Our fund plants seeds... and they grow into more cash

Confident: Jamelia Zukaitiene on her stall
10 April 2012

It is 10.30am at Spitalfields Market and knitwear designer Jamilia Zukaitiene is already attracting passing trade.

"You have chosen my signature items," she tells a customer whose eye is caught by a deep-turquoise woven silk top, reduced from £300 to £85, and a British vintage mohair scarf for £35. "Every item is homemade, you can feel its soul," she said.

Ms Zukaitiene, 43, who describes
herself as "a passionate knitter", is making "almost £2,000 a month" since the launch of her Jamilia Designs label in September. But the most extraordinary aspect of her fledgling success is that not long ago, she was sleeping rough on a park bench in Hampstead Heath.

It was only because of an extraordinary course to help homeless people start their own business - run by a charity called the Aspire Foundation and funded by a £9,691 grant from the Dispossessed Fund - that Ms Zukaitiene got back on her feet. She was referred by Camden council, which had found her a place to live, and was one of 27 homeless people who attended Aspire's 12-week course last summer.

Paul Funnell, who runs the programme, calls her "a woman transformed". "She arrived a broken person but now she is flying," he said. "She had great feedback from a fashion guru we got to mentor her and from several big fashion shows and now, thanks to the Dispossessed, she's taking off."

The Dispossessed Fund has raised £7.2 million and given grants of £1.7 million to 400 community groups since it was launched 18 months ago with the aim of transforming the lives of London's most disadvantaged.

This year The Dispossessed won
several prizes, including campaign of the year at the British Press Awards, and it has been the subject of a display at the Museum of London, as well as a book, Calling London, which tells the story of the campaign.

But one of the great hidden benefits of a Dispossessed grant, recipients say, is the enormous knock-on effect, which in some cases dwarfs the original grant. Aspire's £9,691 Dispossessed grant has brought it an additional £170,000 from other groups they say they would not otherwise have got. Other Dispossessed Fund recipients have similar experiences.

The Choir With No Name has raised 20 times its grant as a result of exposure through the Dispossessed, and mentoring group Potential won direct support from our Dispossessed sponsor, Saracens rugby club, whose defence and forwards coach Paul Gustard has adopted it as his "charity of choice".

"Without the Dispossessed we would be out of business," said Mr Funnell. "Your grant and the story you published about us created an awful lot of interest in our concept of taking motivated, creative homeless people and giving them the skills and support to start their own business.

"Since then we've been inundated with requests: housing associations have asked us to run courses for their tenants, and we are fully booked until April with courses for homeless people, ex-gang members and ex-offenders.

"Your grant has been a massive boon and leveraged another £170,000 for us, enough to pay for 20 training courses and help 500 disadvantaged people start their own business. It has also brought us benefits in kind, with Barclays sending 40 of their staff to provide one-to-one mentoring support for our trainees to develop business plans."

For Ms Zukaitiene, the Dispossessed-funded course has been a "life-saver". She said: "I had hit rock bottom. After my divorce, I came to London and was trying to study and make a living as a cleaner, but it wasn't a thought-out move and I fell on bad times.

"I had no savings, no place to live, no prospects - I felt so weary, like I was 200 years old. For four months, I slept rough in Hampstead Heath and on friends' sofas while I applied for hundreds of jobs and got nothing. I had reached breaking point.

"But my support worker at
Camden council had seen my knitting - I was always knitting, I had been doing it since my mother taught me to make my own clothes as a
10-year-old. My support worker saw how happy it made me and liked my designs and so he referred me to the Aspire 'start your own business' course."

Mr Funnell said the smiling, confident Jamilia of today was unrecognisable from the "withdrawn, apologetic mouse" who started the course in May and spent most of the time, head down, knitting: "Jamilia was not one of the stars and I did not have high hopes. She was very broken down. But after about eight sessions, things clicked into place and she took off."

Mr Funnell says that of the 27 homeless people who took the course in the summer, 17 are still energetically pursuing their business plans and "three or four might actually turn their ideas into a living". "In this hard-to-reach category, that is regarded as a very good success rate."

Ms Zukaitiene is determined to be one of them. "I call Paul my godfather," she said. "This course has given me contacts in the trade, confidence in myself, expertise in how to run a business, and turned my life around. This is my time. I am going to make it. I am going to make you all proud."

How our fund has helped

Choir with No Name
(Dispossessed grant £4,650)

Who are they? This homeless choir meet once a week in King's Cross where they sing together and share a hot meal.

What's new? Founder Marie Benton said: "We got £50,000 from Comic Relief and £60,000 from City Bridge Trust as a direct result of the Dispossessed coverage. Our choir has almost doubled to 55 regular members and we are set to launch a second London choir in April. We have two major gigs in December: playing to a sold-out audience of 850 people (tickets £10 each) at Union Chapel, Islington, on the 13th, and the Stand Up and Rock gig at Hammersmith Apollo on the 20th, in aid of Crisis, with Paul Weller, Tim Minchin and Jo Brand. The Dispossessed launched us."

Potential (£5,000)

Who are they? This Croydon group was founded by Les Persaud after the murder of his son Stefan. Mr Persaud was worried his son's friends would perpetuate the violence, so he mentored them. Now they go to primary schools to teach children how to manage conflict.

What's new? Mr Persaud said: "Paul Gustard, defence and forwards coach of Saracens rugby club, ran the Brighton Midnight Half Marathon for us and raised £4,000. He will be joining us as a role model. The Dispossessed has raised our profile beyond what we could have dreamed." Mr Gustard said: "I'm doing this because I believe in Les, in Potential, and the Dispossessed. His bravery inspires me."

The Place2Be (£9,933)

Who are they? Co-founded by Benita Refson in the Nineties, they provide counselling for vulnerable children in 80 of London's most impoverished schools.

What's new? Ms Refson said: "A gentleman picked up the Standard and was so moved by the article you wrote that he sent us a donation. Recently he came again, this time with £25,000! We are indebted to the Standard and completely thrilled with the long-term reach of the Dispossessed."

See the full list of groups we have funded at:www.dispossessedfundcommunityfoundations.org.uk/assets/ESDFGrantsAwarded.pdf

Buy this £10 Christmas gift and support the Dispossessed Fund

Calling London
When the Evening Standard set out to publish a series on poverty in London, we did not realise how dark a shadow it would uncover.

The response from readers was unprecedented, and those articles led to a campaign which led to the Dispossessed Fund. Young and old sent pocket money and pensions, celebrities and corporations pledged huge sums, which the Government matched. Originally aiming for £1 million, the fund stands at £7.2 million.

This is the story of how a city embraced its shadow, and how ordinary people transformed the lives of neighbours they had never met.

Calling London, £10 (+£2.50p&p) can be ordered at standard.co.uk/booksdirect or over the phone on 0843 060 0030. Also available as an ebook from amazon.co.uk. All proceeds go to the Dispossessed Fund.

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