Meet the team: Sophie Maidman

[Photography and social media post for client Store & Secure]

Facility manager Sophie loves netball… she trains each week and plays for Titans in the Bournemouth league… and she’s often seen bombing around either on her road bike for fitness, or in her fun RIB around Poole Harbour!

Sophie is a vital part of our growing team as we expand with new facilities. “I love my job. This is a fun business and I particularly enjoy getting stuck in with our charity events. This year, our three adopted charities are Forest Holme, Lewis Manning and Julia’s House – Forest Holme has been very close to my heart; I love working with Hannah and the team there.”

Sophie also runs Store & Secure’s Instagram… “Send me your fun photos of you at Store & Secure #storagecastlepoint!”

Not exactly a bed of roses for Clare

[Social media post for charity Child of Hope]

In less than a month’s time, Clare burrows is having a ‘holiday’… but maybe not quite as many of us would! Along with daughter Rebecca, friend Joan Kilsby and Rebecca’s boyfriend Martyn, she is cycling coast-to-coast on the 170-mile Way of the Roses (Morecambe to Bridlington) to raise funds for Child of Hope! Read full story...

Communications tips for non-profits

Free... great communications tips for non-profits to help them tell their stories. And they won't cost a penny.

Business benefits of flexible storage

[Social media post and photography for Store & Secure, Bournemouth]

Increasing numbers of Bournemouth businesses are taking space in our expanding self-storage facility – because it’s low-cost, with no rates nor utility charges, it has free parking with 24-hour access and they can upscale or downscale quickly for seasonal stock requirements. There’s even a free goods-in/out service!

Take the fast-expanding The Basket Company, for example, one of the UK’s largest online wicker basket retailers. It’s an established business with an office and packing department just five minutes away from Store & Secure. But the flexibility we offer – of expanding its storage for seasonal demands – was better than buying/renting its own storage facility. It hires our two largest storage rooms and is about to expand into a third.

Now the thriving internet business – which sells high-quality wicker baskets to the UK public and trade (hotels, restaurants, pubs, etc) – keeps its storage overheads to a minimum by holding all its product with us. We receive deliveries for it (for free) and move them to its storage area, where its staff daily unpack goods, check them in, pick the orders for delivery that day and take them to their own packing department for sending direct to customers.

Director Ian Newey said: “The free goods-in service saves us a lot of time, and we use it for returning faulty goods too. The flexibility of using Store & Secure has allowed us to grow well while keeping our property overheads to a minimum, which we are very proud of.”

Check out The Basket Company online – the range of wicker baskets is awesome!

Business start-up will transform their families

[Social media post for charity Child of Hope, building schools in a Ugandan slum]

Big smiles all round… these are the latest mums (and a dad) to join Child of Hope’s Income Generating Activities (IGA) programme.

Their only qualification is to have a child at our school and then to complete a simple business plan, which is assessed by our IGA team before they are invited to receive training and a business start-up grant to kick-start their own small business.

IGA team member Susan Adong said: “We check each applicant and observe how they progress through the training with things like keeping time-keeping and participation. They are being empowered to sustain their own families through this programme, so they need to own it. After the training, a simple exam is taken, followed by assessment of their performance and handing over the grant, then follow-up training and advice.”

The success rate of our IGA business start-ups is very high. If you’d like to donate a grant, they are just £25… click here for more details. What a way to impact a whole family!

Typed up

[Social media post for Prism Project Management Associates]

Where it helps develop greater competence and confidence in project managers, we give them understanding of psychological type – so to boost that, we have joined the British Association for Psychological Type (BAPT).

Type is how an individual functions when dealing with oneself and others. The theory of psychological type says that seemingly random variation in behaviour is actually quite ordered and consistent, being due to basic difference in the way individuals prefer to use their perception and judgement.

Within a project management environment, type can be helpful in enabling the project team to understand their own type preferences and those of their team members, colleagues and other stakeholders. That leads to a better understanding of people’s preferences and values – that will provide more harmony, more effective communication, better informed approaches that achieve results, less conflict and ultimately better performance.

Membership of BAPT is deepening our own understanding of people through the lens of Psychological Type and related concepts, and gives professional support in all aspects of type and opportunities for further professional development.

Prism launches its amazing, all-new service for P3M competence in project managers on Sept 1… watch for more details!

Prism PMA: new service to develop highly-competent project managers

A new service launching by Prism Project Management Associates this September claims to develop greater P3M competence and professionalism in project managers.

Director Jan Underdown said: “P3M (project, programme and portfolio) competence is the key to your organisation achieving its strategic objectives.

“Our claim to improve competence is based on this premise – it’s not knowing about project management that counts, but the ability to do it. A knowledge-based qualification may provide a foundation – but it’s not enough to equip for action. Focussed competence-based training fills the ‘knowing–doing’ gap and will provide your company with a return on your training investment.”

Prism will launch with the following suite of services: Competence-based training, coaching/mentoring, competence assessment tools, behavioural assessment, resources for project managers, career path development, project life cycle development and project health checks.

Services and products are available for both individual project/programme/portfolio managers and organisations with a portfolio of change initiatives.

Jan said: “All our services and products enable experimental learning within a safe environment for the development of practical experience. These development forums provide project managers with the skills and confidence to give organisations real benefits, as well as a return on their investment.

“There are plenty of benefits to organisations and individuals, especially a better return on training investment, enhanced project team members’ core skills, greater mobility between projects, increasing an organisation’s capacity and the development of a competent and capable project management team.”

Jan has 25 years’ experience developing project managers and specialises in the design and development of innovative P3M programmes – using facilitated workshops, coaching, mentoring and 'train the trainer' programmes to embed best practices and ensure onward sustainability.

Pat-a-cake… frying pancakes in a Ugandan slum

[Social media post for charity Child of Hope]

Budding bakers: our Primary 6 children have been learning how to make pancakes, guided by their class teacher.

It was part of their lesson in class under the topic of occupations, which aims to equip the children with some of the basic skills that will eventually help them get a job or even start their own small-scale business.

As will probably be the case at home or in their own business in the Namatala slum, the pancakes were fried on an open fire. And not a burned finger in sight…

Slum-based welfare team expands

[Social media post for charity Child of Hope, building schools in Namatala slum in Uganda]

Meet Irene, our new extra welfare assistant.

With an ever-increasing age range and number of pupils, our welfare department needed another person to assist them.

After interviewing eight people for the job - some great candidates, by the way – we decided to recruit 43 year-old Irene (mother of six), who has been trained in various community health aspects and has experience in mobilising and sensitising communities about various issues. We feel that she’ll be an excellent addition to our young welfare team – bringing in a mature outlook and will engage well with our mothers.

The welfare team carries out regular home visits on all our children and offer their families free social care, numeracy/literacy training, family planning and health awareness that includes sanitation and hygiene, road safety and malaria control. As a result, mortality rates are being reduced, while sanitation and hygiene are dramatically improved! Click to read about welfare staff sponsorship.

It's a news round-up

[Social media post and eNewsletter for our client Store & Secure self-storage, Bournemouth]

If you’ve missed our new on social media, we have sent an eNewsletter this week with a great round-up of news. To see a copy online, simply click here.

Sty-lish home for piglets

[Social media post for non-profit Child of Hope]

It took a little while to get things together since UK donors kindly raised the money for us to buy and instal pigs – but now they have arrived and have moved into their new pig house! And so Child of Hope's launch it pig farming begins!

Director Bex Okotel said: “Spare timber from the school building works was used to build the pig house. We then bought some iron sheets and cement, etc and ‘voila’, a pig house!

“Moses purchased eight piglets (four pink ones, three black ones and a brown one), two of which are females. The aim is to teach the children how to look after pigs, meanwhile some will be killed for food and the others used to breed more piglets. They’ve been checked by a vet and injected with various necessary drugs. All is going well with the piggies, they are eating maize bran, greens, etc. and staff member Dennis has been allocated to look after them.

“Moses is hoping to purchase two more piglets of a specific breed but he hasn’t been able to find any of that breed as yet.”

    

Building update: it's getting close!

[Social media post for charity Child of Hope]

Our goal of completing the primary/nursery school by the end of the year is now in our grasp!

Currently we’re in the process of doing final adjustments to the main structure of the third floor. On top of that, we’ve added a partial fourth floor to give us a small meeting room, two closed offices and an open plan office space – which will free up more of the other floors for teaching.

Then we start on the roof. This can only be carried out during the school holidays in August/September – due to the risk of things falling on children in the playground below!

The remainder of the work… plastering, doors, windows, etc can be carried out between September–December, as it is safe to be done during term time.

One of the largest

[Social media post for our client Kirolite – a high-end designer/producer of customised and production components for luxury interiors in hotels, homes, offices and superyachts.]

Interior designers visiting our Dorset factory are usually surprised at the large size of our 27,000 sq feet production facility.

Well, we’ve been around since 1942 and have grown at a fair rate, majoring in high-end wood furniture and components for superyacht, residential, commercial and retail interiors.

And the more recent addition of our solid surface fabrication facility is one of the largest in the south of England.

You’d be most welcome to come and see for yourself… maybe it will spark off some creative ideas for your next interior project?

Little Elijah: doing well

[Social media post for charity Child of Hope]

You might remember how we reported on little Elijah’s rescue – he had been abandoned by his mother who died shortly after.

Child of Hope staff often saw him by the side of the road looking malnourished, sick and dejected. They decided – even though he was too young for our school – to rescue him, cleaning him up and tending for his many wounds.

Anyway, Elijah is now old enough to attend school in our youngest nursery class – and when he finishes at 12.30pm each day, he loves playing with the school's two guard dogs. He still lives happily in our children’s home, receiving lots of love, care and friendship. He is coping very well at school, which is pretty remarkable after all he went through.

If you haven’t seen it already, we have a video about his rescue, click here to watch it.