Flying High: Profile of Dove Workshop

Date: 30.03.2011

As leading Neath-based social enterprise Dove Workshop launches its new 60-seater cafe, joint coordinator Lesley Smith tells how steady growth has lead to great success.

About: Dove Workshop UK: A Social enterprise offering childcare, catering and courses and more
Where: Neath, South Wales
Turnover: £140,000 a year (92% from trading)

Responding to the needs of the local community has always been a priority for Dove Workshop UK. It all began in the mid-eighties as the mining industry began to slow down in South Wales. Realising that the future looked tough, a group of women from the Miners' Support Group in the Dulais Valley set up Dove (then know as View Ltd) to support people seeking education, training and advice on business start-ups.

Childcare was provided on-site for learners, and transport offered, to ensure that everyone had a good chance of developing themselves.

The nursery, along with a small scale catering service and a publishing business, served as training grounds and offered real life job experience opportunities, alongside a range of courses. The services also brought in some cash to help keep things ticking over.

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Expansion needed
“By 2002 things were really taking off,” says Lesley Smith (pictured), joint coordinator at Dove, “the day nursery was employing four members of staff and had over sixty children on the register. We managed to bring in Objective 1 European Funding and Welsh Assembly Government CFAP funding, which paid for us to extend the nursery and add a small café.”

Add in some business support from the WDA and Coalfields Regeneration Trust, and within a year Dove was employing six members of staff in the self-sustaining nursery, and three in the café – which started to support itself financially two years later.

Since then, Dove and the cafe have grown exponentially. Every year, about 10,000 people use the centre in a variety of ways and the cafe caters for a vast number of meetings and conferences.

Keeping it steady
Slowly but surely has most certainly been the right approach for Dove, believes Lesley, who came to do a taster programme at the centre in 1989 and never left. “It’s really important to test new ideas and services and quietly build up confidence. We’ve always had public money to pilot projects, and we don’t want to waste that,” she says.

But, while funding has often been used to pilot and set up projects, the team at Dove is very conscious that sustainable business models are put in place so that projects can generate their own income, ensuring longevity.

Tip top staff
Having great staff also helps immensely in building success, and Lesley is proud of what the team achieves. There is a strong focus on training people with potential, she says.

The chef, for example, came to Dove with no management skills and the organisation has supported her to become much more confident in this area.

“It can be a challenge turning someone into a manager, or finding the right people for what you need. But we’ve always tried to bring in locals with potential and supported them through work-based NVQs,” says Lesley.

Dove’s reach becomes even more apparent when you realise that the social enterprise provides funding for employees to take degree courses.

“A current member of staff is doing a part-time humanities degree while working here,” says Lesley. “She’s a very bright young woman and went to university when she was younger but ended up having health problems. We encouraged her to try again and she’s half way through and doing really well.”

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Out-of-the-box experiences
Although, learning experiences here are not just about traditional qualifications. For example, on International Women’s Day earlier this month, Lesley took a group of young women in their early twenties to the Welsh Assembly to meet politicians.

“These are local women who are disengaged and we are trying to build relations with them. On the way to the Assembly some of them were quite negative about the whole thing, but at the end of the visit they seemed upbeat and I think they got something out of it,” she says, warmly.

Lesley’s approach embodies what social enterprise is about. Now in her early fifties, with a Masters in Lifelong Learning, she couldn’t be happier working in the sector. “I’ve done lots of jobs, but when you find something you love, you know it. I really love what I do and I wouldn’t want to compromise myself at this stage of my life. I know Dove had real value,” she enthuses.

The future
At the start of 2011, Dove’s food service - Cafe Sarn Helen - re-launched as a full 60-seater community hub offering homemade meals, chutneys and preserves (using seasonal fruit where possible). Funding came via the Western Valleys Regeneration Area Scheme and Communities Facilities and Activities Programme.

“This is the only cafe in our village of Onllwyn, and it is really well used,” says Lesley. “It’s a beautiful environment to just come for a coffee and a chat and none of the meals costs more than a fiver.”

When in season, salads and vegetables are supplied by Dove’s community garden project which provides volunteering opportunities and outdoor training in horticulture. Any extra veg is sold at the daily market in Neath.

The day nursery is also flourishing. It has now added an after-school club and pick up and drop off service and employs nine members of staff, as well as a number of trainees and people on work placements.

It’s clear that Dove’s ‘slowly but surely’ attitude has brought impressive success across the enterprise. And with Lesley and the team showing no signs of slowing their entrepreneurial spirit further successes will no doubt mean that Dove continues to be one of Wales’s most successful social enterprises for years to come.

http://www.doveworkshopuk.org
Twitter: @doveworkshop