Bikeworks, helps get people moving again

Pic: Dave Barrett: Jim Blakemore (far left) started up Bikeworks to help marginalised groups get new skills and into work

By Martin Kitara

Bikeworks was set up in 2007 . The founding partners Jim Blakemore and Zoe Portlock developed Bikeworks  came up with the idea ater they saw strong potential for cycling to make a positive difference to the lives of people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The two partners were joined by Dave Miller, who was developing a similar enterprise in East London. After meeting, Jim and Dave decided that they could achieve more by working together and this lead to the growth of the successful business operating today.

Bikeworks delivers its mission through a variety of community cycling programmes including employability for disadvantaged groups, all ability cycling, ReUse and recycling, schools cycle training and much more. As an organization, it provides cycling services to both consumers and organizations.

Bounce Back, helping ex-offenders into work

Pic: Anil: Just like it says on the tin

By Ebony Ali

Bounce back is a painting and decorating charity and social enterprise that helps ex-offenders get back on their feet having completed their sentence.

The charity was set up in 2010 by Francesca Findlater as a means of giving back to the community by training and finding work for ex offenders. The charity trains them to become painters and decorators working anything from people’s homes till large commercial buildings.

Dalston cinema’s art-house programming under threat

Pic: Chris Evans: The art-deco cinema’s art-house programming could disappear as revenues decline

By Martin Kitara

The Rio cinema on Kingsland High Street is facing threat to its diverse programming and needs to improve its financial position over the coming months. It is urging film fans to visit and see films there more often.

The management at Rio Cinema on Kingsland High Street recently denied reports that it was in danger of closure by stating “we can inform you that we’re not going to close anytime soon” but appreciated the concern and interest.

Known for catering to art house film fans, the local cinema still survives today despite the widespread decline in art funding.

The cinema would also like to start renovations to the wonderful Grade-II listed iconic building.

The cinema, built in 1909, is known for its distinctive art deco interior and has a licensed Cafe. The Rio which is a charity provides affordable cinema access for older people, those hard of hearing, children and community groups and supports the diverse cultural needs of the local population through film screenings and special events.

Although the surrounding area has seen extensive regeneration in recent years, the Rio cinema building still fits in well amongst the mishmash of buildings and forms one of the main features of the High Street. It is impossible to walk through Kingsland High Street without noticing it near Dalston Kingsland Station.

Enterprise helps SMEs & unemployed pull themselves up by the Bootstrap

While Dalston in east London has seen a huge investment and regeneration programme in recent years it has made it difficult for social enterprises and creatives to find affordable space to rent.

Fortunately long-running social enterprise Bootstrap is set-up to do just that. Founded in 1977 as a training and enterprise organisation the company has gone on to support and nurture charities, social enterprises small creative businesses based in and serving the community.

Poorly funded organisations such as Action for Children, the Latin American Women’s Refuge and the Refugee Women’s Association have all benefited from affordable space in an otherwise unaffordable area where not everyone has benefited from the influx of money and promises of social mobility.

Fiona Evans, who works with Action for Children, said: “Bootstrap enables us to reach local children who need our help, whether they are young carers, have Mental Health issues, as well as those who have trouble integrating at school or into the community.”

While funding by local government has been severely cut in recent years charitable organisations have had to learn to market themselves in recent years and so visits from Body Shop founder Anita Roddick and actor Eva Longoria have helped get the publicity they need as well as a moral boost.

However Bootstrap has not forgotten its roots of helping train and support young people into employment.

Damion Thomas

Damion Thomas, who works at Bootstrap, was long term unemployed before he became their receptionist and he believes he would have found work a lot quicker had he learnt about Bootstraps intern programme, he said.

Dave’s Photo Week Slideshow

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Week 2 Photo Sessions

In the second week of the course we covered basic photography techniques. We talked about exposure and composition. Our tutor, Zoe showed us some famous news pictures to illustrate different techniques and how an image can tell a story. We then went out around Dalston to practice these techniques with our cameras. Everyone had a great time and there is a real passion for photography in the group. For me, looking at the photojournalism images and discussing them with the group was very revealing. Great photographers can really inspire you to make new types of imagery from a different perspective.

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Anil’s Dalston Slideshow

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Social Enterprise Big Give Away

Big Issue Invest (BII), an independent subsidiary of the Big Issue, have made available £20 million to help grow social enterprise and social investment. Grants and loans from £50,000 to £1 million were made available. On the 16th October 2013 BII won the Charity Times Awards at Londons Lacaster Hotel. Nigel Kershaw, Chief Executive of BII said “We are extremely proud to be named social champion at these awards.” So far 160 Social Enterprises have received £20 million in funds. Social Enterprises are not for profit and re-invest all profits.

First Day at The Big Issue Training Course

The Big Issue has teamed up with Poached Creative in order to offer some fortunate candidates the opportunity to be a part of a six week training programme. 

Our first task involved interviewing the person sat next to us as an ice-breaker, this gave us the opportunity to practice our interview skills as well as getting to know the other person.

I interviewed Tobias who works for Poached Creative and sought out information about him such as; where he lived and why he had come on the course. One of the reasons Tobias gave me was ‘to get paid.’ He said that he enjoyed his job as it was fun.

The photography tutor, Zoe went through a task of exploring the different ways of communication, some of the ways of communication that were listed were; video, photography, text and audio.

We then listed the different mediums  that are used to communicate such as; print, online, television and radio.

Glenn, who was leading the session spoke to us about shorthand and how it was very useful for a journalist but incredibly difficult to learn, I was disappointed as a journalism student myself, I hadn’t been taught short-hand so I was interested to learn it, however there isn’t enough time on the course to do so.

We then looked at leaflets and talked about what we thought of them, in terms of the layout and design.

Towards the end of the day we created profiles for the audience of the Big Issues Answers page where people can write in with their comments and feedback of the magazine. As a team we hoped that the audience would find the magazine inspirational and as a source of hope. I paired up with Glenn and we created a profile of a member of staff at a charity or social enterprise called Sarah. This was the part that I really enjoyed as we had to create her character and include important facts about her.

Finally, in order to prepare for the next day we began by doing NIBs, what this stands for is News In Brief.

Pets or Threats

by Jose Moises Torres-Galvez

The Hackney Hounds, a young group of Hackney dog owners are sparking a debate on the stigma that surrounds ‘dangerous dogs’ particularly ‘Staffies’.  They have spent two months creating ‘Life’s a Bitch’ a short film documenting the maltreatment of these animals and the subsequent reputation they have earned.

The film will be screened at Richmix in Bethnal Green on 19^th August, giving the local community an opportunity to debate and vote on the issue.

Register for the free screening and live vote at www.hackneyhounds.blogspot.com