Holy Spokes

Please tell us how the organisation has either a) learned from previous challenges to become stronger or b) identified changing public demands and adapted to address these demands more effectively:

As a social business, Holy Spokes has identified changing public demands and is creating a new bike business, called Netham Bamboo.  
By recognising the value in well-manufactured sustainable bamboo bikes, Holy Spokes co-founders have been developing this new business idea so that current and new bike owners in Bristol and the surrounding area can buy bikes made of bamboo as opposed to the metal and plastic bikes already on the market. The bike parts themselves are also manufactured by a number of social enterprises in developing countries who provide employment and support to people making a living for themselves.

Please tell us about how the organisation is now better placed to respond to future challenges:
The future challenge of ensuring everything we use in life is manufactured sustainably is being met by Netham Bamboo's endeavours. They will be better placed to respond to the challenge of how we ensure the things we use in life come from sustainable sources.

Please tell us how the organisation has either a) learned from previous challenges to become stronger or b) identified changing public demands and adapted to address these demands more effectively:
Golden Key is a partnership of organisations; we work with clients who experience a mix of homelessness, long term mental health problems, dependency on drugs/ alcohol and offending behaviour. Over the past 5 years the Golden Key partnership has been learning from the experiences of people using services, identifying where people face blocks and working together to try and eradicate systemic blocks.  
As a programme we have invested in our partnership to use a systems thinking approach. Through training, coaching, empowerment and facilitation we support individuals and groups to think and act more systemically.  Our aim is to better equip organisations to be able to adapt to both current and future demands, particularly in regards to supporting people with multiple complex needs.

Please tell us about how the organisation is now better placed to respond to future challenges:
By offering training, support and coaching to people in organisations throughout the city, we aim to create a sustainable network of people who are able to think and act more systemically.  We are equipping people with the skills to feel more confident to create system change. In doing so, we are not only supporting organisations to address current issues but are creating environments where organisations are able to respond to future, unknown, issues that may arise. We have invested in people from across a number of sectors including criminal justice, drugs and alcohol, mental health, young people, homelessness and housing.  
We have trained over 100 people in systems thinking from commissioners to client facing staff to CEOs and offer support to many more. By working with people in different layers of organisations we focus both on current leaders and working with the leaders of tomorrow.
 

Please tell us how the organisation has either a) learned from previous challenges to become stronger or b) identified changing public demands and adapted to address these demands more effectively:
The ARC cafe, in the crypt of St Mary Redcliffe Church, was established in 2012 to support those in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Initially, the focus was for those in recovery to gain confidence and to have a structure to their day. However, it soon became clear that many of the volunteers were eager to develop their employability. Therefore a programme of nationally certified training was introduced. Of the 50 folk in recovery who have volunteered in the cafe since it opened 25 have moved on to paid employment and many others to further education or volunteering with a more appropriate organisation. For many their lives have been transformed. The ARC cafe now also welcomes and supports those in recovery from mental health issues.
 

Please tell us about how the organisation is now better placed to respond to future challenges 
The nationally certified training programmes covering Food Hygiene and Customer Service has enabled many of the volunteers in recovery to demonstrate to future employers their commitment and their skills. It has also helped to attract those in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction and from mental health issues to volunteer at the ARC cafe as they can see a clear route to future employment.
 

Please tell us how the organisation has either a) learned from previous challenges to become stronger or b) identified changing public demands and adapted to address these demands more effectively:
There are 850,000 people in the UK living with Dementia, over 4500 live in Bristol! 
Many people don’t: 
1.    know what Dementia is,  2.    recognise the symptoms 
3.    know how to support people with Dementia.  
BDAA’s aim is to inform business, organisations, children’s groups, schools, community and faith groups about Dementia and remove stigma and negative beliefs, so that people living with Dementia can live well and be supported within their community.  
Our aim is to make Bristol THE Dementia Friendly City of the UK. 
Since 2013, BDAA has run free Dementia Awareness sessions. This year, we realised it wasn’t enough and sought funding to run workshops to support those who work with people living with Dementia. These included awareness, case studies and information from those living with Dementia. Workshops are free of charge and so far we have run four with another three in the diary for early 2020.

Please tell us about how the organisation is now better placed to respond to future challenges: 
BDAA builds upon its experience with each contact, session and workshop it runs. It updates the accompanying workbook and resources for participants to reflect this.  
Likewise, our experience of applying for and receiving funding is increasing and we are actively seeking funding to respond and expand this area of our work, as the need is definitely there. We already have three in-house sessions booked for early 2020.  
This highlights the need in Bristol and uses our team’s expertise to meet that need. We draw upon eight voluntary trustees who give their time for free and generously share their experiences from a wide variety of business and health sectors within Bristol. It also highlights the charity’s need for more volunteers to support the increasing demand for information, events and awareness sessions. Our part-time administrator has considerable charity experience which allows us to respond more effectively to enquiries that come our way.