Masterclass @ FRC Group
Exclusive 2 Day Event
*Date Change*
Do you want your social business to be more successful and resilient?
FRC Group is 30 years old with a multi-million pound turnover and still growing and to celebrate this, we are hosting a Masterclass, a unique opportunity to find out how we do it.
Held over two days, Tuesday, 18th and Wednesday 19th June, this is a chance to really understand how to create and sustain a successful social enterprise. This is fully immersive course at our Liverpool headquarters, with the opportunity to interrogate and grill the people who have contributed to FRC Group’s success over the past three decades.
We will be sharing the secrets to our success and the way we survived and overcame challenges along the way. The Masterclass @ FRC Group is a ‘warts and all’ experience with practical lessons to help social businesses succeed. More details of the programme content are available here.
Tickets are just £995 plus VAT for the two day event. Call Claire Donovan on 0151 305 5212 or email Claire.Donovan@FRCGroup.co.uk to find out more and to book your place.
FRC Group wins Hall of Fame Award in 2016 NatWest SE100 Awards
A Hall of Fame for social enterprises has been created with FRC Group as its first member
FRC Group, a social enterprise based in Liverpool, campaigns and runs businesses to help End Furniture Poverty and it has a great track record of success at the NatWest SE100 Awards. The awards celebrate the best achievements of social enterprises across the country and this year FRC Group was inducted into Hall of Fame, a new award created to recognise social enterprises that have consistently performed at the highest level.
Tim West, founder and principal of Matter & Co who created the awards with NatWest, presented FRC Group with its Hall of Fame award. He told the audience that FRC Group has led from the front on all aspects of measuring and demonstrating its impact, and using social impact measurement to become a better organisation.
Tim explained: “There was no shortlist for this award. I can tell you that the winner has been a finalist in the Impact Champion category of the NatWest SE100 Awards ever since the awards began. It was the winner in the first year of the awards and also won the Resilience Award last year.
“Every year this organisation’s performance has been so impressive that it has been a challenge for the judges not to award it a winner’s trophy each time. So this year we are very pleased to induct this organisation as our first member of the NatWest SE100 Hall of Fame.”
FRC Group runs businesses that create profit and opportunities to change the lives of people living in poverty and unemployment. These include Bulky Bob’s, collecting bulky household waste for local authorities including Liverpool City Council, reusing and recycling 70% of everything collected. They also sell new furniture to social landlords across the country through Furniture Resource Centre and Buckingham Interiors. FRC Group aims to reduce and eradicate furniture poverty through its EndFurniturePoverty.com campaign and also creates sustainable employment and better futures for people.
Shaun Doran, FRC Group’s CEO, said: “We were surprised and delighted to win this award and become the inaugural members of the SE100 Hall of Fame and we are really honoured by this award which is recognition for the whole team at FRC Group and is a great boost to our campaign to End Furniture Poverty.”
The NatWest SE100 Awards recognises social enterprises who have demonstrated some of the best business practice within the sector and celebrates the growth, impact, ambition and resilience of social enterprises in the UK. They were chosen from almost 1,500 social ventures on the NatWest SE100 Index – which tracks the progress and impact of social enterprises across the UK.
Rob Wilson, MP and Minister for Civil Society, supporting the awards commented: “Social Enterprises across the country are making a positive impact on our society, and it’s great that these awards have recognised the leaders in this sector across the UK. Congratulations to everyone involved. I hope their achievements will inspire others to help our communities and improve lives.”
The awards were hosted at the NatWest/RBS conference centre in London by Simon Jacobs, Chief Administrative Officer Commercial & Private Banking at RBS, and Chair of NatWest Social & Community Capital. Julie Baker, Head of Enterprise at NatWest RBS, praised the winners for their “determination not just to make money but to make a difference.”
She told them: “We value what you do, both for the economy and for our communities. We want you to shout loud about your achievements because we want to demonstrate that social businesses are also good businesses. That’s the whole philosophy behind the NatWest SE100.”
The familiar purple vans have been visiting the world renowned children’s hospital to help them empty the old buildings of furniture ahead of their demolition. Bulky Bob’s diverted 83% of the waste from landfill, sending it for recycling, or for reuse to their London Road shop, Bulky Bob’s Furniture World.
Mick Hart, Bulky Bob’s Manager, said: “We decided to expand Bulky Bob’s by moving into business waste and what better way to start than working with such a prestigious Liverpool institution like Alder Hey?
“When we started the job, there were 15,000 items of old furniture waiting for us in the old staff car park and our team sorted it for reuse or recycling, deconstructing where necessary, and filled 19 large commercial skips to get it off site.
“We are now looking forward to working with Alder Hey again on the next phase of the works.”
The items collected included furniture from the offices like desks and filing cabinets, as well as bedside chairs and much more. The team sorted out two tonnes of items suitable for reuse which went to Bulky Bob’s Furniture World where it will sold to low income families or given away as part of crisis furniture packages.
The Alder Hey work was also the first job for four of Bulky Bob’s new Driving Change trainees. The year-long paid training programme targets long-term unemployed people and helps them to get the experience and qualifications they need to get into permanent work.
Peter Lavin, Bulky Bob’s trainee, was unemployed for 10 years before starting with Bulky Bob’s last month. He said: “This opportunity with Bulky Bob’s will change my life and I am already learning so much here. Working at Alder Hey was hard work but a great start to my year with Bulky Bob’s. It was really interesting to begin with a great big pile of waste and see how much we were able to recycle and reuse.”
Bulky Bob’s holds bulky household waste contracts with local authorities across the North West, including Liverpool and Oldham. They divert thousands of tonnes of waste from landfill, reusing as much of the good quality preloved furniture as possible. Many items are given away to people in crisis and on low incomes, working with nearly 100 referral agencies in the region, like Citizen’s Advice Bureaus, Age Concern and many housing associations.
Bulky Bob’s is now carrying out office clearances and collecting general business waste from businesses across Merseyside. If you are interested in finding out more, call Carol on 0151 702 0556.
FRC Group has won the NatWest SE100 Index Impact Award.
Now in its 6th year, the leading market intelligence tool for social ventures, the NatWest SE100 Index, announced the winners of its 2015 awards this week.
The 2015 winners receive a share of over £32, 000 in prize money, awarded at the NatWest SE100 Annual Awards at the Good Deals social investment conference in London. There were winners in five categories: Sustainable Growth, Social Impact, Trailblazing Newcomer and the Resilience and Storyteller award.
The NatWest SE100 Index is an online listing of social ventures, ranked and scored according to their growth and social impact. Each year the NatWest SE100 Awards recognise social enterprises on the Index who have demonstrated some of the best business practice within the sector, celebrating the growth, impact, ambition and resilience of social enterprises in the UK.
The Impact Champion Award recognises a social enterprise that takes considerable measures to demonstrate and communicate the social or environmental impact of their business.
For more information, visit se100.net
As the deadline for entries for the 2015 SE100 awards approaches, a new article asks all the 2014 winners, including FRC Group, what the award meant to them – to read more visit: www.pioneerspost.com/business-school/20150811/se100-award-winners-infinity-and-beyond
The library has been created by Gateacre School in partnership with Belle Vale Shopping Centre and is based in the shopping centre.
Their motto is: “take a book, return a book, donate a book”, in a gathering place where the community can share their favourite books and stories.
Lisa Mitchell, Gateacre School Community Co-ordinator, said: “The Big Little Library is a superb resource for the whole community and we’d like to say a huge thank you to Bulky Bob’s for providing us with all the furniture we need so our customers can take part in workshops, relax, enjoy our books, and hopefully enjoy each other’s company as well!”
Events at the BIG Little Library include Storycubes, creating stories from picture dice; Knit Year, knit a storytelling scarf, and CSI Alice to help celebrate 150 years of Alice in Wonderland by solving the crime of who stole the Mad Hatters Hat!
For more information on the Big Little Library, email l.mitchell@gateacre.liverpool.sch.uk
Buckingham Interiors have supplied a full range of new communal furniture including easy chairs, tables, bookcases, window coverings, guest bedroom furniture and additional accessories.
Niva Pandya, ILS Project Modernisation Officer, from Merlin Housing Society, said: “We are delighted with the finished look in the three schemes. The residents are very happy with the new style and we are looking forward to working together with the Buckingham Interiors team in the summer on the next schemes.”
Louise Potter, our Interior Designer, developed a full design plan for the refurbishment with stylish plans for every room with new layouts throughout the schemes.
Louise explained: “We showed the residents a number of mood boards which show colours and patterns to inspire them. They picked six across the schemes, ranging from Spring Garden with pinks, greens and yellows with floral images and the most popular, to New England with pale blues, white and beige tones with coastal, colonial images.”
“At Giffard House the residents chose New England in the lounge and we had extremely positive responses from both the residents and the Home Manager. The combination of colours was extremely calming and the images of boats and harbours seemed to be a talking point amongst residents!”
Three schemes have been completed so far, Kennedy House, Giffard House, and Neate Court with more schemes due to be refurbished in the summer over a three year partnership between Buckingham Interiors and Merlin Homes.
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