NAME OF ORGANISATION: Jericho Foundation
LOCATION: Birmingham
YEAR FOUNDED: 1993
ABOUT: Jericho is a Birmingham-based charity that offers paid supported employment and work placements to young adults facing employment barriers.
INVESTMENT PURPOSE: The investment from the West Midlands SITR Fund will enable one of Jericho’s social enterprises, The ReUsers, to expand, providing working capital for taking on more staff, updating their sales systems and increasing retail space by 25%.
INVESTMENT AMOUNT: £100,000
DATE OF INVESTMENT: August 2018
SOURCE OF INVESTMENT: West Midlands SITR Fund
IMPACT: Poverty & Disadvantage; Work & Employment
ABOUT: Jericho is a Birmingham-based charity built on Christian values. Jericho offers paid supported employment, work placements, training programmes and apprenticeships to young adults facing employment barriers. This might come in the form of disabilities, mental health difficulties, experience of homelessness, addiction, modern slavery or having left the criminal justice system. These supported opportunities help young vulnerable adults to gain confidence, experience and employability; in fact, 70% of people who have completed supported apprenticeship programmes with Jericho have gone on to work in further positive employment scenarios. Over its lifetime so far Jericho has directly aided more than 8,000 people in helping them to gain fulfilment, skills and employment.
PURPOSE OF INVESTMENT: The investment from the West Midlands SITR Fund will enable one of Jericho’s social enterprises, The ReUsers, to expand. The ReUsers restore and sell second-hand items such as antiques, furniture and electronics instore and online. The investment will provide working capital for taking on more staff in their retail spaces, updating their sales systems and increasing retail space by 25%. This will facilitate additions to their product lines which will increase income that will go back into helping their employees. The addition of the extra space will also mean that there is more space for second-hand products, therefore increasing the amount of sustainable sales and purchases, reducing waste. The ReUsers already prevent around 250 tonnes of waste entering landfill every year.
Richard Beard, CEO of Jericho Foundation: “The investment from the Resonance Fund will increase our footprint at ReUsers by 25%. This means we should be able to grow the business and build on the fact that we have so far saved 650 tonnes of unwanted items going to landfill and supported 70 people with apprenticeships or voluntary positions – this simply would not be possible without SITR… It represents a significant growth in our impact and it’s great to work with an investor that is so aligned with our social mission.”
Resonance Limited is a company registered in England and Wales no. 04418625
Resonance Impact Investment Limited, a subsidiary of Resonance Limited, is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Firm number 588462.
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