Success Doncaster

February 2010

With the vast number of talented businesses that Success Doncaster supports, there is no surprise that a number of them are award winners.

The skills that our beneficiaries offer cover a vast range of areas and as such the awards they win are varied. Below are just a few examples of some recent examples.

L.I.F.E. CIC Winner of the Doncaster Keepmoat Sports Business of the year award! LIFE CIC is a social enterprise that merges together a range of sports and arts projects such as street dancing, graffiti art, parlour and circus skills.  The end result is an exciting and innovative business which provides young people with an alternative to anti-social behaviour, increases physical activity and helps improve life skills. A recent economic impact assessment carried out by the LIFE management team indicated that for every £1 earned by LIFE £8.67 was returned to the local economy.

Higher Rhythm recording studio A multi-award winning social enterprise! Higher Rhythm provides training opportunities for young people in recording and mixing music. Young performers and unsigned bands are also able to record their own music. Steve Mundin, Senior Manager, also provides one-to-one guidance and advice.  Steve was awarded the 2008 Business Person of the Year Award by Doncaster’s Discover the Spirit Awards, he was also runner-up in the Chamber of Commerce Awards. The teams busy work does not stop there, they also recently launched SINE FM, Doncaster’s Community Radio station on 102.6 FM.

YWCA Doncaster November 2009 won a Dragons’ Den-style competition in London, run by the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services and judged by a team led by Tim Campbell. 
Four young women from the Re-NouVo group at Doncaster YWCA “pitched” an idea for recycled and re-designed clothes which would otherwise have been thrown away.  Re-NouVo brings together girls and women from diverse ethnic background and assists them to work together. The group has its own design team, manufacturing team, fashion photographer and models.

Refurnish is a social enterprise that collects unwanted furniture, electrical appliances and household items from Doncaster residents. The items are refurbished and repaired by trainees and people with mental health issues and sold back to the community.  Refurnish is a multi-award winning organisation including the Biz Awards 2008 Business of the Year and Innovation categories.  Not only were they runners up for Green Business of the Year in the British Chamber of Commerce Awards, in London, November 2009, but also won the Doncaster Chamber Green Business of the Year Award in December 2009.  They were also a finalist for the British Business of the Year category.

M25 Create is a new social enterprise formed as the trading arm of the M25 housing charity. M25 Create provides high quality outside catering from the M25 housing premises in Doncaster, the profit from the enterprise help homeless people in Doncaster.  M25 Create is unique amongst social enterprises in Doncaster in that it is a franchise of Create a successful social enterprise based in Leeds. The business model allowed M25 Create to get the business up and running in a relatively short period and the first full time employee was employed in January 2010.

Do you think that your idea can be turned into an award winning business? Perhaps you are already running a successful business but want to shout a bit louder about it. Call one of our friendly advisors on the helpline number above and find out how Success Doncaster can help you.