After almost two decades working in the hair and makeup industry herself, Victoria Farrelly now passes on her skills to a new generation of beauty professionals.
“I was 13 years old when I started working alongside my mum,” says Victoria. “At the time she was a hairdresser and makeup artist on a Ridley Scott film and as soon as I arrived on set in sunny Cape Town, I fell in love with the film industry.”
In the years that followed Victoria worked on music videos with the likes of Robbie Williams and Texas, and commercials for leading global fashion brands. But it was in 2016 after working for seven years as a Lead Media Makeup Teacher at an Ofsted Grade 1 College, and on the completion of her Diploma in Teaching, that she decided to take a leap and created the Global Makeup Hair and Productions Academy (GMUA).
Now CEO, Victoria, along with her growing team of tutors, stylists, and experts, offers an alternative route into education for anyone over the age of 13; including high-quality, flexible, and accessible courses in a wide range of subjects like hairdressing and barbering, makeup, modelling and fashion, media, film and photography.
“The heartbeat of GMUA lies in the desire to give everyone an opportunity to be self-employed in a creative industry they love,” says Victoria. “Alongside our on-site training all our students also complete placements giving them invaluable business experience and entrepreneurial guidance.”
First introduced to Kindred in 2020, Victoria applied for funding towards the cost of employing someone to support her in the day-to-day running of GMUA freeing her time to focus on developing and delivering the courses that mean so much to her.
“Thanks to Kindred's support GMUA has grown 300% financially over the past two years, which in turn has allowed us to reach even more aspiring young talent across the Liverpool City Region,” says Victoria. “What we do extends way beyond traditional training. We have become a beacon of hope and transformation, a place where long-held dreams become a reality.”
By actively engaging with a variety of stakeholders, including local authorities, care workers, and NEETs agencies to identify individuals on the cusp of decision-making GMUA tailor their mentorship programs and vocational courses to create opportunities for all.
“So far, we have been able to support a number of women who have fled domestic abuse as well as women asylum-seekers and refugees. We are also currently training eight students to teach further courses for us and are in the process of creating a working salon in Liverpool to enable our graduates to make a good living and get the support they need to start their own businesses in the future.”
Victoria concludes, “Afterall, it's about creating a ripple effect of positivity, raising aspirations and empowering others to achieve great things with no barriers or boundaries.”
Click here to find out more about Global Makeup Hair and Productions Academy (GMUA).
After looking for a new direction and greater satisfaction in her own life, Jill Barlow, founder of Jigsaw Coaching CIC, now helps others to reach their full potential too.
“Throughout my career I’d always managed projects aimed at improving health,” says Jill. “But whether this was in a business, a charity or an educational setting, there was always one theme I kept coming back to; how where we work and what we do plays a crucial part in this.”
Fascinated by how some people thrive on challenge and variety; while others prefer a routine, repetitive job they can switch off from, the one thing clear to Jill is how hard it was for people to get the support they needed.
Whether dealing with dissatisfaction, discrimination, or the daily juggle of achieving a happy and healthy work-life balance, Jill wanted to do more. So, in 2017 she went on to qualify as a coach before setting up her own social enterprise, Jigsaw Coaching CIC.
“It was while working for the NHS that I realised I wasn’t utilising my skills, and my confidence was ebbing away,” says Jill. “Yes, it was great having a secure job, but I knew I’d find more fulfilment helping people who were feeling lost or dissatisfied to get connected to what matters to them – whether at work or in their home life.”
Jigsaw specialises in supporting people who wouldn’t normally be able to access coaching services. Its vision is to create a world where the journey of self-discovery and growth are accessible to everyone.
“Through our one-to-one sessions and workshops, we inspire people to explore their inner hopes and ambitions, helping them to create a vision of a better future for themselves,” Jill says. “In a safe, confidential space, people can identify their strengths and harness them to address blocks in the way and what they can do to lead more fulfilling lives.”
Working across the Liverpool City Region and beyond, Jill and her fellow associates’ approach is multi-faceted and, now with the support of Kindred, are reaching even more people.
“I first heard about Kindred through a local network and since becoming a member have met so many incredible like-minded people working in social enterprises,” says Jill. “Thanks to Kindred’s investment we’ve been able to focus in on the areas that are most important to us, such as supporting small business owners, people who are long-term unemployed, have a health condition, a disability or a visual impairment (VIs).”
With a new Jigsaw website due to launch in early 2024, we’re sure that more people will benefit from the services offered by this life-changing company.
Click here to find out more about Jigsaw.
Founded by one man’s passion for improving his community, and now managed by a team of dedicated staff and volunteers in his memory, The Book Stop is bringing hope back to its high street.
Like many places across the Liverpool City Region, St Helens has seen its town centre change dramatically over the last ten years. But, when its only independent and much-loved bookshop announced its closure back in 2019 after nearly 40 years of trading, it inspired one local man to bring back the books.
“Brian Leyland was the driving force behind The Book Stop,” says Trustee, Mike Webster. “His love of St Helens, its people - and of course its rugby team - played a major part in his life. As a published author himself, he was frustrated by the lack of a book shop in the town centre, so took on the challenge of leading a crowdfunding campaign that saw the community raise a staggering £45,000 backing the business.”
“The funds raised locally were then matched by the Community Shares Booster Programme and added to even further thanks to the Steve Morgan Foundation,” continues Mike. “This allowed us, with assistance from St Helens Council, to invest in a prominent but vacant unit on Bridge Street and enabled us to open for business in November 2021 before Brian sadly passed away the following February.”
The loss of Brian, the Covid pandemic and then the cost-of-living crisis that followed has not made life easy for The Book Stop, which is run as a charitable community benefit society. But it has not stopped it honouring its commitment to creating a socially inclusive and welcoming environment for the residents of St Helens and the surrounding areas.
Stocking 5,000 titles (and able to order in most books within 24 hours for their customers, whether that’s an individual, school or library), The Book Stop also runs a wide range of events. Its adult and children’s reading groups, book clubs and author signings are all aimed at improving access to books and enhancing reading and literacy opportunities in the town.
“Our bookshop is owned by the community, and most importantly exists for the benefit of the community,” says manager, Nik Lowe. “Any profits we make are always reinvested back into new books, events and workshops everyone can enjoy.”
An integral part of continuing to develop this much-needed outreach work has been Kindred’s support. This investment is now enabling this unique bookshop to transform its empty first floor into a new fully accessible events space.
Nik concludes, “We recently won the National Book Tokens ‘Newcomer of the Year’ award which we couldn't have achieved without the generosity of everyone who has supported us this far. Now, thanks to Kindred, we can continue sharing the magic of reading and the power of books with even more members of our valued community.”
With work due to start in February 2024, we look forward to sharing more about the exciting opportunities local families, school children, charities and organisations can experience and benefit from at The Book Stop.
Click here to find out more about The Book Stop.
Two friends in Bootle shared a passion for people and their community. Janet Hughes – with her green thumb and background in horticulture – and Ali Horton with experience in youth work and operations, came together to bring about a purposeful social enterprise for their community. Their combined skill and passion founded the Gateway Collective, based in North Park Community Garden.
The Gateway Collective uses community gardening to promote wellbeing and social connections, driven by the principle of ‘love your neighbour’, a part of Janet and Ali’s Christian faith. The garden is open to volunteers and gardeners of all and no faiths, and harvest shares are distributed to attendees as part of the community’s lasting connection. It’s also one of Kindred’s second round of investee STOs.
Janet and Ali’s vision is to see people and communities in Bootle thrive, with a mission to cultivate belonging and community around fresh local produce and personal wellbeing.
The Gateway Collective’s vibrant and diverse community activity range includes, but isn’t limited to, plant and craft sales, creative workshops, beekeeping, voluntary leadership opportunities and chances for the community to cook and eat together, sharing food and recipes inspired by the produce grown in the garden. Activities are designed to increase individuals’ wellbeing and build community.
The Gateway Collective used the Social Audit Network process to measure their impact on their community. They collected data from interviews, case studies, and focus groups to provide narrative and economic measures, consider materiality and ensure credibility in a competitive marketplace. And those impacts are huge:
• Social value totalling £434,520, creating £7.34 for every £1 spent
• 1040 visits to the garden in 2021-22
• 4,100 volunteer hours, with the garden’s 79 community gardeners
• 540kg of food was grown…
• … saving 430kg CO2e, in comparison to buying from a supermarket
• The Gateway Collective also won the Green Flag Community Award
This was achieved through gatherings at North Park Community Garden, where the Gateway Collective is open Mondays and Wednesdays between 10am-2pm, all year round. During the Summer, an extra Thursday session is added each week.
The garden is central to Gateway Collective's work and these weekly gatherings for gardeners and volunteers provide a sanctuary, laughter and good food. The benefits to their physical and mental wellbeing are impactful and attendees shared in the 2021-22 social impact report that they feel welcome and supported. For many, social isolation and loneliness were heavy after the pandemic, and so the garden serves as a lifeline for many attendees. The garden serves as a place of learning, support, and connection, making it a vital part of Gateway Collective’s community.
Ali says: “The investment from Kindred has been transformational. It has enabled us to complete our community kitchen which has become a space to teach people how to cook with what we grow but more importantly a space to gather. Kindred has also enabled us to change our thinking around social investment – to see it as an opportunity for growth and not something to be scared of.”
The impact report also shares personal stories from community members like Joe, who returned to the UK after a long time abroad. He joined the community garden after discovering its residents working there. This experience led to a newfound interest in gardening, a sense of belonging to nature, and new opportunities – including a job. By learning about proper soil preparation, planting techniques and plant care, Joe started work in the council’s Green Sefton department.
Another testimony is from Paul, who left mainstream schooling due to anxiety and began attending the garden weekly in 2015, as part of his homeschooling. He found lots of support and care at the Gateway Collective and its community, which helped his mental health. Then in 2020, he participated in a Kickstart project with Andrea Ku, focusing on creating ‘Made in Bootle’, which helped him develop employability skills and apply for part-time jobs. For Paul, the impact of The Gateway Collective on his life has been profound.
Other volunteers describe the garden as their “little oasis”, “extended family”, and a supportive place where they “can just sit and have a brew and a chat with somebody”, or “take a break when going through a rough patch but when returning be immediately welcomed back.”
Gateway Collective has successfully established community connections, collaborating with groups like Taking Roots and the South Park Garden and fostering pride in the local community. Most volunteers at the garden also volunteer elsewhere, widening their community's impact. The principle of ‘love thy neighbour’ certainly thrives here.
Melodic Distraction first hit the airwaves when it began broadcasting live from the heart of Liverpool in 2017. With over 150 monthly shows, the Fabric District-based internet radio station showcases DJs, musicians, party throwers, festival organisers and many more involved in the local music scene – and beyond.
Part of Kindred’s second cohort of socially-trading businesses, the non-stop radio station aims to be free to tune into, anytime, anyplace. It also offers various opportunities for local musicians to break into the traditionally hard-to-access industry, all from a studio and venue space made from recycled shipping containers.
The total value of Melodic Distraction’s social impact has reached over £1.8m. From turning a disused bin alley into a free-to-access cultural and community space to its artistic investment, workshops and placement opportunities, Melodic Distraction’s unique approach is championing North West sound and changing the industry.
With the artistic spend of over £46,000 for 2022-23 projected to increase 55% in the next year with Kindred’s support, Melodic has created paid opportunities to allow locals in the music scene to dedicate more time to performing – something that’s been linked to a range of mental health benefits. These opportunities are available for a variety of creatives from musicians to freelance sound and lighting engineers, and include paid gigs at local venues and performances at branded events, as well as performances at the station’s own venue, the Melodic Bar, which has welcomed over almost 12,000 music lovers since August 2021.
Melodic is also paving new ways for aspiring DJs and radio broadcasters to break into the industry. Since its beginnings, the station’s free workshops have provided £24,244 worth of training on equipment that’s financially inaccessible to many. The workshops include DJing, radio broadcasting and radio production and Melodic Distraction is aiming to reach new, underrepresented audiences through a 50% annual increase in workshop offerings over the next three years.
Many who have attended the workshops so far have gone on to receive paid work DJing and presenting radio around the UK: “Learning to DJ at Melodic Distraction’s DJ Workshops for Women helped me pursue a long-time passion,” says one attendee. “I’ve since DJ’d at two events in Liverpool and Manchester.”
Melodic Distraction also provides opportunities to help young adults who face barriers to employment. Since beginning work with schemes such as Kickstart in 2018, the station has provided over £20,000 in social value from taking two young adults out of long-term unemployment, and delivered £4,261 in training for studio producer staff, which has been given to nine young adults on placement through the schemes.
“I joined Melodic Distraction on the ILM Scheme in 2019 after being unemployed for four months,” says one staff member. “My placement was for six months and I was offered a full-time role after finishing. It’s my first job in music and I’ve learned loads of different skills and met so many musically-minded people like myself from working here.”
James Zaremba, one of Melodic’s co-founders, says: “We’re so grateful to Kindred for supporting us in our mission to showcase as much of Liverpool’s fantastic music scene as we can through Melodic Distraction. We deeply believe that Liverpool and the north west is awash with incredible talent and if we can play even a small part in highlighting and supporting that then we’re happy! Working with Kindred helped us realise our impact and focus on our social mission with a greater focus than ever before.”
CV writing and upskilling workshops are also offered to those on placement, supporting them to go on to find jobs in the industry. The station is aiming to work with two new young adults facing barriers to employment every six months, teaching them practical audio production skills and giving them real world working experience in radio broadcasting.
Alongside these impacts, Melodic Distraction has a lot of big plans on the horizon. A seasonally robust events offer, accessible studio space, and a greater budget for discounted live-streaming will be on offer for music lovers and aspiring artists or broadcasters alike. If you’re ready to get your music fix, find out more about Melodic Distraction and tune in, or head on down to the Melodic Bar where there’s coffee, cocktails, and free music events for all.
Get a feel for Melodic’s approach with this new documentary, which captures the journey of running a live radio station from the middle of one of the UK’s most respected electronic music festivals, where the team delivered more than 50 hours of broadcasting across four days.
Want to find out more? Take a look at Melodic Distraction's entry in the Social Directory here...
Foundation School of Martial Arts is a community that uses movement, and elements of Japanese culture and values as tools to help build resilient and confident people in Liverpool City Region.
The classes and programmes that it runs are rich in variety; from ninjitsu, traditional weapon training, sparring, to calligraphy and taiko drumming. Founder Simon Melhuish emphasises that a class of 30 kids will all have different needs and it is the job of the club not only accommodate every student, but help them to thrive.
Social value has underpinned the foundation’s work from the beginning, first with children and young people on the Barnardo’s Young Carers Programme, running camps and activities which focus on giving its recipients respite and growing their sense of self. It has since worked with Advanced Solutions, which focuses on empowering neurodivergent children, and runs workshops in schools and for the NHS, promoting stress management, mindfulness and empowerment.
Simon says ‘a lot of the parents come to classes wanting to make their kids tougher and more disciplined, but the kids come out with unexpected assets; sense of self, social skills, resilience and trust’. He says that working with the parents in that process is an integral part of the work Foundation does, ‘it is often more the parents we’re teaching than the kids,’ he says. Parents must stay for sessions and, as a result, watch their kids grow, share their sense of achievement, resulting in strengthening familial bonds.
As a result, 90% of adults classes are populated with parents of children at the school, creating a community with a strong ethos of investment in nourishing relationships with themselves and each other, and in physical and mental wellbeing. The foundation boasts reams of positive feedback from whole families; all reflecting a sense of belonging, an increased sense of confidence, within a context that expands knowledge and respect of Japanese culture and tradition.
This sense of community is present in every aspect of its programmes and projects; many of the kids go on to become junior instructors. They gain valuable experience which sets them up for later in life but, beyond their skills, they are wonderful ‘as individuals; confident and compassionate, with a genuine concern for others’, Simon says proudly, ‘and those who go on to become instructors are the best we have – they get more gifts at Christmas time than I do!’
The goal of Foundation School of Martial Arts is simply to improve the lives of the people that it works with, through positive reinforcement and skills training. The growth of its students is organic, and looks different in every individual, young or old. The effect this can have on a child is enormous – from personal to educational settings. The lack of positive reinforcement at home or at school can so often leave people behind, when all that was needed was a change in tactics to let them thrive.
Click here to find out more about Foundation School of Martial Arts...
iWoman Academy is a community interest company that uses radio as a wellbeing tool to empower women who are out of work and give them tools to move forward in their career. CEO Ngunan Adamu says, 'losing your job is not the end of your story, it is an exciting new start, but you need the confidence to make it happen.' This is where iWoman academy comes in.
iWoman Academy is a 12-week course. In the first project the participants create a music show as a 'soft way' into them finding their voice, Ngunan explains. "We've had everything from soft rock to RnB to Arabic pop music, Polish soundtracks, music scores, musicals - it's been amazing." And where the music show gives them a chance to celebrate individuality, the next part of the course reinforces the opposite. They research into health, a topic which highlights their shared experience as women, wherever in the world they are from; whatever their experiences. And they learn to research critically, as a journalist would.
“I realised research is so important, especially when you're not in a nice situation; you can Google the wrong information and panic yourself over things,” says Ngunan. The research aspect of the course gets them looking critically at sources; learning how to glean information that will empower them. There is also a holistic side to the course; they go through practical skills to find work, discuss what their barriers are (timekeeping, for example) and are given resources to overcome their challenges.
iWoman CEO Ngunan Adamu
Conversation between these women means that it becomes a community and they find a universality in their experience as women; whether they are survivors of domestic abuse, asylum seekers, trans women or claiming universal credit. "These are women that would never have met each other, they would never have been friends," but through the course they become just that, "a sisterhood [...] and there's always someone who makes cake!" Ngunan laughs.
Over lockdown, iWoman Academy went online and reached women on an international level; Nigeria, Kenya, Indonesia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates, to name but a few. This showed that iWoman "is needed," Ngunan reflects, and while "Liverpool will always be our base - it's got to be Liverpool! - going international is definitely the next step."
Ngunan is a producer and host with the BBC herself; but whenever she travels now "I've made such a fuss about iWoman that people know more about it than they do about my work in the BBC... and I love it!"
Participants complete the course with a newfound confidence and a set of skills; going to take on their careers once more, pursue degrees, or starting their own businesses. The course is all about bringing these women back into society. "They gain so much," says Ngunan, "in terms of confidence, in strength and voice - I hope they pay it forward. We're in a global battle at the moment, as women, and we definitely have to support each other." And iWoman certainly does that; a course run by women, for women, who will doubtless pay it forward in kind.
For more information about iWoman, head to its website, iwoman.co.uk.
Wirral-based Hype works predominantly with people under 24, giving them the skills to get into employment. Its key objectives are to create more opportunities for young people; support young people to reach their potential and in doing so to strengthen local communities. It has developed a number of products and projects to support young people, moving to an increasingly sustainable business model as it grows.
Hype began in 2007, with chief executive Matt Houghton and his two co-directors combining their shared interests in football and music to run holiday activities and clubs for young people in deprived wards across Wirral.
Hype Merseyside chief executive Matt Houghton
“I used to go to youth clubs at that age and was inspired by youth workers,” says Matt. “Some of my circle are in prison now, and others have had problems with drugs – but I always had football to keep me away at times from the other things that were going on.”
Matt and co-directors Dave (a PE teacher and coach) and Sean, a DJ and club night promoter, began Hype with a £10k grant from Expanding Horizons. It set them on their way, delivering workshops for free during school holidays in Rock Ferry, Seacombe and Woodchurch. As its work with young people expanded, the team was asked to run evening sports sessions in local schools: Gino, one of the first young people Hype worked with, became a volunteer at their next holiday workshop. He went into coaching, volunteering, youth work and became a paid member of Hype staff, before going into teaching. He’s now a deputy head of a year at a local school and testament to the transformational nature of Hype’s work.
Seeing widespread demand, the Hype team focused its activity to key areas: Bidston, Central Birkenhead, Rock Ferry and Woodchurch. A strong geographical correlation led it to partner with Magenta Housing to work within its communities, taking on work with the younger siblings of its traditional clients and their parents, if they were out of work.
Matt admits that gaining the trust of local communities that has proved a catalyst for Hype’s work. It used community centres as a base for youth clubs, employability and holiday clubs, before adding work with schools and dance, health and wellbeing, football, art to its roster of activities, alongside work with young people with behavioural issues, vulnerable groups and hard to reach groups.
In 2020, as schools provision, youth clubs and holiday clubs stopped with lockdown, its bike projects – from guided bike rides to maintenance and bike leaders – have snowballed. By far Hype’s biggest growth area has been in its social bike shop. The community shop opened in June 2019 in the centre of Birkenhead, designed to help more people get out and about on bikes. Yet the coronavirus pandemic saw a renewed focus on cycling, aligning the project with government plans to encourage more environmentally friendly forms of transport.
With 120 bikes on its books that were due to be used for group rides, Hype turned its attention to donating them to key workers at Wirral and Liverpool hospitals, to get to and from work more safely. Demand for bikes to borrow rocketed, alongside hundreds of donations, and the maintenance needed to get bikes roadworthy and serviced.
A new unit near Cammell Laird now houses around 200 bikes, and Hype’s bike mechanics shop, running programmes aimed at employability, linked to the bikes. Repairs and hire brings in an income for the shop as Hype moves towards a socially-trading model, whilst providing training for the young adults it works with.
Hype has made a success of working with young staff under 24, that leave the organisation not only more qualified and experienced, but with a good understanding of social enterprise and how it works.
Extending that practical ethos to its work, in 2015 Hype began redeveloping shops and buildings with its young volunteers, in order to deliver more activities in them. 2015 also saw it take on a series of garden tidy-ups, which led to the identification of a fenced half acre plot of land in Birkenhead Park in 2016. Running its own fundraising campaign, the team transformed the space within 18 months into a vibrant park, with planting, an outdoor classroom, nature trail, safe play area – with young people involved in its design throughout. As an event space, it has become a focal point for increased participation and the perfect environment for its wellbeing programme.
Hype’s work in Birkenhead Park led to similar work across other areas of Liverpool City Region. As a football coach, Matt had delivered coaching projects in South Africa for a number of years, and pulled together a project to link his young volunteers in LCR with sports coaching and teaching in Cape Town’s Greenpoint Park in South Africa (2018) and New York’s Central Park (which has historic links to Birkenhead Park) in 2019. Working in school, parks and communities gives Hype’s young people a variety of life skills alongside their work experience, exposing them to new cultures, broadening their horizons and boosting their confidence.
Although in 2020 many park initiatives stopped, in February last year Hype delivered its first European Park project as part of the Erasmus programme, with 24 young people from Portugal, Italy and Greece, plus volunteers from LCR observing and developing activity in the city region’s parks. Now, they’ve taken that learning home and will be encouraging people to engage more in parks in their home countries, and have secured a repeat of the project for 2021.
As a result of the growth of its bike programme, Hype saw its turnover double in 2020, although it only managed to work with a tenth of its usual number of people (600, compared to 6,000 the year before). It is now using investment from Kindred to continue to develop trading income and oversee projects in communities centres, schools and parks, prioritising those which will ensure the STO’s sustainability and increase the impact of its work.
Hype has just recruited its first cycle development officer to make the most of demand for its bike service and its Full Circle bike project will see projects run for every age group, developing skills around balance and employability, and combating anti-social behaviour.
For more information about Hype, head to its website, hype-merseyside.co.uk, or for its bike project, have a look at www.hypeurbanbikes.co.uk.
Beautiful New Beginnings bridges the gap between parents, schools and services. The North Liverpool-based early years organisation has grown hugely during the pandemic, supporting thousands of parents to become the primary educators in their child’s life from birth and bridging the gap between parent and professional, from pregnancy to school age.
As face-to-face support for both antenatal and post-natal services disappeared, Beautiful New Beginnings moved its business online, and has now pioneered a blended model, supporting parents across the globe. “There has been a huge need for people to feel connected,” says founder Carolyn Whitehead.
It has created a genuinely accessible place to support isolated parents, adding online membership packages, sensory bags and boxes, a baby massage oils range alongside the Seasons programme, which dovetails with the new mental health curriculum launching in schools.
“Working with the Kindred team has been a breath of fresh air,” says Carolyn. “To be surrounded by a community of people determined to grow and scale the impact of the good works they are doing is invaluable. We are so excited to be part of the first round of investments made by Kindred and cannot wait to impact more families in our area.”
The Beautiful New Beginnings team includes a number of professionals, from qualified teachers – including special educational needs – to a counsellor who delivers wellbeing sessions, a pregnancy pilates practitioner and a midwife for positive birth and labour information, plus hypnobirthing and breastfeeding support. A nutritionist and first aider advise on baby-proofing your home and baby first aid, alongside a dedicated breastfeeding worker.
Beautiful New Beginnings has expanded into a creative space online, using National Lottery funding to purchase equipment to create a platform for people to stay connected, and train parents to set up coffee mornings in cities from Leeds to Bristol and London.
Carolyn says: “There’s been huge demand for what we do. Price rises for ‘traditional’ support and reduced offers will be a real issue for many parents (and children). Many children are likely to be facing challenges with social skills and separation anxiety as parents go back to work. There are also issues surrounding speech and language because of the wearing of masks – we really feel there’s a need for 24-hour access to support out there.”
A full range of sessions includes: antenatal classes, baby first aid, breastfeeding, children coping with stress and anxiety, nutrition, pelvic floor exercises and incontinence, Pilates for pregnant women, signposting for early years, healthy minds sessions / mindfulness, sleep training, stay-and-play and baby massage, story telling, supporting parents to understand their children’s education and wellbeing sessions.
Over the next ten years it’s inevitable that cities will change drastically. We’ll no longer be able to rely on cars and public transport to travel - cycling and walking will be the new norm. Cycle of Life’s Ibe Hayter realises a radical new approach is required to tackle the social inequalities in mobility, health, emissions and socio economic status in the city/region – as well as the other barriers that prevent people from confidently choosing to cycle. As the world we live in changes, it’s vital that people aren’t left behind.
“I enjoyed cycling with my father as a child – it was all about roaming freely and going where you want to go. I tried to pass this on to my own children,” he says. “But I found that they didn’t enjoy it as much, as there wasn’t a cycling culture in my diverse neighbourhood.
“I trained up and worked as a cycle instructor, running cycling projects. I remember one of the instructors I worked alongside at a school telling a young Somali student that she would have to take her headscarf off to put on a helmet or she would not be allowed to ride. I felt she was being forced to choose between her identity and riding a bike, which was unfair.
“Many of the children we trained at schools lived in my area, although none of the instructors did,” Ibe continues. “After completing the training I noticed many children stopped riding. When I asked why, they informed me that their families did not encourage them, as they felt riding bikes on the road was dangerous. Parents listed many barriers to cycling and why they did not encourage their children.”
After completing an Active Citizen course at Kuumba Imani, Ibe decided the time was right to change the culture, removing some of those barriers. Starting in early April 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic meant that his first project was to provide bikes to NHS and key workers, enabling them to travel to work safely.
But Ibe realised a radical new approach would be required to tackle the social inequalities in mobility, health, emissions and socio economic status in the city/region and create new attitudes to active travel and alter behaviour in city life.
A year later, Cycle of Life has delivered 90 community cycle rides, 45 hours of cycle repair workshops a week, repaired over 180 bikes and provided another 50 to NHS and key workers.
Its focus is on communities that have been traditionally overlooked or less represented in cycling and it has 150 members. It’s trained twelve cycle leaders – eight of whom are female, and six from BAME backgrounds – and established new cycling groups at Unity, Asylum Link, Liverpool mosque and a women’s group at Calderstones Park. Cycle of Life’s social value added has been calculated at over £400,000 in its first year.
“Collaboration is key to effective social change,” says Ibe. “Working with the public, private and voluntary sector means we can all achieve goals with limited resources.” He’s signed agreements with organisations as diverse as Liverpool City Council and Back on Track, providing a huge variety of services. Cycle UK has trained its volunteers, providing insurance and policies for them to become cycle leaders. In turn, they’re delivering led rides to local community groups like Asylum Link, and making plans to deliver balanceability classes, start a cargo bike delivery service with a young person’s cycle sports club with British cycling. “We’re also developing a 12-week targeted social prescribing pilot with Alder Hey Children’s hospital to tackle increasing health concerns in young people. And we’re negotiating a contract with a national provider to deliver a revamped model of instruction in schools with local instructors who reflect the communities they serve – not only will they teach children to ride, but will take their parents on led rides to give them the confidence.”
Cycle of Life will start bike buses with families cycling to school and create a big change in travel choices in Liverpool. Not only does the STO aim to increase active travel in Merseyside and remove barriers to cycling, but it’ll build skills in local communities by delivering cycle maintenance workshops, a cycle repair centre and develop an instructor and mechanic training centre, creating employment opportunities for local people.
The plans also support Liverpool’s ambition to become a zero-carbon city by 2030. A cycle hub will provide a repair station, café and showers for commuters, become Liverpool City Region’s first training centre of excellence for cycle mechanics and instructors and house an Active Travel consortium. Cycle of Life has created an L8 Active Travel Forum, made up of local residents, businesses and community organisations, to amplify L8’s voice with decision makers, consult and listen closely to its community and enable the area to be chosen for larger investments such as Liveable Neighbourhoods and Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. It will also develop an effective tool to enable schools and other organisations to facilitate an effective active travel model within their communities, and help develop local ‘business on wheels’ entrepreneurs.
“I cycle for a few reasons,” says Ibe. “Keeping fit is one of them. It also relaxes my mind, whereas when I drive I feel stressed. Cycling gives me a chance to think about the wider picture. How we want our city to look in the future for our children. Now, for me, it’s about creating an inclusive culture with long term economic, environmental and health benefits. Cycling is a force for good. It creates an environment which can solve a lot of social ills.”
