Careful What You Wish For

Now the pressure's on. That saying 'Be careful what you wish for because it might come true' is constantly in my mind. Clean Slate has, to an extent, being playing the long game, and just maybe it's going to come off. But all at once.

There's still only a core team of three - soon to be three and a half, courtesy of the Bath Abbey money. But last Thursday a commission was confirmed for us to start a schools outreach programme, employing, training and supporting an ex-homeless person as a public speaker to up to 5,000 15 and 16 year olds. And Friday, a call came in from a key employer confirming their Board's approval to help us create 10 paid work placements for our Temp Workers across their business. The heat is on.

So, the idea remains to place so-called unemployable people into paid work with mainstream employers. We act as a temp agency. We match unemployed people, based on their interests, strengths and job goals, with the placements available. But unlike Reed and Manpower, we act as an extra pair of hands overseeing the placement, supporting supervisors through hiccups that may inevitably come up and providing training and development opportunities behind the scene. Of course, there's a mark up between the workers pay and the charge we make per hour but that won't be money for nothing. The premium will be well-earned but there's no doubt we're asking employers to take a leap of faith.

When I worked at The Big Issue, we found most new readers of the magazine bought it originally out of support both for the vendor and the organisation. Even my own mother said: 'But once you look inside, it's actually quite good, isn't it!' The hope is that Clean Slate will open doors the same way.

When we say 'mainstream employers', a lot of our contacts breathe a sigh of relief thinking we mean 'private sector'. But it's the public and third sector we're looking to first - they're still employers. (Public sector bodies are often the largest in local areas.) So we've had an in principle 'yes' from one local authority, a housing association and a local faith-based organisation. Between them pledging 14 placements. Now we have to convert these pledges to action.
I'm imagining each of those placements bringing their own challenges but with Clean Slate in the background each individual gets two managers. Sounds intensive but when people have been set adrift with only the Job Centre for support and guidance, there's potentially a whole lot of work to be done before workers feel trusted and trusting, confident and competent. And that will apply to many of our customers too, when it comes to getting the best out of workless people.

In theory, if each placement enjoys the full support of two managers and two organisations, and if the Temp Worker can find the wherewithal to make all that support work for them, the hourly rate will be justified in spades. Our small team should find itself complemented by the efforts of our workforce of Temp Workers - some 40-50 strong. And added to by the staff teams at each of our customers workplaces. So, rather than feel daunted by the opportunities, we should soon be able to feel less like a unit of three and a half and more like a team of dozens.

The X Factor

I didn't expect to end the week feeling like Simon Cowell. After all, on Monday I had very little in the diary and was focussed on covering Carole, Clean Slate's Ops Director, getting our 3rd birthday plans underway and keeping an eye on the shop, so to speak.

By Monday afternoon, however, I was in discussions about how I could be the face of financial inclusion to promote Quids in!, our money management magazine for people on low incomes. We want to build on its 140,000 sales to develop new products to help people look after their dough and fend off approaches from loan sharks and high interest lenders. There are campaigns to be run, events to put together and a Quids in! Members Club on Facebook to get going. I even got myself on Twitter. Twice. One for each hat. (@ontheslate and @yourquids in, if you're interested.)

It sounds very earnest but it's starting to be fun. The challenge is making these worthy and frankly middle-class intentions of any interest to people at the wrong end of 'less well off'. It's no mean feat pulling off a genuinely tabloid magazine, especially when it's sold to managers in the public and third sectors. We tie ourselves in knots ticking the boxes of political correctness while keeping things earthy. The near naked bodies on our healthy saver postcards raised a few eyebrows too.

Tuesday I went through a contract with one of Clean Slate's workless Temp Workers, Ugo, who we're helping to become a professional artist. I ran through how we'd front the investment to pay for materials and his time, how we'd represent him to retailers and customers, and handle the in and outs of the enterprise while he grows it to a point where he can go it alone if he wants to. I realised we were talking about a kind of record deal. Right down to the haggling over how much of the split of profits goes to the artist or the investor.

It wasn't part of the week's plan but it was one of those opportunities that social enterprises can make happen when various things line up. I'd been catching up with Bath Abbey on progress since they'd raised the £20k for us, (now approaching £25k), when I casually asked if we should approach Ugo about producing some canvasses of the Abbey for sale to the congregation. That's a win win win: progress, employment through enterprise, and ongoing income to Ugo and Clean Slate.

By great chance, the variation on a screen print process that Ugo uses means he can reproduce the artworks and produce them to scale. And they look phenomenal. Last week, Clean Slate directors had an away day and we said our role was not to find workless people jobs but to match them to the right jobs. We're so on the right lines with Ugo. And with our new venture, Clean Slate TalentShop.

So, the canvasses hit shops next Tuesday. Well, they'll be on display and on sale at Bath Abbey (and via our website, if I can get the technology working). And then we'll wait and see if Ugo and Clean Slate prove we have the X Factor.

Praise Indeed!

The good people of Bath Abbey raised £20,000 for Clean Slate on Easter Sunday. I received a call on the Thursday before Easter to ask if I could link what we do to the Christian message and it didn't take long. Being 'Clean Slate', and all. So, I wrote down a few lines about putting the sins of the past behind and new beginnings, and handed over to the Rector. I didn't think any more of it until I got the phone call to say not only how much had been pledged but that it had been done in 90 seconds. What an endorsement.

Something chimed with the congregation louder than just the neat link between the Easter theme and how we give people the opportunity to put their past behind them and prove their worth through honest work.

Whatever our beliefs, we're not immune or removed from the world around us. A sense of impoverishment descended on us with the so-called 'Credit Crunch' way before hardship hit most people, except those affected by redundancies in the first wave. Now we know it's going to get harder, it's like waiting for the bomb to drop - only we know who it's going to hit first. What Clean Slate did was give people in Bath an opportunity to help us build the first air raid shelter. I won't glibly suggest there's something of the spirit of the blitz about it but there was an outpouring of goodwill that gave us an adrenaline boost like nothing else could. We have to channel that now to show we can provide the means for individuals to overcome unemployment and poverty.

We acted quickly: We've found an office and a coordinator to get us started part-time. We have three employers in Bath pledging us 14 placements of paid work for our Temp Workers there. And last week we uncovered the opportunity to pilot a project we've wanted to do since before we even started trading: Clean Slate TalentShop.

I'll come back to TalentShop but I wanted to place a marker against this support in pockets of our community. We're all affected by the recession and many of those lucky enough to have more protection against the ill effects have empathy towards those who do not.

Clean Slate's job is to galvanise this support and turn it into opportunity. We can also utilise it to strengthen our voice when it comes to where public spending gets cut. We have to ensure the will of the public, and their belief in second chances and the power of individuals to help themselves, is reflected in Government policy.