Impact Hub Bradford was recently featured in the Connected Places Catapult magazine as part of a vision for what “inclusive innovation” could be and how the innovation economy can create opportunities and benefits for people and communities from all corners of the country.

Our Chief Creative Officer, Imran Ali contributed to the piece with some thoughts on the approach taken by the Hub here in Bradford…

Bradford’s Impact Hub is a social innovation hub and co-working space with collaboration and co-design at its heart.

To target Bradford’s under-served communities – women, young people and people of colour – Impact Hub Bradford has aligned itself with the city’s economic strategy.

Chief Creative Officer, Imran Ali, summarises the hub’s approach:

”We believe diversity brings better outcomes to all entrepreneurial endeavours, but is absolutely vital to those pursuing social impact.”

So how much impact is the Impact Hub having?

We can point to a number of examples:

“Our two-day programme, The 35, brought together minority leaders from across the city for a series ofworkshops on common challenges. The cohort found mutual support in each other’s journeys, and strategies for building resilience into their work.

“Our 2019 edition of TEDxBradford was a day- long event connected by the theme ‘Radically Social’. Half the contributors were women and over a third were people of colour. This diverse representation helped attract over 300 attendees notably, as the audience could see themselves and their issues represented on stage.”

“Finally, our SUSTAIN programme was a six-month series of masterclasses, workshops and individual coaching for social impact organisations challenged by the impact of COVID-19. SUSTAIN was developed in collaboration with PwC Foundation.”

Ali believes the Impact Hub’s ability to listen has been key to their successes.

“Think of compassion and empathy as core design materials. Use them to create products and services that matter. Inclusivity through co-design will ensure your communities feel ownership and agency over what you’re doing.”

You can find the full article – including inclusive innovation perspectives from leaders in Birmingham and Glasgow, as well as research reports in to place leadership – in the current issue of Connected Places Catapult.

Launch of Local Access Bradford District marks another chapter in Bradford’s ongoing legacy of social innovation

Local Access Bradford District (LABD) has brought together a diverse partnership of social and business leaders to imagine and create a social investment loan fund to support the VCSE sector and improve the lives of people in Bradford. Organisations representing social investment, enterprise support, corporates, social enterprises and local communities – including Impact Hub Bradford CIC, Key Fund, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, University of Bradford, Inspired Neighbourhoods, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Airedale Enterprises and OnTrak – have pooled their talents to create an inclusive and collaborative partnership with the district’s citizens to tackle its biggest challenges and create a culture of social innovation.

In 2019 Access (The Foundation for Social Investment) and Big Society Capital invited twelve cities to submit proposals to their ten-year £33m programme of support for charities and social enterprises. Together, a consortium of Bradford organisations led by Impact Hub Bradford CIC developed a concept and proposal that led to the city’s selection, unlocking £6.6m of funding to build resilience and provoke social innovation. This initiative is now launching as Local Access Bradford District, providing a foundation for social innovation in Bradford in the coming decade.

In April 2019, the consortium published a concept paper on the role of Bradford district as a “lab for social innovation”, followed by a detailed proposal in December of that year. This opened a period of consultation and codesign – extending through 2020 and 2021 – across the district, listening to communities, responding to their needs, and developing a deeply collaborative proposal shaped by the future beneficiaries of the partnership.

Some of the highlights of this codesign process included a series of public Codesigning Social Impact workshops on:

The partnership will be focussing on supporting organisations, which have investable ideas, to move along the pathway to investment with three main interventions…

With a blended investment offer, the partnership has looked to build on Key Fund’s knowledge and expertise of the products that might be needed by the target market of organisations, including:

Ultimately, the partnership’s vision for the programme is that by 2030, Bradford district is…

The Chair of Inspired Neighbourhoods Lucy Mairs said:

“This investment of £6 million in Bradford District will provide a much-needed support to VCSE sector organisations.  This work will significantly contribute towards delivering high impact aligned with City of Culture Bid, Bradford Economic Strategy and Sustainable growth.”

Kamran Rashid, CEO of Impact Hub Bradford, said he is:

“excited to secure this investment and now pass the baton to Inspired Neighbourhoods who will support the partnership to deliver the programme and change lives.”

Anyone interested in finding out more about the programme can contact Local Access Bradford District at:

Notes to Editors

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About Big Society Capital

Big Society Capital exists to improve the lives of people in the UK through social impact investing. We unite ideas, expertise and capital to create investment solutions for the UK’s social challenges, supporting organisations that deliver both positive social impact and sustainable financial returns. So far, we have helped channel £2.2 billion* into investments tackling a wide range of problems such as homelessness, mental ill health and childhood obesity.

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About Access

Access – The Foundation for Social Investment works to make charities and social enterprises in England more financially resilient and self-reliant, so that they can sustain or increase their impact. Access does this by supporting the development of enterprise activity to grow and diversify income, and improving access to the social investment which can help stimulate that enterprise activity.

Access is a ten year spend-down foundation, but the need for this work will continue well beyond that. So the approach of the Foundation is to work through others to create partnerships which can outlive us, test and learn from new approaches, and generate knowledge which improves the work of others seeking the same goals. Set up in 2015, Access was endowed with £60 million by the Government to support more organisations to access social investment. It also runs the Growth Fund, a blended finance programme supporting small scale lending to the sector, on behalf of the National Lottery Community Fund and Big Society Capital. Over the last three years Access has received a further £40m of funds from dormant bank accounts to develop blended finance programmes in six communities around England and support the sector recover from the pandemic.

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Earlier today we hosted the first of four city visits from Business in the Community’s Seeing is Believing programme, immersing business leaders in place-based regeneration.

Amanda Mackenzie (the Chief Executive of BITC) was joined by Alison Rose (Chief Executive of NatWest Group, over breakfast with  business leaders from across the district and some words from our own CEO, Kamran Rashid.

Find out more at… bitc.org.uk/the-princes-seeing-is-believing-programme

Our CEO, Kamran Rashid, is also one of the founding directors of Bradford’s bid to become the UK City of Culture 2025. With news of the bid’s success, we wanted to share his reflections on the journey so far…

Today, here in Coventry, I’m finding myself both humbled and excited by the news of Bradford’s success at winning the contest for City of Culture 2025. 

It really doesn’t seem like three years since our city’s journey began – I’ve seen such confidence, competence, compassion and celebration of my hometown in that time, it’s impossible to see how deeply transformational this process will be for Bradford and indeed how much it has transformed the city’s perception of itself and its potential already.

My own journey began in December 2018 at the Alhambra Theatre, when the city announced its intention to compete for this accolade; almost a year later in September 2019 I spoke at the launch of the bid at Bradford’s Kala Sangam in the morning and later that evening, at the South Bank Arts Centre in London.

My overriding motivation along this journey was my daughter – I wanted the city I was born in to be one which she could be proud of; one in which she could flourish and one where her prospects would exceed mine. I spoke at those launch events about how a City of Culture would be vital for my daughter’s generation and transformational for a city which has been generous to many, yet underserved.

Finding a place for the underserved became an additional motivation; for a city shaped by immigration, we needed to ensure that our bid was deeply inclusive of those overlooked and underserved, both in the past and to ensure its future sustained a new inclusivity, reflective of our diversity.

I joined the board of the 2025 bid in November 2019 with this in mind, bringing my perspectives on inclusion and diversity to gatherings such as the South Asian Business dinner and creating space for the voices of women, people of color and young people in my contributions as a board director; I’m really pleased that our appointments such as Richard Shaw, our CEO, have reflected these perspectives and had a conscious intention to remove barriers and make space for the underrepresented.

In 2020 and 2021, our work continued through the challenges and distresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, but this didn’t slow or diminish our ambitions, or our ability to create space for our district’s voices. It’s important in this moment of celebration and excitement to note the civic duty, belief in Bradford and the sacrifices of many that have led to today’s momentous decision.

I’m more than a little overwhelmed, but thrilled and excited that 2025 will bring the hope that I wanted for my daughter. She’ll have belief in her city as a place which will do well for her and one which she in turn can contribute to herself in future too.

2025 will carry all our hopes and of that I’m proud to have played a part.

As part of the Build Your Business programme, enterprise coach Imran Hussain is developing a series of case studies highlighting the entrepreneurial journeys of a number of startup founders and how the programme is helping them along those journeys. The first of these case studies is Raja Ali, of Sawat Marketing. Imran caught up with him for a brief interview last week.

Tell us your story Raja, what’s a day in the life of your work at Sawat Marketing

Raja starts his day at 7:30 am with a school run and is at his desk by 8:30 starting his working day by responding to emails and also sending out “call emails”  to audit local businesses’ websites, pin-pointing improvements they could make. He then arranges calls for the customers that respond. On a typical day Raja has meetings in the office and over the phone offering services to customers who want a stronger digital presence. In between these meetings Raja is working on his current project list and early afternoons he spends approaching local businesses door to door to offer his services. He does this again after leaving the office for the day too, picking up on work activities again, at home, from the late evening.

R.A leaves the office around 6 pm, again he visits local businesses mainly restaurants and take aways to offer his services. This has had positive results. Sawat marketing are working with five restaurants based in Bradford, Leeds & Wakefield.  After dinner and family time R.A.  starts working on projects from 9pm to around midnight /1 am.

Raja Ali - Sawat Marketing

Your journey as an entrepreneur – the biggest opportunities and challenges; advice could you share with others starting out

Raja is 26 and moved to the UK from Multan, Pakistan seven years ago. He studied computer science at the University of Bradford and has previously worked at Amazon and Bradford Council as a Solution Architect. In starting up Sawat Marketing, Raja decided to pursue his passion in digital marketing and web design.

Raja’s biggest challenges are keeping pace with demand – hence why he has taken on contractors. Raja believes his office on Great Horton Road provides great visibility and though he delayed the launch of his business by 18 months, his advice would be to not overthink things, but to put dreams in to action. Build Your Business can help with that startup phase!

How has Build Your Business helped develop your thinking and practice.

Build Your Business has helped with structure and managing work in a systematic way, mainly with tracking finance and business planning. Additionally, the programme has supported Raja with networking and finding customers – he wishes he knew the information provided by business coaches beforehand as it would have made it easier to business plan and manage finances in a systematic way.

What are your hopes and how you see your business developing – expanding the team, new lines of business 

Raja’s goal is to contribute to more organisations and businesses in Bradford and supporting them to have an online presence. As such, Raja’s been developing his skills in developing mobile applications, anticipating more customers will request this.

Your entrepreneurial influences – whom do you look up to and admire?

Raja is a big follower of Elon Musk but in general finds inspiration in general quotes and speakers he finds on YouTube.

We caught up with our newly appointed Enterprise Coach, Imran Hussain, as part of the Build Your Business programme recently. Imran’s a month into his new role and we wanted to get a sense of his influences and experience, what the programme can offer and what we can look ahead to.

Tell us your story Imran – your journey as an entrepreneur, your influences and the experiences that have brought you to this role.

I’ve always had an entrepreneurial circle of friends and the idea of having a side hustle to expand my income and broaden my horizons has been a big part of my thinking in recent years. Also, in my previous role at Yorkshire Housing I was an employment coach, helping people increase their income by accessing work, education and training. Once I started my own business – Bradford Bouncy Castle Hire – I found this “side hustle” helped me progress from being an employment coach to business enterprise coach.

Build Your business

My entrepreneurial influences are mostly friends, colleagues and people I have direct relationships with, but I do follow figures like YouTuber Ali Abdaal – whom I find to be a good source of inspiration.

What’s a day in the life of an Enterprise Coach and your work as part of the Build Your Business programme.

On a typical day I am…

Whom is Build Your Business for and what kind of support and resources are on offer?

The programme is funded by Bradford Council and delivered by different organisations across the Bradford district. I’ve been tasked with supporting entrepreneurs in the City Centre ward, for which Impact Hub Bradford is responsible. Anyone that wants to startup a business or has done so in the last 12 months is eligible for support from the programme.

Though all areas have great potential, I’m finding that being in the city centre does influence how I approach my coaching role, actually, being based at Impact Hub has led to some coincidences that really make it easy to find connections and opportunities for those I’m coaching. Having organisations like Channel 4 and The Unit closely means I can assure entrepreneurs that the city is growing and opening up new possibilities.

I’m here and available as a source of knowledge, connecting people, pointing out opportunities and applying the best practices of being an entrepreneur to assist local startups.

What’re you aiming to achieve in the coming months with the programme and its impact?

My goal is to support the creation of 25 new businesses in the city centre and adjacent areas, whether they’re completely new or established within the past year.

What are you finding interesting about Bradford as a place for startups and entrepreneurs

The city has its challenges and barriers, but it is full of opportunities and its affordability is a big plus. One thing that struck me at a recent careers fair was how many of the attendees were from a BAME background and first generation immigrants. This tells me that not only are there opportunities here, but also the hustle to take advantage of them. I’m really excited to see what happens!

If you’re interested in the Build Your Business programme and Imran’s work – check out his first case study of a local entrepreneur – Sawat Marketing’s Raja Ali.

Last Friday, the team got to enjoy a demo of Live Cinema‘s “fulldome” immersive experience, thanks to Kate Wellham, a Bradford-based expert in 360º video, virtual reality and livestreaming.
Kate got in touch to see if we might be able to host a demo for the city’s creatives and so we invited our colleagues at The Unit to arrange the visit.

 

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Kate has been working with Live Cinema on a project called Surround Stories, bringing artists into fulldome to make new work, and growing awareness of the fulldome medium.
We got to enjoy a couple of these works over the course of Friday afternoon as Kate and Michaela answered questions about the technology and the kind of stories which can be told with the format.

We recently caught up with Aïcha Bahij – creator of This Is The Home Of Change – to reflect on the wonderful mural she created for our hub. It was a thrill watching her work and so we wanted to hear her perspective on the development of the mural, her inspirations and what she’s working on next.

Tell us about how This Is The Home Of Change came about and what your brief and approach was?

The brief was to celebrate Bradford’s past, present and future, with an emphasis on femininity, in line with the Hub’s mission to support female entrepreneurship and the UN Sustainable Development Goals for Gender Equality and Reducing Inequality.

With any project of this depth, I always start with research. Fortunately, I work at the University of Bradford library, where there’s an abundance of archive material on Bradford’s past – it led me to discover characters I was familiar with and those I was not.

For present day Bradford, I spoke to friends and colleagues about current people and events that were going on in the city that I could include.

What was your process on working on something of this scale?

This was only the second mural I’d worked on. The first was on the walls of the cafe at Cartwright Hall. The theme was inspired by Keats’ The Human Seasons, reminding us of the relationship between humans and nature at a time when we seek to protect our environment.

That experience taught me a lot about scale and how to turn the images I draw on paper, into something immersive where I felt I was inside my artwork. But, as with any piece of artwork, there’s also an element of trial and error: Does this colour work? Nope! Let’s try another!

We saw you were having lots of fun in the Hub working on the mural; tell us a little about some of the others who helped out along the way.

Haha! Yes, I roped in family, friends, and unsuspecting passers-by into helping me colour in the mural! The whole ethos of the Hub is community engagement, bringing people together to inspire and discover, to create something greater than the sum of its parts.

On that note, I would like to thank the following people…

What’ll you be working on next?

The next project I am working on is called Ambiguities (aka 10 paces, bro!). It will be looking at the myriad identities of Muslim women – public perception vs self-perception.

For the public perception, I will be doing interviews with the participants, asking them about their experiences growing up with these multiple identities – the prejudices and expectations they may have, both from outside and within the Muslim community.

For the self-perception, I’ll be painting their portraits to reflect an aspect of themselves that the people might not necessarily expect from Muslim women.

You can find out more about Aïcha at okayaicha.co.uk

Last week saw the launch of The Unit, our new partnership with Keighley Creative, backed by Channel 4 and Bradford Council – to create and access space for content creators and filmmakers in the Bradford district.

The launch saw the Hub host around 70 people, drawn from the Unit’s stakeholder organisations and the wider screen sector in the district and the region. Over some great food from My Lahore and expert MC-ing duties from our CEO Kamran, we enjoyed some brief talks from…

We also introduced The Unit’s team – Banita Bangar, Jordon Scott Kennedy and Jacqui Griffin – and encouraged guests to take a look at the space and equipment we’ve setup for filmmakers and content creators. Our own hosts, Aila and Esha were on hand to capture messages of support which you’ll find on the noticeboard inside The Unit!

You can find our more about The Unit at unitbradford.com, do get in touch with Banita, Jordon and Jacqui if you’d like to find out more. In the meantime, here’s a quick introduction to the programme…

We’re really pleased to be opening applications for the second round of the Social Enterprise Support Fund in just under two weeks time, offering grants between £10k and £100k.

The fund’s aim is to support social entrepreneurs in England to get their social enterprises back on track, and particularly those working with communities that are recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fund’s partners – Big Issue Invest, Key Fund, Resonance, School for Social Entrepreneurs and UnLtd, backed by the National Lottery Community Fund – are working towards a benchmark of more than 50% of grantees across the fund being disabled and / or from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background. They are also particularly encouraging applications from enterprises led by those with direct lived experience of the social issues they are trying to solve.

The final round opens at 1pm on the 28th February and will close for new applications and submissions on Thursday 24th March 2022. We advise you to start your application early so that you have plenty of time to get it just right and access any support that you might need.

Find out more about the criteria and how you can apply – sesupportfund.org.uk