In summer 2008 I set up Solar Learning Services as a Community Interest Company based in Newcastle upon Tyne. Solar Learning’s social mission is to deliver education programmes for children and young people and use informal education in schools and communities to, as we say, “Turn your passion into pounds”.

We want to make young people’s futures brighter and we want our company to be successful whilst making a difference and changing lives.

The wake of the 2008 financial crisis was a difficult time for any business to set up, and it was no exception for us.  However as we come to the end of our third year, it feels like the company is at a tipping point in terms of growth and potential.

In particular we have been developing an Urban & Hip Hop Games concept which has really captured people’s imagination and this is driving ambition for this idea.

In the past few months people have talked to me about being a social entrepreneur which is something I am just coming to terms with as a label! How I got to what I do now has been an accumulation of a lot of things through my life - experiences, personal and professional ambitions, social consciousness and economic reality….so whilst I am ok with the label it doesn’t really tell the whole story!

I left school at 16 with probably 2 meaningful qualifications -  a CSE level 1 in geography and English O’ Level. My first job at 18 was as an RAF Policeman guarding nuclear weapons! I went on to a period of unemployment, labouring jobs and other work that didn’t use the intelligence I wasted at school.

In my late 20s with a young family, I decided to study for a degree in Sociology at Newcastle Poly. This led me into social education work with young people.  It was my passion for music that eventually gave me the confidence to do this - I taught myself to play an instrument and that showed me that if I applied and committed to something,  I could do anything and I wanted to share that knowledge.  If I could, anyone could.

Working in youth work and with homeless young people, I eventually got myself into a position where I was using my passion and energies for the charities I worked for, managing them and directing the work they did. I gained a considerable amount of experience as a former CEO of the charity The Keyfund and as National Programmes Director for the youth education foundation Changemakers.

I started out at The Keyfund as the first employee with no computer, and did the accounts on a hand written ledger.  I think I developed a lot of enterprising and entrepreneurial skills during that time, and developed a business approach.

In seven years our turnover grew from less than 40k to in excess of 400k and we worked with a lot of young people (10k + per year). Though I left Keyfund it’s still going strong now. This taught me I can make a success of things for myself and can start out with very little and make something solid and innovative.  It taught me to be enterprising and entrepreneurial I guess?

When I went through a big change in my personal life, (a divorce), I decided the time had come to do something with social meaning, to make a change in my community and for me, and to set up the CIC as a way of being enterprising in a social way and make a living at the same time!

In the period following setting up Solar Learning it required a considerable amount of time, resources and personal investment to establish the infrastructure and programmes needed to enable the CIC to be ready to deliver services for clients and commissioners.  

Things really started to take off in 2009 when we secured a three year grant from Legacy Trust UK, Arts Council England and NE GENERATION to deliver a youth led programme as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad called The Urban Games & Hip Hop project.

During late 2010, Solar Learning was awarded a London 2012 Inspire Mark for the Urban Games & Hip Hop project, making it an official part of London 2012 Cultural Olympiad family and we held the first annual Urban & Hip Hop Games at The Sage Gateshead.  It attracted around 200 young people competing, performing, volunteering and participating with around 300 spectators attending the event. Overall in 2010 we worked with over 1000 children and young people and were contracted for work by 3 local councils.

At the start of 2011 the company was able to set up a brand new initiative, called The Youth Enterprise Hub, which aims to support youth led enterprises in the city and will establish a Youth Entrepreneurs Forum.

Our plans in 2011 include hosting the second annual Urban & Hip Hop Games - we want to make this an event that attracts lots of top quality competition, showcase lots of local talent and attracts lots of spectators. This year it’s being held in Whitley Bay in August and it’s linked to the International Kite Festival and supported by both Newcastle and North Tyneside councils.  We also have started getting requests for work outside the region.

We will be hosting another Urban Games in 2012 in Newcastle in the run up to London 2012, but we want to make sure it has a life beyond next year, and we want to make it an event that grows enough to be an annual fixture on the region’s calendar, with the possibility of holding similar events in other parts of the country and why not internationally? We want this to have a commercial element, as well as attract corporate sponsors.

As Solar Learning approaches the end of its third year of operation, we have moved into offices at the Westmorland Business Centre near the Discovery Museum.  They have worked with over 1000 young people in 2010, are supporting around 5 new youth led businesses since setting up the enterprise hub, and now have a core team of 5 people, with further part-time staff delivering specific workshops, training and projects when needed.

It’s these small steps and indeed triumphs that may not seem much on the outside, but when you are trying to build an enterprise, social or otherwise, they mean a lot personally and help to drive you in the will to succeed. As I have been through the steps to becoming a social entrepreneur (as I now understand myself to be) its noticeable the absence of a peer group to draw upon for guidance and support.

I know there are lots enterprising and entrepreneurial people in the business world, and that’s a world that is new to me in many ways, so meeting people or hearing from them would definitely help me a lot.

Working in the field of young people’s education or with charities, as I do, it’s definitely less common to find a peer group to sit down with to share triumphs and challenges! Especially when it you know few have been doing what they do with their own cash, something that definitely focuses the mind!