Part 2: Why lockdown inspired me to set up a Social Enterprise
Did you know 30-40% of neurodiverse people are unemployed in the UK?
Why did it take me 2 years to begin trading with my CiC?
It took me a couple of years to understand what I wanted to achieve with the organisation and to get my head around its governance, build our board of Directors, and understand what I had to offer the cultural sector I had been part of for almost two decades. What I realised was that I could offer support in these areas:
Accessible training
One-to-one mentoring
Co-research projects
Public Engagement Projects
Bespoke design services
Consultation Services
Something has to change
I also realised that my neurodiversity added another layer of value to the people that I work with. In my previous piece, ‘I am Dyslexic: Do I belong on Substack?’ I share my diagnosis journey, I should also mention that we have been down the rabbit hole of diagnosis with my youngest child, who is now 16. Thinking about my own career path and my son’s employment opportunities, I started to do some research to find out about neurodiversity and the cultural sector. Here are some statistics that confirm my suspicions:
The UK’s national average unemployment rate is 4.4%, so as you can imagine, these statistics gave me a new perspective when I looked at my career path. But as a parent, they made me very concerned for my son’s future. My son got diagnosed as neurodiverse in 2023, and as a family, we embarked on a 2-year journey just to get the diagnosis. I will expand on that at another time, though.
Drive and ambition fuelled by purpose
The combination of these statistics and my lived experience brought my purpose as a Director into focus. My purpose was to understand the impact we could have as an organisation if we supported young people like my son. I wanted to think about ways of delivering support to young people between the ages of 14-25 to help them to build confidence, understand how to emotionally regulate, gain access to the cultural sector, gain work experience in a safe space, create a safe community for them to be part of, fund new creative work by our neurodiverse young people
Some of our further aims that I am exploring are:
Support for parents
Signposting to other trusted organisations
Advocating for our young people
Education around Access to Work Support
Creating meaningful career progression opportunities
Work with ND graduates from local Universities
Developing a retail brand to sell our participants’ work and help them make an income
Employ some of our young people as designers
My Hope for the Future
My hope is that through a combination of my lived experience and social values Creative Heritage Studios CiC will be able to give hard-to-reach and marginalised groups a space to excel. Neurodiverse creatives have so much to offer, and my aim is that Creative Heritage Studios will shine a light on the exceptional talents within this community.
My next written pieces will explore the ways in which we as an organisation do this through public engagement projects such as ‘Tyne-Derwent Way in a Box’ and our luxury design service ‘Antiques of the Future’.
Make sure you subscribe so that you don’t miss these, and please feel free to let me know if there is anything else you would like me to write about. If there is anything you would like me to explain in more detail or if you would like me to take a deep dive into one particular area, please feel free to get in touch.
Corinne
✨ Hi! I’m Corinne. I run Creative Heritage Studios CIC where we help artists and creatives thrive without compromising their values. We explore the intersection of culture and commerce, create opportunities for neurodiverse creatives, and champion sustainable, impactful projects. If you’d like to support our work or collaborate, learn more here.