FLATLANDS' (PROVISIONAL) BUSINESS PLAN
1 - Introduction
1.1 BUSINESS NAME
Flatlands has been working in east Leeds for three years as a community arts group. The name “Flatlands” has become well known, locally and even nationally, until it is now our “brand” name. We will therefore trade and operate as:
Flatlands
Followed by a logo, as yet to be decided, but something like:
… the centre for culture, media and the arts in east Leeds …
… fostering community, enterprise and the arts in east Leeds …
1.2 THE FLATLANDS CENTRE?
The old rent office, Cromwell Street, Lincoln Green, Leeds 9. Flatlands has put in a bid to rent this building from Leeds East Homes. It is integral to everything we plan to do, consequently everything in this Business Plan is dependent upon getting it. The building is flexible, with a large hall (approx 30 x 15m) which is suitable for meetings, courses, lessons, crèches, exhibitions, rehearsals, performances, youth clubs, indoor sports, you name it. There are five small offices, as well as a kitchen and toilet facilities. There is access for the disabled. Running costs are low.
1.3 BACKGROUND TO THE FLATLANDS PROJECT
Flatlands began in 2003 when local writer Bernard Hare – author of Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew – was commissioned to run a creative writing class in Lincoln Green. Only three or four people turned up, which hardly seemed to justify running the group. But when we asked around we found that, although writers were scarce, there were poets, singers, musicians, DJs, painters, graffiti artists, digital artists, photographers, dancers, knitters, sewers, chess players and artists of all descriptions hidden away in every corner of the estate. We decided to scrap the creative writing class and to start a community arts group instead.
Our first project, the "Flatlands" book and CD, was chosen as it gave the maximum number of people the chance to contribute – writers, poets, artists and musicians.
The book was launched at a gala event hosted by Thomas Danby College. 150 people attended the evening, which featured poets Leeds Young Authors, Ushawant Kaur and Tina Love, musicians Simon Reed and David Liversidge and African drumming and dance from Soul 2 Feet.
“We're proud to have hosted this event and hope it will be the first of many,” said the college’s PR manager, Claire Spencer. "It has brought new people from the local community into our building and that can only be good for the college.”
Leeds Young Authors coach Khadijah Ibrahim said: “We share the Flatlands mission to support and encourage art and performance in the inner city. With the talent that exists here, there is no reason why Leeds should not be putting itself forward as the European City of Culture."
Today, Flatlands has published writers, artists and musicians, who are enterprising, confident and assertive, who are aware of the commercial possibilities of their art and who have turned their lives around. We have support from local businesses keen to develop links with the community and we hope to be self-financing within three years.
If we get the building, we can thank Leeds East Homes by creating a thriving centre, which will be a resource for the local community, a place to meet, a place to learn and grow, as well as being a home for artists of all descriptions and to many other community groups and social enterprises.
1.4 ORGANISATIONAL DETAILS
We are still researching our constitution and how to set up the business, but it is becoming clear that Flatlands will be set up as a social enterprise.
A Social Enterprise is a business with primarily social objectives. Surpluses are reinvested in the business or in the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profits. There is no single model. They include companies limited by guarantee, industrial and provident societies, registered charities, and those limited by shares.
Enterprising as opposed to being grant-led, they aim to be sustainable. Social Enterprises have a distinct role to play in helping to create a strong, viable, sustainable and socially inclusive economy.
2 – Community Involvement
COMMUNITY-LED
One of the things that makes Flatlands unique is the fact that we are a community-led group. We started at the bottom and worked our way up. The Flatlands idea came from a bunch of people sitting around chatting in the community flat. The impetus for the project was therefore generated on the estate, not handed down to us from on high.
COMMUNITY-BASED
Based in Lincoln Green and focused locally, we also see ourselves as being part of a wider community: city-wide, county-wide, nationwide and worldwide. Flatlands has no barriers. There may be other providers in the area, but people will walk through the doors of Flatlands because we grew here and we belong here. We hope to be accessible by being much less formal than statutory organisations and much more understanding of the difficulties faced by people living on the rougher side of the tracks. We want people to use the centre and they will only do that if we are democratic and involve the local community in the running of the place.
COMMUNITY-CENTRED
In early-2006, Lincoln Green and surrounding areas looked like nothing but a giant building site, with the new school going up and additions to St James’s Hospital under way. In the planning process for all this, many of us argued that we ought to be given a community centre for the area to compensate us for all the cement and asbestos dust that we would be breathing. We didn’t get it, but this building represents a chance for us to make one of our own. There are lots of small community groups in area which are kind of “homeless.” Flatlands would like nothing better than for these groups to see the centre as their home.
COMMUNITY REGENERATION
We want the Flatlands Centre to be more than just an arts centre, more than just a community centre, it must become a community regeneration centre. Leeds is thriving at the moment, but some areas are being left behind. We see employment, enterprise, education and training as the best ways to escape the poverty trap.
We intend to:
- Be a feeder to other education establishments e.g. Thomas Danby College, Swarthmore, etc
- Be brokers between training providers, business and social enterprise
- Be mentors – with the aim of taking the user to the next step, whether that be further education, employment, delivery of arts/media projects, or business start up
COMMUNITY COHESION
Burmantofts is developing into a vibrant, multi-cultural community and yet there are tensions between different groups. As people new to the UK come in, many of the older inhabitants feel left out or neglected. One of Flatlands’ goals is to build bridges between people from different backgrounds by expressing universal values through art.
Together For Peace has expressed an interest in helping us towards this goal. At a time of renewed challenges for all those pursuing peace, Together for Peace is a Leeds-wide movement of people and (100+) organisations committed to grappling with peace, justice and conflict issues in their city and beyond.
COMMUNITY NETWORKING
We are shameless networkers. Together For Peace is only one of the many organisations we already have links with. Many of these groups, like us, seem determined to do their little bit to change the world, by making a positive impact wherever they are able.
Flatlands has already developed strong partnerships with Thomas Danby College, Swarthmore Education Centre, BBC Leeds, Education Leeds, Vera Media, People in Action, East Leeds Health For All, Leeds Young Authors, Leeds Chess Club, the Recycling Seagulls, East Leeds Family Learning Centre, Leeds Ahead and Business in the Community, to name but a few, and we continue to see ourselves as being part of a large network of organisations and providers whose aim is to regenerate the inner-city. These links can only help to make the Flatlands venture a success.
COMMUNITY EDUCATION
Martin Corey is a qualified school teacher who has specialised in working with children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. He worked for ten years at Fairfax Community School in Bradford. More recently, he spent five years working in Lincoln Green for East Leeds Health for All and has a good knowledge of the area. He currently works for People In Action (Leeds) as their Connexions co-ordinator and teaches one day a week at Swarthmore, delivering basic skills to excluded school students.
“My basic belief is that anybody can learn once they are given a taste of success. In my teaching career, I was able to raise achievement levels simply by setting tasks, which were achievable. Once the students started to believe they were good at something, they became good at it.”
COMMUNITY ARTS
Local writer Bernie Hare comes originally from East End Park, but now lives in Burmantofts. His shocking memoir Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew has received critical acclaim. The book is about homeless children living rough on the streets of Leeds. Before becoming a writer, he worked as a social worker, mechanic, fleet manager and removal man. He is keen to foster writing all the arts from macramé to computer graphics. “I believe that the arts help people to cope with the stress of modern life. If you don't express yourself, you go mad.” Broadly, our aims are:
- to raise the profile of the arts in east Leeds
- to engage local people in the arts, particularly those designated by the statutory sector as “hard to reach” - those who are socially isolated or excluded, but who nevertheless pursue their chosen art form “behind closed doors”
- to use the arts as a tool to help regenerate our run down area
- to promote exit strategies: to encourage people to take their interest in the arts further, through training, enterprise or continuing education
COMMUNITY ENTERPRISE
Maria Fernandes currently works for Business in the Community - a unique movement of more than 700 UK companies committed to improving their positive impact on society. She is also on the board of the Asian Business Development Network. Her skills will be vital if Flatlands is to become a sustainable self-financing project.
ARE WE A COMMUNITY GROUP?
Very much so.
3 – Short-term Goals
3.1 PROJECTS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH OTHER AGENCIES
Swarthmore Education Centre
Martin has been working in partnership with Swarthmore on a roll-on roll-off basic skills course for refugees and asylum seekers and also on alternative programmes for excluded school children. Swarthmore are keen to extend their basic skills provision and will fund tutors to deliver classes at the Flatlands site.
People In Action
Martin works with People In Action as a Connexions Co-ordinator and also worked on their volunteering programme for refugees and asylum seekers. People In Action are keen to provide educational placements for people with learning disabilities and provide volunteers with experience of working in this field.
Education Leeds
One of Flatlands’ early successes was to gain £30,000 of funding to run a flagship residential project for excluded young people on the island of Raasay. The young people involved were to live and work with a multi-ethnic group of artists (including Leeds Young Authors and Kurdish musicians) to produce a body of work themed around the Highland Clearances.
BBC Community Radio and Internet Project
Flatlands has been working with the BBC’s all_2gether_now project at the Compton Road library. The BBC were also partners in the Raasay project. They also worked with us on producing two radio programmes for Radio Leeds and an audio art installation – “Hidden Places” – which was set up in the St Mary’s Church Centre.
Thomas Danby College
We need to add something here – from the website followed by a piece on the support and their offering to meet us with an interest in working alongside Swarthmore to support our educational programme.
Vera Media
The group are currently working with Vera Media to develop our own short film whilst building knowledge in this area. The project team is a mix of Flatlands core team and young people from the area. Vera media hope to maintain the relationship and develop future projects. Again, working with Flatlands as a feeder.
Leeds Ahead
Key relationship to Flatlands is business community support. Leeds Ahead are not only keen to help Flatlands source equipment but more importantly to find key mentoring partners for Bernard Hare and Maria Fernandes. A business mentor is being sought from the finance sector.
3.2 PROJECTS WITH FUNDING ALREADY IN PLACE
Martin’s Bookshop and Paper Recycling Social Enterprise
Martin has funding to set up a community bookshop. The idea is to gather surplus books from shops and publishers, etc, to sell, lend or lease the good ones and to pulp the rest. Longer term, this could lead to a kind of paper mash arts workshop. It was not uncommon for furniture, picture frames, etc, to be made from paper mash in Victorian times. This could lead to 2 or 3 jobs for local young people.
Film project with Vera Media
Lots of training opportunities here in the film/video media. We have decided to postpone this until we know if we have got the building.
Website project
The Flatlands BBC club already has a good deal of space on the BBC’s web pages. Further to this, we have already set up a website of our own at:
www. flatlands.org.uk
We hope to develop this site until it is seen as an indispensable local resource; and also as a place where local groups can advertise themselves by putting up their own website. Local IT firm Blueclaw are on hand to give us expert advice and training when we need it.
Chess Club
Leeds Chess Club were founded in 1834 and are very proud of their history and tradition. Many people who are new to the UK also come from chess playing nations. Chess is a universal language spoken everywhere and Leeds Chess Club aims to foster and promote the game at all levels. Boards and clocks will be available at the centre throughout the day for a small hire charge. Other mind sports, Scrabble, Backgammon, Bridge, even Bingo, etc, will also be encouraged at the centre.
3.3 SESSIONS WHICH CAN BEGIN STRAIGHT AWAY
- Hiring out to local groups (volunteer caretaker in place)
- Rehearsal space for theatre groups, aerobics, martial arts, bands, etc.
- Seagulls paint recycling outpost (volunteer in place)
- Swarthmore basic skills classes and ESOL (teacher and funding in place)
- Arts-based drop in (volunteer in place)
- Creative writing classes
- Book exchange
- Film Project
- Coffee bar
4 – Medium-term Goals
Sessions that require further negotiation / funding
- IT from Thomas Danby or Swarthmore (equipment needed)
- Web design from Blueclaw
- Dave’s mobile recording studio (equipment needed)
- Bernie’s Van Hire social enterprise (funding needed) . The idea is to buy a community van. The idea is to work with young offenders, possibly “twockers”, who are banned long-term or excluded from driving due to poverty or low expectations, and to get them driving legally, and maybe set them up in a business of their own. Meanwhile, the van will be available to the community for a thousand odd jobs. Vans make money and this may be a way to finance other activities.
- Connexions access point (need to look into requirements)
- Jerry Appleyard hopes to set up a group for disabled actors (funding and partners needed)
5 – Long-term Goals
- Flatlands publishing. Layout, design and printing for community newsletters etc. Publishing work by local writers and artists
- Salaries for full time workers
- Mixing/DJ/radio project in partnership with local radio station
- Flatlands e-marketplace
- Further work with Vera Media
6 – Finance
We need to get some figures down for our first year at least, but I don’t feel qualified to do this. basic costs are:
2280.00 - Rates
1000.00 - Alarm rental
500.00 - Electricit
211.20 - Security Keyholding
200.00 - Security callouts
200.00 - Water
3600.00 - Repairs to building
This is about the best I can do for now. We really need a yes or a no before we can do much else.
