’s what we’ll be busy doing at SEIDs. Challenging existing thinking, imagining new solutions, and transforming the way we do business and hopefully also people’s lives along the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We hope the SEIDs family of enterprises will be one more piece of the mosaic of people and projects everywhere working to fight inequality, in all its forms.

Here’s to all those people – the ones who don’t despair when something isn’t fair, but get straight to work on changing it.

You guys inspire us every day. Let’s carry on challenging, imagining and transforming! And maybe we’ll see you at the SEIDs hub. Come and join us!