The opening of Bradbury Works, a new affordable co-working space in Hackney
It's been a busy few months for our social investment team. Here we take a look at three new projects we've been investing in, some exciting news, and new support for organisations looking to get investment-ready.
New investments
Over the last few months, we've made investments in three organisations with a social impact in London.
Branches
Branches has provided shelter to single homeless people in Waltham Forest since 1996. Ten years ago, the organisation moved into its first permanent hostel. We’re investing in a second hostel to provide accommodation to formerly homeless people in Walthamstow.
House of St Barnabas
House of St Barnabas is a social enterprise membership club in Soho. Our investment helps the team run their employment training programme, specifically tailored for Londoners experiencing homelessness.
London Early Years Foundation (LEYF)
LEYF provides high quality, affordable Early Years education and care across London. We’ve provided investment for LEYF to open a new, state-of-the-art nursery in Greenwich. The new nursery will help to give children in the borough – especially those most in need – the best start in life.
News and opportunities
A new co-working space for Hackney
In 2020 we invested £500,000 into a new co-working space in Hackney, to be developed by the Hackney Co-operative Developments CIC. The new space, Bradbury Works, opened in March 2023, and provides a new affordable workspace for businesses and social enterprises.
We're celebrating this amazing and rather beautiful building: a building that would never have got off the ground without the unwavering support of our funders. We should see this building as a community asset, part of the common good. We are not in the business of squeezing tenants to increase company profits. As a Community Interest Company, every penny of any surplus we generate from this project will go to other projects.
Rod Campbell-Taylor, Chair of Hackney Co-operative Developments
Micro Rainbow wins Charity of the Year
A huge well done to Micro Rainbow, for its Charity of the Year win at the British Diversity Awards.
Micro Rainbow provides safe housing and support for LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and refugees – last year alone the team supported 1,200 people. This is a greatly deserved recognition of all this fantastic work.
Reach Fund: funding for organisations close to raising repayable finance
We're proud to be an access point for the Reach Fund, which provides grants to organisations that are close but not quite ready to apply for social investment.
Grants are available between £5,000 and £15,000, and can be used for work to help organisations get investment ready – like support with business plans or marketing strategies.
To apply for the funding, an organisation must be referred by a social investor. The deadline is 30 September 2023.
If we’re not the right fit for you, but you’re still interested in the Reach Fund, you can find a full list of participating social investors in the Directory of Access Points.
