the average length of time out of paid work

before joining Aspire is

receive

Employment

Support Allowance

(ESA)

have an

alcohol/drug addic-

tion history

have a commitment

to make remark-

able changes to

their liveshave an offending

history

40%

58%

66%

100%

5.5 yearsSocial Impact Report 2013–14

Welcome to Aspire Oxford’s first ever annual Social Impact Report, for 2013–14

Welcome

In this report we present the achievements of the remarkable men and women we have had the privilege of supporting over the past year. As an employment and recovery charity we are acutely aware of the commitment, determination and strength of character our trainees demonstrate as they make the transition into work. We are equally aware of the many challenges and difficulties that have shaped trainees’ lives before they arrive at our door. This report is testimony to what can be achieved if you listen, trust and provide genuine work placement and training opportunities to people with multiple barriers to employment.

Aspire’s social impact has resonated more deeply and widely in our local community in the past year than ever before. It has been a remarkable year in which 98% of our trainees with offending histories did not re-offend and 97% of trainees maintained successful recoveries from addiction. Over 150 trainees participated on our social enterprise employment programme, with 39 moving into permanent employment – more than double the success rate of the Government’s Work Programme. And we launched our first community-based ‘Job Club’ service to offer front-line employment support to residents in some of the most deprived areas in Oxford city.

We’re incredibly proud of the difference Aspire Oxford has made to the lives of our trainees in their individual journeys in the past year. We hope that this report provides engaging and inspiring examples of how this can be achieved.

Contents

– Welcome 3

– Why a Social Impact Report? 4

– Methodology 4

– About Aspire Oxford 5

– Our Partners and Supporters 5

– Growth Through Social Enterprise 6

– Aspire Job Clubs 7

– Learning Through Doing 8

– Transition to Employment 10

– Our Employment & Development Workers: Life Support 11

– Our Social Impact in 2013–14 14

– Thank You 20

3

Why a Social Impact Report?

As a registered charity and a social enterprise with a proud heritage of supporting people who face severe and multiple disadvantages such as homelessness, substance misuse and offending, creating sustainable social impact is at the centre of everything we do.

We firmly believe that as an organisation set up to make social change happen, we should be both highly vocal and transparent about what we achieve. We also want our partners and supporters to see how they have helped us to improve ourselves and the lives of others. This Social Impact Report therefore is our first attempt to communicate about the social impact we have all achieved, by working together.

Methodology This report covers our social outcomes recorded from April 2013 to March 2014. It brings together the qualitative and quantitative information we have gathered throughout the year, to understand better the impact we have made. We have also conducted a ‘Social Return on Investment’ Analysis to convert our core social benefits into a monetary amount, so our partners and supporters can see the return to society their investment has helped us deliver.

“It was a difficult time in my life. It was nice to just have people who believed in you, who helped you and wanted to push you up. Aspire definitely did that for me.”

– Brian former Aspire trainee

4

About Aspire Oxford

Established in 2001, Aspire Oxford is an employment charity and social enterprise that creates real work placements, training and employment opportunities for people who face severe and multiple disadvantages such as homelessness, substance misuse and offending. We also provide a Job Club service for residents in some of the most deprived wards in Oxford city, including Wood Farm, Blackbird Leys and Littlemore.

We are dedicated to transforming the life chances of local men and women who have survived adversity. Aspire’s service users, our ‘trainees’, have an inspiring resilience, tenacity and determination to change. Harnessing this energy and enthusiasm makes Aspire a place of real opportunity and growth, enabling individuals to realise their rehabilitation and recovery goals.

Our Partners and Supporters

Aspire Oxford has strong relationships with a wide network of local partners, supporters and customers across the commercial, public and third sectors in Oxfordshire and the Thames Valley. These organisations are absolutely critical to our success; we could not achieve our outstanding social outcomes without their ongoing partnership and support, which remains at the heart of our approach to tackling complex social problems.

Our innovative approach to partnership working hasbeen recognised nationally and regionally; in 2012we received The Guardian Charity of the Year Award,the Oxfordshire Business Awards Charity andCommunity Award, and the OCVA Partnership Award.

5

Growth Through Social Enterprise

As a charity built on social enterprise, Aspire provides professional services to a diverse portfolio of clients across the Thames Valley. Our core social business includes grounds and property maintenance, painting and decorating, cleaning, removals and a range of recycling services (textiles, cardboard, furniture). Our woodwork shop produces garden and household furniture and methadone storage boxes.

Competing in the open market against private companies on price, quality and social impact, we have seen a huge growth in demand for our professional services in 2013-14. In the past year we increased our income from enterprise by 76%, to meet over 50% of our charity’s annual running costs. All of our profit from enterprise is re-invested back into the charity to support our trainees and our local community.

By expanding our professional services capacity we have also created more work experience, training and employment opportunities than ever before, with 9,295 positive working days completed on our social enterprises last year.

We are particularly grateful for the ongoing support and commitment of our biggest contract partners, including...

6

Aspire Job Clubs

Aspire opened its first ‘Job Club’ at the Slade & Headington Children’s Centre in Wood Farm in March 2013. In 2014 we extended our Job Club service in other deprived parts of Oxford city, including Littlemore and Blackbird Leys. Job Club is set up for local residents to receive support in all aspects of employment, education, training and volunteering, including advice on childcare options where this is a barrier to employment.

The Aspire Job Club in Wood Farm supported 53 clients in 2013-14. 24% secured paid employment and a further 53% were matched with volunteering and education opportunities.

“I initially didn’t see how job club could help me, as all my friends and family said there was no way I could continue learning and get a career. I now have a plan of action on how to gain qualifications and what sort of future careers to think about.” “Thank you so much for today, you have made me feel a lot more positive about my future in work options, even at my age!”

7

Learning Through Doing

Aspire provided a wide range of accredited and unaccredited courses for its trainees in the past year to help raise aspirations and boost employability. Our trainees gained 238 training course completions in 2013-14, in subjects ranging

from interview preparation, health & safety training such as asbestos awareness, emergency first aid and fire safety, to woodworking & furniture restoration. For many, this was their first positive educational experience in many years.

As an accredited training provider with Apt (Access, Progress, Transform) Awards, we are now developing our course offering for 2014-15 to include more hands-on, practical qualifications in painting & decorating and grounds maintenance.

Aspire is proud to work in partnership with other local education and training providers to offer the widest possible range of learning and development opportunities to our trainees. This included courses as diverse as grounds care, bicycle repair, construction & carpentry, furniture restoration, literacy and numeracy and mental health awareness in 2013-14. We are particularly grateful to the Hill End Outdoor Education Centre for running their ‘Introduction to Grounds Care’ course for over 50 Aspire trainees last year.

“There is a feeling of community here at Aspire that is difficult to put into words, but which makes people feel they are working towards a goal, alongside others, supported along the way.” – Jane Harris

Head of Fundraising

8

“I joined Aspire 3 weeks ago, it’s the best thing I ever done… everyone’s equal, we all work together, we’re a team. It actually builds you, makes you better when

you’re looking for a job. It gives you a lot of confidence.”

– Paul, Aspire trainee

Transition to Employment

Aspire provides regular job searching support, CV creation and interview technique practice to its trainees in our weekly Learning Lounge sessions supported by student volunteers from Oxford University, and through the monthly training provided in partnership with HR consultants from Capita PLC. We regularly seek out external work placement and employment opportunities for our trainees with mainstream employers in the private, public and voluntary sectors. We provide bespoke support to our trainees and employers alike for the first year after ‘move on’ into employment.

This year we were grateful for work placement opportunities offered by: “Since I’ve been here I’ve seen

big changes, the lads have gone from one extreme to the other. My favourite thing about the job is seeing these lads gain skills and confidence through our work experience, and at the end of it get a job.”

– Paul Fisher, Gardening Team Leader

“We’re particularly proud to work with Aspire Oxford because we totally buy into what they’re about socially, but more important for me it’s their level of service … I’m absolutely astounded by their level of professionalism.”

– Selby Dickinson, Manager of Oxfordshire County Council’s Hill End Centre

– Hunts Publishing– The Big Bang Restaurant– The Oxford Castle Quarter– Hill End Outdoor

Education Centre– Ecco Shoes

– Pembroke College, University of Oxford

– Yellow Submarine– Westgate Shopping Centre– Distributions Unlimited– Carillion PLC

10

Our Employment & DevelopmentWorkers: Life Support

As a mature, specialist agency we understand the needs of our trainees and present a culture of change and possibility within a wider support structure, that resonates with the men and women we support. Aspire’s employment & development workers assist our trainees on whatever interpersonal or life skills they would like to address as part of the process of building their futures. In practice this means supporting our trainees on anything from presentation skills to tax credits to preparing for family mediation hearings. One of Aspire’s absolute strengths is the understanding that success at work is built on a stable personal and home life, and we ensure that all trainees receive full support in all these areas.

“I’ve been out of employment nearly a year now, due to alcohol dependency and break up of a relationship, depression. I’ve come along to Aspire and thoroughly enjoyed it. It gives you the confidence to get back into work.”

– Den, Aspire trainee

A pathway out of addiction

“We offer our trainees a real pathway out of addiction, a sustainable exit plan to get off alcohol and class A drugs dependency, such as heroin and crack. The men & women we support didn’t dream of becoming addicted when they were kids – what might have started off as recreational drug use developed into heroin and crack dependency, it became a crutch. People fall into a vicious circle of misuse that leads to isolation, they burn their bridges. When they come to Aspire, some have been in the treatment system for years, going from service to service. We offer them a way out of the circle; a community of like-minded people, a platform where they can and want to take responsibility for their future and get rid of old behaviours to leave the treatment system for good. Aspire gives them the space and dignity to grow.”

– Mark Lambert, Aspire Employment & Development Worker

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Breaking the offending cycle We define a recent offending history as anyone with a conviction within the last 7 years. The most common offences include shoplifting, burglary and assault. Aspire recognises that a critical time for ex-offenders is the ‘through-the-gate’ period when people are released from prison and need support to move on with their life. What we do is to remove the label of ‘offender’, we earn their trust and give them an opportunity to prove their worth, including to themselves.

– Mark Lambert, Aspire Employment & Development Worker

Welfare fund

Aspire’s Welfare Fund pays for a wide range of employment and training related expenses, from bus fares and lunch vouchers to college course fees, interview clothes, passports and driving lessons. This fund also provides interest free ‘soft loans’ to support people during the transition from benefits to waged/salaried work, and to pay for items such as furniture and starter kits when trainees move home.

“I volunteered with Aspire for 5 months after coming out of a lengthy spell in prison. Aspire supported me with real work experience, arranged an external work placement for me, gave me regular advice, and helped me find somewhere secure to live. Most of all, Aspire gave me my confidence back – in myself, in dealing with people and working with others…and they helped me get back into full-time work too.”

– Hugh, former Aspire trainee

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“I came out of prison in early April 2013, released on a life licence and I now live in a hostel. I came right in at the deep end with the whole system having changed so it was a difficult time. I started with Aspire and I have worked every day possible these last 3 months. I’ve loved every bit of it. It’s given me an opportunity to occupy myself, occupy my mind, do something good. Aspire has also fed me when I was hungry, helped me get rid of my debts. They were there for me when I nteeded it most. They sorted me out with furniture for my new place. Recently I helped build the Oxford beach, start to finish, it was great, all the lads loved it. I gave my new CV to one of the restaurant owners in the facility and secured full-time employment. This would never have happened if I hadn’t been there the week before building the beach with Aspire. I’m so happy.”

– Clive, former Aspire trainee

A culture and community of change Aspire trainees and staff have created a community of support where unhelpful beliefs, behaviours and habits can be challenged in a constructive way. Peer support and mentoring is essential to this process and we would like to acknowledge the time and commitment that our more experienced trainees give to others both in and outside work.

It’s given me a purpose again, for getting out of bed in the morning, doing something productive with your day, going home at night thinking you’ve done something good, you’ve learnt something. Your life is moving forward again. I’ve made a lot of good friends as well.”– Darren

Aspire trainee

“

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“What Aspire did for me in the early days of my recovery was help me recognize my potential. I didn’t think a lot of myself, you know because of the way I’d been living for years and years. I had quite a low self-image. Through gradual and on-going support I came out of my shell. It’s been brilliant.”

– Martin, Former Aspire trainee

Our Social Impact in 2013-14

Aspire Oxford created outstanding social impact in 2013/14. We supported 167 trainees to tackle complex barriers to employment: the average time out of paid work was 5.5 years; 66% had a recent offending history while 58% were in recovery from substance misuse; 60% had been recently homeless; 40% were in receipt of Employment Support Allowance.

By harnessing and enabling trainees’ motivation to change, 98% of our trainees with offending histories did not re-offend and 97% of our trainees maintained their recovery from addiction. Aspire supported 39 individuals into permanent employment, and 24 into more sustainable housing.

In its first year of operation, our Job Club in Wood Farm saw 53 clients, supporting 24% into paid work and a further 53% into volunteering opportunities orto complete meaningful educational activity.

The statistics highlighted in this report demonstrate that our results in the past year are overwhelmingly positive. But this report is not just about numbers. Behind every number is a human story. A person getting their first job interview after 6 years out of the job market, or starting to believe in themselves and their potential, or what many take for granted – making new friends or rebuilding relationships with long lost family. These are the reasons every volunteer and staff member at Aspire works hard every day, and why we’re relishing the opportunity to build on our success in 2014–15.

“Aspire is a terrific charity. Not only do they offer a practical solution for people with multiple disadvantages, they have also managed to tackle important issues in long-term, cost-effective ways.”

– Pauline Broomhead Guardian Charity Awards; CEO, The FSI

15

Remarkable People: Aspire’s Trainees of whom:

the average length of time out of paid work before joining Aspire is

receive Employment

Support Allowance (ESA)

have an alcohol/drug

addiction history

have a commitment to make remark-able changes to

their lives

have an offending history

40%

58%

66%

100%

5.5 years

We generated

positive working days. 9,295

opportunities for our trainees to get used to a routine

and work in a team.

9,295

%

H.M. PRISON

30

tonnes of clothing and textiles were recycled by Aspire in

2013–14

0

5

10

15

20

25

100

97%80604020

Aspire trainees were supported into more sustainable housing.

23% of our trainees were supported into paid work, compared to a success rate of only 10.5% by the Government’s Work Programme.

of our trainees maintained their recovery from substance misuse

i.e. we are more than twice as effective.

of Aspire trainees with an offending history did not reoffend.

“In May 2014 a team from the University of Oxford World Economic Forum Global Shapers group conducted a pro bono Social Return On Investment analysis for Aspire. This calculation allows us to demonstrate the financial value of the social impact we generate, to demonstrate the money saved by making effective interventions to prevent homelessness, re-offending, substance misuse and antisocial behaviour. We are delighted to say that for every £1 invested in Aspire by funders, social enterprise customers or charity donors we delivered £5.86 of social benefits.”

Social Return on Investment

out

Social Return on

InvestmentWidget

6000

in

PAY

AMOUNT

Social BenefitsFive Pounds and

Eighty Six Pence Only

Thank YouWe are grateful to all of the charitable trusts, foundations, businesses and individuals who have chosen to support our work in 2013-14. We are proud to help others on your behalf.

Major grants and donations:– Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Single Homeless group (BOSH)– Burford Garden Company– Capita PLC– Network for Social Change– Oxford City Council– Oxford Gives: The Funding Network– Oxfordshire Community Foundation– Oxfordshire County Council– Oxfordshire Drug and Alcohol Team– Public Health England– The Funding Network Strategic Funding Group– The JP Getty Jnr Trust– The Storytellers– Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP)

Grants and donations:– Abingdon Rotary Club– Anne Veck– Carterton Lions– Clinks/Social Firms UK– Comic Relief– Doris Field Trust – Greensquare Group– Hertford College, University of Oxford– Magdalen College, University of Oxford– Oxford Quakers– Oxford Spires Rotary– Oxfordshire Business Awards– Oxpat– Pembroke College, University of Oxford– Police & Crime Commissioner, Thames Valley– Pye Charitable Settlement– Queens College, University of Oxford– The Robert & Margaret Moss Charitable Trust– Sandford Trust– St Michael and All Saints Charities– St. Hugh’s College, University of Oxford– Temple Street Dental Practice– Thames Valley Probation

How You Can HelpIf you are as passionate and enthusiastic about addressing social problems as we are, there are numerous ways you can support our work:

• Inviteoursocialenterprisestoquoteforagroundsorpropertymaintenance, gardening, removals, textiles or furniture recycling service for your home, school, community group or business. No job too big or small.

• Donatefurniture,textilesorhouseholditemstous– we collect. Host an Aspire textile collection bank at your school, college or community project.

• HostanAspiretraineeonaworkplacement:paidorunpaid,skilled or unskilled, one day to several months.

• Inviteustogiveapresentationaboutovercominghomelessness, addiction and offending at your work place, networking event, school or community group.

• Supportusonafundraisingchallenge,fromclimbingKilimanjaro to doing a fire-walk.

Get in touchCall us on 01865 204450Email us at info@aspireoxford.co.ukVisit our website www.aspireoxford.co.uk

@Aspireoxford

facebook.com/AspireOxOnline

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