Stockton- on- Tees based social enterprise Five Lamps, which helps 25,000 people a year get out of poverty and into work, wins the 2012 Impact Champion Award at the RBS SE100 Index Award ceremony on 5 December 2012 at RBS in London
Set up in the ‘80s to help unemployed men back into work after steel works closed, Five Lamps is needed as much now as it ever was in the deprived areas of the north east of England to get people out of poverty and into work. Today, as a charity, social enterprise, and Community Development Finance Institution, it helps 25,000 people a year take control of their finances through advising on training and careers as well as providing disadvantaged people with affordable business and personal loans unavailable to them through mainstream lenders.
Five Lamps has a turnover of over £3 million a year and spreads its work over four business areas:
- Employment: Five Lamps helps people find training or volunteering, and offers expert careers advice
- Enterprise: In 2011/12, Five Lamps’ Enterprise division supported 704 businesses with start-up or business loans, while providing invaluable business advice and planning
- Youth: Five Lamps is one of the largest voluntary and community sector provider of youth services in the North East, and their Youth division runs four youth clubs and a Foundation Learning programme to help young people bridge the gap between leaving school and finding employment or further training or education
- Finance: Five Lamps helps individuals get out of the grips of pay-day or door-step lenders or loan sharks and into managing their finances more sustainably through affordable loans and practical advice. In 2011/12 Five Lamps helped 15,800 people with personal loan and debt advice and will make over 20,000 loans in the current year.
Five Lamps is now creating and developing the Great North Loan Fund. In its capacity as the only Community Development Finance Institution in the north east of England, it has created this fund to be a recognised and trusted regional brand offering a full range of financial services for local people. Together with credit unions and advice agencies they will offer affordable credit, job and business advice, banking services, access to white goods, financial literacy training and debt advice to disadvantaged individuals across the breadth of the region.
The RBS SE100 Index, researched by the University of the West of England, tracked the business activity of 365 social enterprises, with a combined turnover of £778 million, during 2012. Unlike traditional business sectors, social enterprises are set up to solve social or environmental problems and profits are ploughed back into the enterprise.
The RBS SE100 Index provides market intelligence for the sector and found that the top 100 growing enterprises grew on average by a recession-busting 60% in the last year and also found that these organisations had an 85% higher turnover than last year’s top 100.
Tim West, Director and Founder of Matter&Co, which created the RBS SE100 in partnership with RBS said:
“We were not only looking for an organisation which had clearly measured its social value, but one which in doing so had improved its business. The judges were impressed with the step changes Five Lamps have made from their first impact report to their second and how that has improved the effectiveness of its organisation. By measuring its value they have been able to win funding to refurbish badly needed housing.”
Graeme Oram, chief executive of Five Lamps said:
“We’re delighted that our increased efforts in social reporting have resulted in new business, the way we organise our business and also in winning this award!”