Social enterprises are helping to transform the lives of some of the most impoverished and vulnerable people in society. This happens in a whole range of ways from helping young people find employment in the local community to furniture exchanges that provide basic household goods to needy families or paint recycling centres that redecorate the homes of elderly people.

Building Futures East works in some of the North East’s most deprived areas such as Newcastle’s East End. It aims for community regeneration by providing flexible, fully supported training to some of the most disadvantaged members of society with a view to securing suitable employment. It’s a tough call against the backdrop of some of the highest unemployment figures in the UK - 8.4 per cent of the region’s workforce is out of work, compared to the national average of 6.3 per cent – but at the core of the organisation’s values is a strong work ethic.

“We want to maximise the social impact and ensure that local people have a stake, not through benefits but by economic activity,” says Anthony Woods-Waters, chief executive of Building Futures East (BFE) and winner of the 2008 Voluntary Sector Entrepreneur of the Year award.

To achieve this BFE, whose stakeholders hail from a range of key regional sectors, including education and business, has had to forge strong links with local employers and be in a position to offer them industry-accredited candidates for jobs.

“We don’t want local employers to take second best from us out of a sense of corporate responsibility,” says Woods-Waters. “We want to respond to their needs and make ensure our trainees start on an equal platform.”

One area of success has been in environmental maintenance, where young people are trained through the NVQ process. This project is run as a social enterprise – once fully trained, the young people find employment on commercial contracts which in turn subsidises a charitable service to the elderly and infirm.

“It’s positive in terms of community cohesion and promotes inter-generational understanding,” says Woods-Waters. “It also promotes a fierce pride and feel-good factor around areas where people live and we see improvements in the likes of anti-social behaviour, littering and graffiti problems.”

He adds that the environmental maintenance programme has had a direct impact in allowing elderly people to stay on in their homes rather than have to go into care because they could no longer cope with their gardens.

Paul Butter, aged 17, is at the cutting edge of the programme and reflects on his experience: “I’m from the East End of the city myself and I feel able to put something good back into my community by working on old people’s gardens. I really enjoy my job and hope this will help me into full-time employment in the future.”

Other BFE youth employment mentoring schemes offer young people who struggled at school a place on a Square One vocational training programme. These are hands-on from day one and offer a wage and a sense of empowerment for young men and women. They cover different fields, from construction and warehousing to administration and health and social care, for example. Training times vary from six months to two years, depending on the candidate, but at the end 30 per cent go straight into employment and 45 per cent choose further education.

“Not only do they learn to succeed but they learn to excel, to maximise their personal potential,” says Woods-Waters.

Only about 11 per cent fall off the tracks, but BFE tries to secure support for them through its many partners.

BFE is in its third year of delivery now and the challenges remain huge working with such diverse sectors in the region and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

“We’re able to grow because we share our values with the employers we work with and have a proactive governing board,” says Woods-Waters.

He adds: “It’s a challenge that we relish, and seeing the positive impact that it has on families and individuals gives our passionate staff a boost every day.”

www.buildingfutureseast.org