In the past two years more than 70 social enterprises and community groups in Barking have got off to a great start thanks to an innovative purpose-built facility called Starting Point.

In spite of the difficult financial conditions, Starting Point has enabled a wide variety of community and voluntary organisations to find their feet by providing them with flexible office arrangements including hot desks and meeting rooms as well as business support delivered through workshops and seminars to improve business planning, budgeting, marketing and finance.

Established by housing association East Thames Group with funding from the London Development Agency, Starting Point is celebrating its second anniversary and its continued success.

According to June Barnes, Chief Executive of East Thames Group, the facility has empowered local groups to improve their community.

“Starting a new social or voluntary group is difficult, and a consultation exercise we did three years ago revealed that affordable accommodation and business support were two of the main barriers to success,” June said.

“We want these types of groups to be sustainable beyond their initial allocation of funding. The Starting Point model is different because it provides intensive support during their start-up phase but also gives them the skills to continue their business and move on.”

It is a model that is clearly having an impact with a number of Starting Point organisations winning awards in the past year. Two social enterprises that have used Starting Point were awarded at this year’s Barking & Dagenham Business Awards. Eiman Munro, whose business Top Careers won in the Best Sole Trader/Micro-Business category, and Izuka Soligbo, whose Drop d Drug project came runner-up in the Community Involvement category.

The assistance is also leading to a diverse range of community initiatives being offered in Barking, which is improving the community and providing opportunities for residents.

One example is a dance and drama organisation called Fantazia, run by Afua Mpensah from Havering. Fantazia works with young people in schools and with local job centres to offer confidence boosting workshops for people seeking employment. Afua has been running her organisation from Starting Point since August 2008 and in that time has benefitted from training in business planning and marketing.

“Starting Point has really helped me get Fantazia off the ground. I enjoyed the training and it has given me more confidence, especially in the first few months when it was all new and daunting. The centre also provides me with a base to run my organisation from. It’s simple things like having a permanent address, email, and somewhere to hold meetings that really makes the difference. I love working on Fantazia and seeing how much it has developed,” Afua said.

To find out more about Starting Point, please visit our website.