A helping hand at grass roots level

Jan 28 2008 by Peter McCusker, The Journal

A cabinet in the office of Kate Welch, OBE, buckles under the weight of awards, from North-East Woman Social Entrepreneur to one of the UK’s 20 most outstanding entrepreneurs. The honours recognise the achievements of the social entrepreneur after she established the Acumen Community Enterprise Development Trust five years ago. Peter McCusker reports.

AT a free broth and stotty event in Horden organised by Kate Welch’s Acumen an ex-miner, who hasn’t worked for almost 15 years, says: “Well I do miss getting out with the lads. I haven’t got much money to go out drinking these days.”

Welch responds: “Have you thought about going back to work?”

Ex-miner: “There are no jobs for the like of me.”

Six months later Joseph is now back in employment in a call centre after undergoing intensive training sessions under the auspice of Welch’s social enterprise business.

In nearby Haswell Welch proudly states: “Even the naughty lads are going to see our adviser Alyson Upton. They say ‘There’s the girl who can get you a job’.”

You couldn’t get much more grass roots than handing out free broth and stotties for ex-miners or hosting a leeks and chrysanthemums event.

Other quirky initiatives from Welch’s team have included and “I’m in Haswell get me out of here” and “Chicks who fix.”

By taking her education, enterprise and learning message into the grass roots Welch has propelled it into the consciousness of east Durham.

She now has plans to take forward her entrepreneurial regeneration agenda across the region – and then the country.

She says: “Our goal has always been to encourage people to start their own business or to move back into the working environment. Our watchwords are learning, employment and enterprise.

“People Acumen now has offices in Bishop Auckland, Chester-le-Street and a third will soon open in Stanley. We have been doing a great deal of work in Wansbeck and are in talks to take the service into Newcastle. We are also looking at expanding into Yorkshire and the North-West.”

Now putting in a 60-hour week, chief executive Kate has never shirked graft and even quit her physics degree after two years of study at Sheffield University to help out in the family business.

Born in Cambridge, her family moved to County Durham when she was 10. Her father John Maddison was a pioneer in the horticultural world after starting one of the region’s first garden centres in Lambton Park, Chester-le-Street.

Welch, who became deputy managing director, immediately got her hands dirty helping out in all aspects of the business and the shoots of her future career were planted when she developed a forte for training and a community engagement.

By the time the business was bought out Welch was deputy managing director and had gained qualifications and awards for her work including undertaking a small business programme at Durham Business School.

She was a director of the British section of the International Garden Centre Association and a director of the Local Agricultural Training Board.

Welch says: “After we sold the garden centre I decided I wanted to change direction. I had reached a junction where I now believed I could make a difference. I loved the training aspects of the job. I thoroughly enjoyed that sort of work.”

Her first appointment after leaving the garden centre in 1993 was a centre manager for Community Industry in South Tyneside.

Between 1995 and 2000 she was adult training manager for County Durham Training and Enterprise Council and between 2000 and 2005 Welch was operations manager at Jobcentre Plus.

While working in Easington with its high levels of individual economic inactivity through high unemployment and high levels of incapacity benefit claimants saw the seeds planted which developed into Acumen.

“That is where I began to understand how I could help people. I saw how people could respond if given the right encouragement.

“The Easington Action Team was very successful. We really started to see some major improvements although I was unable to do a lot of things I wanted to do because of the constraints of working in the public sector, such as not being able to access external funding.

“That is why I wanted to start this business. I really wanted to put something back into the community.”

Those values of community involvement and helping others are evident in the way Welch spends her leisure time.

She has been involved in the Methodist Church and Girl Guiding from a very early age and these two passions are still close to her heart.

After a 13-hour day Welch will often find herself on the telephone organising volunteers in her role as a Guiding development commissioner. As well as spending valuable time with her family at the weekends – husband David, Judith, 22 and Stephen, 21 – she will also be involved in church activities including playing the guitar at services.

With so much dynamism and enthusiasm for whatever she does it is little surprise to learn the Welch was head girl at Deanery (now Park View Comprehensive) in Chester-le-Street.

In Welch’s company you sense that if she puts her mind to something she will do all in her power to achieve it.

With an engaging smile – and a self-awareness to ensure what she communicates is hitting its target – you also sense that as she achieves her goals the path to those achievements will have been walked with much enjoyment and laughter.

Between 1993 and 2005 Welch honed her skills in the training field and by the end of this spell this training bent had metamorphosed into a desire for a more hands-on role job creation combined with grassroots community and individual regeneration.

Welch established Acumen in 2003 with the aim of encouraging an entrepreneurial spirit among people in disadvantaged areas. It now has 80 employees.

Welch, explains: “Acumen works in areas of disadvantage in a bid to help people to start their own businesses or find a way back into work.

“We have now reached a turnover or £3.5m with 90% of this generated from contracts secured by Acumen.

“The business now works on both the supply and demand side. On the demand side we have established People Acumen which is in effect a recruitment agency for the type of people a normal recruitment agency may not be prepared to take on. On the supply side we help prepare people for a return to work through education and learning.”

In its time it has helped 5,000 people into work and, or, training and its efforts in Horden and Easington Colliery has prompted 150 people in these two former pit villages to start their own business.

Much of the work involves working intensively one to one – sometimes teaching basic skills such as reading or writing.

Acumen engages the community through a number of initiatives such as Aim Higher, designed to help raise aspirations, build self-confidence and raise goals. A team of business coaches offer a full range of business support and guidance.

Welch says: “What we aim to do is to give people the self-confidence to believe they can make a difference to their own lives and in doing so make a difference to the community in which they live.”

“We have successfully engaged with families who have has spent years living on state benefits. Often the hardest part is getting one member of a family to get a job. Once you’ve cracked that first nut the rest will often follow.

“It’s the same in some streets where people may not have worked since the mines closed. They see their neighbours with a new car and its get them thinking. We are here to empower people, to help them achieve their full potential.”

Welch’s drive and motivations come from her life experience, and while her values are rooted in a Christian ethos she contends: “I am a Christian but this is not a Christian business.

Her passion for the regeneration of the North-East saw Welch accepted on to the board of One NorthEast in 2006 after applying to join and sailing through the interviews.

She continues: “My faith plays a part and I am able to put my faith into action. I see things I think need doing. There is certainly an element of wanting to do things for people.

“I am strategist I can see the big picture and I can see how things work and I am able to make things happen. I could run a private sector business but there is more to being a social entrepreneur. But we are not a charitable organisation. We are a business.

“We are right in the community. We are making a difference and we are helping people to make a difference to their lives.

“People are learning to take charge of their own lives. We are taking risks. We are not complacent and we are trying different things.”

Her talents have been recognised by a number of awards. She was named the North-East Woman Social Entrepreneur for 2007 and was later recognised as one of the UK’s 20 most outstanding entrepreneurs in the 2007 Essence of the Entrepreneur competition run by BT Business.

She adds: “Getting awards is lovely . Some have my name on, for example the OBE, but on the whole they are for my staff and the people we have worked with.”

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Education

1976-78 studied Physics, Sheffield University

1991 Small Business Programme Durham Business School

1998 Common Purpose graduate

2004 MA in Social Policy, University of York

Employment

2005-present Chief Executive, Acumen Community Enterprise Development Trust

2000-2005 Operations Manager, Jobcentre Plus

1995-2000 Adult Training Manager, County Durham Training and Enterprise Council

1993-1995 Centre Manager, Community Industry South Tyneside

1978-1993 Lambton Park Garden Centre, Deputy Managing Director

Other

1987 Director International Garden Centre Association (British Group)

1989 National Training Award

1990 Large Gold Medal Gateshead Garden Festival

1991 Director of the Local Agricultural Training Board

1991 Chair of the North East Horticultural Trades Association

2006 One North East Board member

2006 Winner of Enterprising North East England for work in Horden and Easington Colliery

2006 Learning and Skills Council Working in the Community Award

2007 North East Woman Social Entrepreneur of the Year

2007 BT Essence of the Entrepreneur

2008 Awarded the OBE

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The questionnaire

BMW 5 series estate (S registration). It used to belong to my brother but he couldn’t take it to Goa when he moved there to live and run his business. Biggest advantage is that I can fit the equipment for a whole Guide camp in the back!

What’s your favourite restaurant?

The Glass house in Ambleside where my son is at university.

Who or what makes you laugh?

Lots of things like the News Quiz and ‘I’m sorry I haven’t a Clue’ but I still love the Laughing Policeman song.

What’s your favourite book?

I am a voracious reader so I am always finding new favourites. I’m enjoying AC Grayling’s The Heart of Things at present.

What’s your favourite film?

I hardly ever watch films but I’ve always read the book.

What was the last album you bought?

All Around My Hat – Steeleye Span 1976. I’m a lost cause here, too.

What’s your ideal job, other than your current one?

Training Guide leaders across the world.

If you had a talking parrot, what’s the first thing you’d teach it to say?

“I’m Bloomin’ Marvellous” It’s the name of our community transformation project out of which grew our nursery and landscaping social enterprise. How great do you feel if you start each day telling yourself you’re marvellous. That self-belief has helped hundreds of people back to work.

What’s your greatest fear?

The scary rides at theme parks.

What’s the best piece of business advice you have ever received?

Create a clear vision of what you want to achieve and the rest will follow.

Worst business advice?

We’ve always done it like that and it works so don’t change it.

What’s your poison?

I’m not a great drinker but I tried Cloudberry Liqueur in Sweden and was amazed at its flavour.

What newspaper do you read, other than The Journal?

The Independent.

How much was your first pay packet and what was it for?

A Saturday job at Doggarts in Chester-le-Street in 1974. I think it was about £2.50 but I can’t remember exactly.

How do you keep fit?

Walking, leading campfires with the Guides, gardening.

What’s your most irritating habit?

Getting so excited I jump in before the other person has finished talking.

What’s your biggest extravagance?

Books.

Which historical or fictional character do you most identify with/admire?

Thomas Stephenson, the founder of NCH, a man of faith who saw need in his community and did something about it in a professional manner.

And which four famous people would you most like to dine with?

Stephen Fry, Paul Merton, Sandi Toksvig, Humphrey Lyttelton.

How would you like to be remembered?

As helping as many people as possible take control of their own lives.