POSITIVE BUSINESS
Business against Poverty member profile:
Inspire Away
Business against Poverty( BaP) is a local community of business people who care about the issues of poverty and ethical standards. They are taking action through their charity People against Poverty, based in Trowbridge. Each edition of TBE we profile one of their members to find out more about them. This edition we meet Sharon Firth of Inspire Away.
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Inspire Away specialises in training and developing staff through interactive courses, workshops and away days. Business owner, Sharon also runs a church with her husband in Melksham, who recently raised funds for the BaP Tractor Appeal.
What motivates you? The longer I’ m in this business, the more I realise that it’ s helping people that motivate me more than anything else. I am a facilitator – which literally means‘ someone who makes things easier’ and that’ s what I love to do if I can. I get the biggest buzz from hearing that people have succeeded
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in doing something they couldn’ t do before because they’ ve been to one of my workshops or I’ ve worked with them in their organisation
What is your business philosophy?
I want my business to make a difference to my clients – to make them more effective by developing individuals and teams. I try to support charities and non-profits by offering one free place on all my open workshops – please contact me to take me up on this offer.
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Who do you admire the most?
As a facilitator, I’ m privileged to be involved with many organisations and I know there is a demand for acquiring exceptional employees. There is a huge trend for talented people to be looking at much more than the salary on offer when they are deciding which business to join. They are increasingly looking at organisations and wanting to see their CSR( corporate social responsibility). What is the organisation doing for the less fortunate? How is it putting something back into the community? Are there
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initiatives that employees can get involved in? Business against Poverty can help organisations to demonstrate that they are doing something tangible and worthwhile to alleviate poverty around the world. In addition, Business against Poverty is a great community of people to network and do business with.
If you are interested in donating to the Business against Poverty Tractor Appeal visit:
www. mydonate. bt. com / fundraisers / peopleagainstpoverty1
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SUPPORT WILTSHIRE AIR AMBULANCE’ S NEW AIRBASE
Businesses from across the county have pledged their support for Wiltshire Air Ambulance’ s major fundraising appeal for its new airbase at Semington, near Melksham, by joining The 100 Club.
Each business who joins The 100 Club pledges to raise £ 10,000 for the Airbase Appeal. The appeal is raising the remaining £ 1.25 million towards completing the building and equipping of the new airbase.
The founding members of The 100 Club are Kingstons Estate Agents, Hartham Park, Excalibur, Coombe Castle and Goughs Solicitors.
Among the new 100 Club members is The Consortium, the education and care company based in Trowbridge.
Cathryn Petchey, HR Director at The Consortium, said:“ We have been fundraising for Wiltshire Air Ambulance for several years – it’ s a very popular charity with our staff. We love supporting the charity because everyone
For more info: www. wiltshireairbaseappeal. co. uk / support-our-appeal / 100club / realises that they, or their loved ones, could need the services of Wiltshire Air Ambulance at any time.”
Baroness Jane Scott, leader of Wiltshire Council, urged businesses to get on board when she spoke at the launch of The 100 Club at Hartham Park, Corsham on March 10.
She said:“ The 100 Club campaign is a fantastic opportunity for businesses to not only support such a valuable community service as the air ambulance, but also help raise their own profile and give their own business a boost. Your support will be directly helping save peoples’ lives and we really can’ t put a price on that.”
Cheryl Johnson, Head of Wiltshire Air Ambulance’ s Airbase Appeal, said:“ By joining The 100 Club, businesses will be playing a big part in helping us to create a legacy for Wiltshire, with a custom-built airbase that will enable us to save lives for many years to come.”
100club @ wiltshireairambulance. co. uk
Mental health at work
Mental health difficulties are on the increase; the official figure is that 1 in 3 of us will have a problem at some stage and we all know that stress and anxiety related issues are becoming more common for all age groups. In Wiltshire there are over 60,000 people registered as having common mental health disorders, but not all cases are reported.
There is still a stigma attached to mental ill-health and many people are unwilling to talk about it openly – particularly in the workplace where there may be a fear of being labelled a failure or being seen as weak in some way. Wiltshire Mind often receive calls from people experiencing mental health issues who are struggling to continue at work. Mental ill health is an unseen condition which can affect everything we do, our lives, relationships and of course ability to work.
Wiltshire Mind is a very local charity, based in Melksham which provides support to anyone experiencing mental health issues in the county. They provide six Support Groups in( Melksham, Trowbridge, Chippenham, Malmesbury, Devizes and Salisbury), two groups for Carers of those with mental health issues in Chippenham and Devizes( in association with Carers Support Wiltshire) and a Men’ s Support Group. In addition to the above groups they provide 1-1 Counselling in both Melksham and Trowbridge and a Polish Counselling Service too.
Wiltshire Mind also want to help local businesses. They offer Mental Health
Awareness Training which can be tailored to the needs of the business. £ 26bn is lost to the British economy due to time off work / sick and loss of output.
The charity is urging businesses to make contact with them if you need help or if there is an opportunity to provide Mental Health Awareness Training to your business.
Wiltshire Mind is not funded by National Mind or supported by any statutory authorities, raising their own funds to survive. This is very difficult and they are appealing for support from both businesses and individuals. There are a number of ways you could support Wiltshire Mind’ s work including:
• Visit their boutique style charity shop in Church St, Melksham – lots of bargains to be had.
• Provide Corporate Support
• Fundraise – marathons, dress down Friday, cakes sales etc
• Purchase their Mental Health Awareness Training( all income goes directly to support services)
• Volunteer your time and skills
For more info: www. wiltshiremind. co. uk
01225 706532 office @ wiltshiremind. co. uk
32 THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2017