Posted18.04.18
Bianca Miller-Cole attends Entrepreneurship graduation ceremony
Bianca Miller-Cole, Ambassador for Evolve Housing + Support attended the graduation ceremony of an entrepreneurship course for homeless people on Monday 16 April 2018. She also helped to launch the course as the first guest speaker on Tuesday 20 February 2018, which you can read about here.
The course, which finished yesterday, ran for eight weeks and aims to empower homeless people to create their own businesses and to equip them with the skills to become their own boss. The course was enabled through a grant from Hammerson PLC, administered through Centrale in Croydon. This funding was then used to enable the Work + Learning team to deliver this eight week programme for homeless people who are interested in starting or resuming a business.
During each week of the course, local businesses and entrepreneurs such as Natterbox, Centrale, Sussex Business Innovation Centre, Start Up Croydon and GGT Solutions attended as guest speakers. They taught Evolve residents (known as customers) important business skills such as: branding, networking, social media, presentation skills and how to write a business plan.
During the graduation ceremony, customers presented a one-minute pitch for their business idea, before receiving certificates and laptops from Bianca and our Chief Executive, Jeremy Gray.
Some of the business ideas included restaurants with international cuisine, jewelry, clothing products for disabled people and a counselling practice.
Bianca Miller-Cole said: ‘‘As an ambassador for Evolve, I was delighted to attend the graduation ceremony. I was really impressed by the innovative ideas presented by the Evolve customers and their dedication to putting these plans into action. It has been an honour to be involved in this programme, and I would like to take this opportunity to encourage my fellow entrepreneurs and business owners to get involved with the next season of the entrepreneurship programme.”
If you are a corporate, business owner or entrepreneur based in South London and looking for your next CSR opportunity, please do get in touch, we would love to hear from you.
You can support our vital work as a homelessness charity in London by donating here.
