Midlands Together CIC
Bond
Social enterprise offering employment opportunities to ex-offenders
A five-year bond offering an annual fixed return of 4% secured against the company’s assets – including its freehold property portfolio.
Midlands Together is the roll-out of the award winning social enterprise Bristol Together (Social Enterprise Awards 2012). Bristol Together, founded and managed by Paul Harrod, has now been fully trading for 18 months, buying and renovating 7 properties and employing around 35 ex-offenders in the process - only one of whom is known to have re-offended.
Summary
Midlands Together will operate a commercially sustainable business model buying empty and sub-standard homes in the West Midlands and working with local social enterprise partners to engage ex-offenders in their refurbishment. Once the properties are fully restored they are then sold and the original capital, plus any profits, re-invested back into the business to finance further job creation. Through this model, ex-offenders gain self-confidence and the construction skills and experience required to secure ongoing employment in the sector.
This investment will not only have a transformative effect on the lives of ex-offenders, it will also restore communities and significantly reduce costs in the local criminal justice system. In addition it will bring over 70 empty, sub-standard properties back into good use at a time of housing stock shortages and lack of construction work.
Social Impact
Preparing for a life free of crime is a huge challenge for many repeat offenders. Offenders often leave prison with no permanent address, a history of substance abuse, broken relationships, literacy challenges, a criminal record and limited employment histories. The combination of these factors can provide a huge barrier to re-entering society and sourcing employment, typically leaving individuals with very low self-esteem. Consequentially, a staggering 58.2% of short-sentenced offenders re-offend within 12 months of being released at an estimated annual cost of £9.5 - £13 billion to the UK economy.
The Midlands Together programme will be modeled after its successful sister company Bristol Togeher. The Bristol Together programme, established in 2011 has proved that supported paid work, skills training and tailored mentoring can provide many ex-offenders with a pathway to meaningful ongoing employment, helping to break this cycle of re-offending and, in so doing, transforming their lives. The results appear conclusive, with only 1 of the 35 workers employed by Bristol Together over the last 18 months, having proceeded to re-offend.
Financials
* Notes:
SharedImpact is able to reduce the minimum amount for this investment down to retail levels by aggregating the support of our account-holders.
By investing via SharedImpact, returns are made to your SharedImpact account, from which they can be deployed to further charitable causes, but not returned to you personally.
