Orange Pip brings £ 1 million business boom
/ MIDDLESBROUGH NEWS
TRAINING PROGRAMME HELPS PRISONERS CHANGE LIVES
Offenders at HMP Wandsworth, HMP Holme House and HMP Kirklevington Grange prisons will help deliver to fellow offenders a“ life-changing” literacy training programme developed by an awardwinning Teesside company.
Middlesbrough-based Sound Training, the North East Small Business of the Year, delivered six weekly hour-long courses to small groups of offenders at HMP Wandsworth, the UK’ s largest prison, along with Teesside institutions, HMP Holme House and HMP Kirklevington.
Such has been the positive impact of the initial courses that plans are now underway to train prison staff and nominated offenders to deliver the Sound Training courses to more offenders within all three HM prisons.
Talks are also underway to introduce the ground-breaking training programme to more
Chemoxy supports Middlesbrough Ladies star
Chemical manufacturer Chemoxy is backing promising young footballer Katie Kinlan – of Middlesbrough Ladies FC – in a move designed to highlight opportunities for women in Teesside.
The Boro-based firm has signed a sponsorship deal to support the 23-year-old midfielder for the 2017-18 season.
Former Middlesbrough College student Katie, who has played for the club in its under-16s and Ladies first team for more than ten years, will now sport Chemoxy’ s logo on her number 10 shirt.
The deal provides funding towards travel to and from matches, training resources, and a tracksuit.
Chemoxy’ s community work extends to participating in the Children Challenging Industry programme – which uses industrial contexts to further children’ s experience of science.
Sound Training’ s founder-director Katy Parkinson at HMP Kirklevington Grange with Nick Banfield( left), the prison’ s head of residential services and safety, and Barry Coppinger, police and crime commissioner for Cleveland.
prisons and organisations working within the criminal justice system across the UK.
Although the pilot programmes were the first time prisons had utilised the Sound Training scheme, it has already been delivered to nearly 40,000 students in more than 600 schools across the UK.
Sound Training, which has recently won public praise from Neil Carmichael, chair of the Government’ s Education Select Committee, boosts literacy levels by teaching participants strategies to develop fluency and readily understand the meanings of words and phrases, whilst boosting confidence and self-belief in those taking part.
An independent evaluation of the delivery to the offenders by think tank LKM reported that Sound Training“ had a considerable, positive impact on reading ability”, with learners increasing their reading age by average of 18 months.
After participating in the Sound Training course, one offender at HMP Holme House said:“ I now find myself breaking down words as I read them and words that I am not familiar with I am working out the definition of without the use of a dictionary.”
PLANS FOR FIVE- STOREY STUDENT FLATS
Plans have been approved for a five storey student accommodation scheme to go ahead in Middlesbrough, scheduled to be ready for the beginning of 2018’ s academic year.
Student accommodation provider Castel Student, the firm behind the scheme, will transform the former Douglas House site under a new brand, Lagom Urban Living.
Plans for the Middlesbrough project include creating community-focussed amenities offering practical solutions for prospective tenants such as addressing the city’ s parking shortage with secure underground parking facilities.
With a focus on community, the scheme also plans to bring social concepts to onsite facilities which will include a laundry room, gym and cinema.
Serving the Teesside Business Community | 57
Orange Pip brings £ 1 million business boom
Middlesbrough’ s Orange Pip Market has led to a town centre“ business boom” worth an estimated £ 1 million to the local economy, according to a new report.
A review of the monthly artisan food market’ s performance in 2016 highlights how 40,000 people were recorded as visiting Baker and Bedford Street across the seven market days from June to November.
Local business owners have also told how Orange Pip has led to a 120 % increase in sales when compared like for like against non-market Saturdays.
Orange Pip Market was launched in May 2016 by Middlesbrough Council with the aim of enhancing the town centre offer, increasing economic activity, developing a sense of community, introducing specialist foods and increasing the cultural offer within the region.
WEB HOSTING OFFER AFTER SOLID START
Solid Blue Liquid, a new Middlesbroughbased website hosting company, celebrated its launch by offering free webhosting to local charities on a first come, first served basis.
The company has launched a free web hosting package aimed at North-East organisations with charitable status.
The deal gives charities one website, up to 100 email addresses and a free site builder to help them put their website together.
Solid Blue Liquid – launched by Nathan Platt, the son of ex-Boro goalkeeper Jim – offers a wide range of web hosting options to suit all needs, from SMEs to web designers and bloggers and from as little as £ 2.50 a month.