Since 2006 Startup has given over 500 male and female ex-offenders business advice and mentoring with 105 going on to successfully launch a business.  Businesses started include gardening, personal training, hairdressing, web design and even a Buddy Holly tribute act!  Startup works with a wide range of selected partners to deliver its results.

Startup’s simple but unique approach of offering individually tailored business advice, covering basic start up business costs and mentoring for up to two years has resulted in a reoffending rate of less than 5%, versus the 65% national average.

So far, Startup has been funded by foundations and private support. This grant enables Startup to expand its operations; we hope it will also persuade the new government to back a major expansion of the men’s programme, which saves £9 of taxpayer’s money for every £1 invested.

Juliet Hope, CEO of Start Up, added “It’s wonderful that the Big Lottery understands the value of the work that we are doing and is supporting the Startupnow for Women project so generously “

The Big Lottery Fund distributes half of the National Lottery good cause funding across the UK.  The Fund aims to enable others to make real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need.

For Further information please contact: Juliet Hope: 07918680011 or jhope@startupnow.org.uk

Mari was thrilled to accept an award from Support Action Net on the 5th November 2008, when her work developing Startup’s mentoring network was particularly commended.

The SupportActionNet Awards – recognising outstanding support services for vulnerable people that enhance quality of life by generating optimism, achievement, hope, freedom and fun – attracted 117 entries from around the UK. Practitioners and a panel of expert judges voted for the best entries online. Winners were announced at the SupportActionNet Conference on 5 November in London.

Southdown Housing Association won the overall award and £5,000 for their punk band Heavy Load where two of the five musicians are service users with learning disabilities. The band started a ‘stay-up-late’ campaign to challenge the practice where a lot of service users have a 9pm curfew due to inflexible staff rotas, meaning people with learning disabilities were missing out on a full social life and not able to enjoy gigs, meet their friends, or go to the theatre.

Startuponline was a runner-up for the Awards winning £2,000.  Judges commented:

• “A very good service for those who want to take the step to achieving their own and having their own.”
• “An innovative and excellent approach to challenging and helping prisoners to have, and achieve, higher aspirations. I am particularly impressed by the mentoring angle.”
• “A great opportunity, would be so keen to see this extended to other Prisons so that more ex-offenders had the opportunity to realise true employment opportunities on release. WELL DONE”
• “Gives prisoners a reason to go straight and take their futures seriously.”

SupportActionNet Project Director Gerard Lemos says, “We were delighted by the scope and ambition of this year’s entries; it’s extremely heartening to hear about so many examples of such good work with a focus on fulfilling the social and emotional aspirations of vulnerable people.”

Today it is with great pleasure that we launch our new website (www.startupnow.org.uk) and accompanying branding which we hope will aid our efforts to allow more ex-offenders to become self-employed. This marks the start of an important phase at Startup as we aim to expand to more locations throughout the UK so that we can help even more ex-offenders.

We are keen to hear your opinions of our new website, so why not contact us on our new email address info@startupnow.org.uk and let us know what you think.

The Startup team

Click the image to enlarge.

Click the image to enlarge.

A presentation of new business ideas and plans, produced by ex-offenders, was presented to a panel of judges on 20th April in London. Following the judges’ discussions the Reliance Secure Task Management Limited Entrepreneurship Prize was awarded to one of the 11 contenders.

This was a “Dragon’s Den” style competition with ex-offenders vying for funds to start their own businesses. The successful applicants receive equipment and advice to start their own business. Past competitions have been held and the results speak for themselves with an almost zero re-offender rate from the winners of funding.

The Reliance prize was in support of Startup, the business enterprise charity that works with prisoners and ex-offenders to help them establish their own means of employment.

Juliet Hope, Chief Executive, Startup, commented: “The quality of proposals at the Entrepreneurship Day at HMP Wandsworth was of a very high order. We saw a variety of business proposals created by ex-offenders, which showed imagination and entrepreneurial flair.”

Brian Kingham, Chairman of Reliance, who was one of the judges and presented the Reliance Prize, said:

“I am delighted to present this prize in support of the excellent creative work of Startup. The entrepreneurship and commitment of the ex-offenders we have seen here today is truly remarkable and a great tribute to the people involved. It also highlights the huge success of Startup and the innovative work of the Prison Service Education Department. Reliance is committed to playing its part in helping to reduce the incidence of re-offending and in encouraging ex-offenders in their efforts to successfully re-establish themselves in the community.”

END

Notes for Editors:

The difficulties for ex-offenders and their families in finding jobs following a prison sentence are well known and starting a small business is a constructive response to such difficulties.

Startup, which was established two years ago, provides small amounts of capital and mentoring, to enable ex-offenders to work for themselves. Since its inception it has been involved with 200 prisoners, formally advised 120 of them and helped establish more than 40 businesses.

Only one of the people behind those new ventures has re-offended during the period, a figure strikingly below the national statistics which reveal that two thirds of ex-offenders re-commit offenses within two years of leaving prison.

Reliance Security Group

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