“Man needs, for his happiness, not only the enjoyment of this or that, but hope and enterprise and change.”
A pertinent quote from Bertrand Russell, the British literary great and Nobel prize winner, and one that strikes a chord for those involved in CREATE, the award-winning social enterprise committed to providing training and employment opportunities for people who have been homeless or marginalised.
Since CREATE’s establishment in Leeds in 2007 by co-founder and CEO Sarah Dunwell, the organisation has become one of the leading social enterprises in the UK. Initially set up as an outside catering company in the kitchen of a night shelter with two paid staff and a volunteer, within a year the organisation had expanded into a warehouse in Leeds, taken on four more trainees and opened a production kitchen and two cafes in Leeds and Bradford.
By the end of 2010 CREATE had opened a woman’s fashion boutique selling preloved and vintage clothes featuring local designers, further cafes, expanded their outside catering business into Manchester, Sunderland, Doncaster, and Liverpool, and started their academy to train homeless and marginalised people in the centre of Leeds. The first batch of trainees from the CREATE Academy subsequently found employment at Morrisons, representing the first step in a national partnership that will see 1,000 people recruited through CREATE with the major supermarket chain.
In this short time frame the organisation has won numerous regional and national enterprise awards and was a recent winner of the coveted Big Society Award with David Cameron, noting that they are a ‘proud example’ of an organisation standing firmly at the forefront of the Big Society being promoted by the British Government.
Ms Dunwell herself has also won a number of accolades, from being the Forward Ladies first ever Businesswoman of the Year to being listed in the Northern Lights Top 50 talents in business. With momentum on their side, 2011 is proving to be an exciting year. The nimble expansion of the organisation shows no signs of abating with a new milestone being reached: the opening of their first ever restaurant. This flagship restaurant based in the centre of Leeds will provide a base for at least 100 trainees to hone their skills each year, whilst providing a lively and friendly atmosphere and top notch modern British grub for customers. Leading the helm will be Richard Walton-Allen, recently named Best Chef in Leeds in the 2011 Oliver Awards having spent the previous 12 years as Executive Chef at Harvey Nichols. Richard also leads the outside catering business.
These are indeed exciting times for CREATE, its benefactors and trainees. Oxygen managed to catch up with Sarah and Richard during the final preparations for the opening day to ask about the driving force behind the organisation, the new venture and what else the future could possibly hold.
Asked as to why she started CREATE, Sarah describes how charities were teaching the marginalised and homeless to survive on the streets whilst becoming dependant on the aid they received. “They do not need a blanket and a mug of soup every night, they need a job. CREATE is all about that - you need a job, you need a home and you need to be able to sustain those things for yourself without us being there to hold your hand.”
It is clear that the success of CREATE so far has surpassed all of her initial expectations, admitting that she “set out to create volunteering opportunities for three or four people, that was it....I did not even know it was called a Social Enterprise.”
The success is not due to luck but down to their business model. “We are a social enterprise and we concentrate as much on the enterprise as we do the social, so this is first and foremost a business. We build the business first, making it strong, profitable and commercial and then we wrap all of the social elements around it. Most social enterprises come at that the other way around. They have a deeply held social mission that they focus on all the time and the business is a bit of an afterthought. We wanted to turn that on its head.” Taking this approach has ensured that their social mission has managed to prosper through some of the worst years of economic hardship in recent history.
The long waiting list to join the CREATE Academy is testament to the organisation’s belief that if given the opportunity, the vast majority of homeless and marginalised people want to turn their lives around.
The standards set by Sarah and Richard at CREATE Academy are extremely high. “We teach people all the time that you cannot be excellent some of the time...it needs to become habit.” By having people who are the best at what they do and want to make a difference, it is easier to teach and nurture the skill sets of the students. This has enabled CREATE to get “a reputation for delivering new starters into jobs who are better trained than their new employers existing staff.” The new restaurant follows this same high standard with Richard being joined by both his sous and second chefs from Harvey Nicholls.
So what’s next? Sarah’s biggest goal is “turning CREATE into a high street name. I would like CREATE to be on every high street and people can choose between eating in a Nandos or a CREATE.” High street restaurants are only part of this expansion. There are currently flapjacks and chocolate brownies being trialled in selected Morrisons stores and if successful these products will be rolled out nationwide. Plans for geographical expansion into other areas and starting a boutique hotel in Leeds are also in their early stages.
From spending time with the organisation it is hard not to be inspired by CREATE’s ongoing projects and future plans. They have the winning combination of a simple but effective initiative to turnaround disadvantaged lives, driven by a management team striving to make a difference and an ever-growing number of people requiring their assistance.
Through the burgeoning support coming from the wider community CREATE has the potential to become a key organisation in Britain in the coming years, providing help in a time when cuts in public spending will limit the opportunities available to the homeless and marginalised.
The Leeds CREATE restaurant is on 31 King Street, LS1 2HL.
To find out more about CREATE, their food and latest news visit their website: www.foodbycreate.co.uk