You are in: Ventures LYF VENTURES...in brief... Young Ethical Entrepreneurs ![]() Awareness of ethical and fair trade hasn’t yet reached more marginalised communities in the UK. Young people from less affluent backgrounds – those who may also not have the best academic opportunities – often possess natural entrepreneurial talent; but they usually lack the necessary support to find out more about a career in ethical trading. Only a few schools and colleges in the UK are equipped to offer training on ethical enterprise – and they simply don’t have the business contacts and partner producer links that the LYF does. So that is what our YEEG programme is all about – delivering ethical enterprise training and real-time contacts with producer groups – to young people in the UK who wouldn’t normally have the chance to do anything quite as exciting or as life-changing as this! Working with a local community based organisation in West Yorkshire (the Pakistani Youth Forum) and a local authority, we have established a group of young people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds – who would not normally socialise with each other - from some of the poorest areas. The programme’s content is entirely youth-led and links them with youth peers from a producer community in a developing country that the LYF has already worked with. These young people are now learning about the principles of ethical and fair trading, about international development and about a business approach which can benefit entire communities rather than just individual entrepreneurs. The group have set up their own ethical trading enterprise, developed their own product range, been exposed to successful ethical entrepreneurs and are testing the new fair trade enterprise Schools Curriculum materials with the group, created by our friends at the Co-operative College UK. During the last 2 months the group has:
Their next task is to develop their own product – designing, importing, marketing and selling it, in partnership with producer communities in developing country. Ambitious stuff indeed! But their commitment and drive has greatly impressed everyone who has come into contact with them – private businesses, NGOs and community leaders. 1) We need more funding to create more of these groups. You can donate to us by visiting Money 2) Entrepreneurs/ businesses interested in getting involved, we can send you our full ‘Young Ethical Entrepreneur Prospectus and Business Plan’ contact us “Muslim communities in the UK have been slow to become involved in ethical trade. So it was amazing to see a diverse group of young people working together to raise awareness about Fair Trade amongst Huddersfield’s Muslim community. All credit to the Lorna Young Foundation for doing this. I hope they can work with young people elsewhere in the country.” (Chair of Manchester Muslim-Jewish Forum)
Creating the Future of Fair Trade?...The Oromo Coffee Company (OCC) ![]() A great deal of hard work was involved in setting up the company. The LYF worked closely with the Oromo community throughout and secured crucial support from a range of businesses and contributors. This included: importing, Fairtrade certification and quality control (Bolling Coffee), product logo, branding and packaging design (thanks to Asone Design), Company registration, sourcing an office and infrastructure (thanks to Tameside Council). Just months later in May 2009, the OCC were able to launch – at Westminster - their own range of Fairtrade coffee (thanks to James Purnell MP and Brian Keegan of 360 Group). The launch was attended by Tadesse Meskela (featured in the film ‘Black Gold’ and General Manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Union) and Lorna Young’s parents. Crucial to the OCC’s success has been in-kind support from these partners. It has been by no means easy to balance the capacity building needs of the Oromo community with the expectations of ‘speed and customer demands’ that even the ethical trading world is used to. And the challenge was doubled by the need to find a group of volunteers who not only had high levels of business skills, but who were committed to the practical skill-sharing and facilitating real empowerment for the Oromo community. But we have been fortunate to have received support from a band of excellent local volunteers and supporters. Their commitment and dedication is greatly appreciated. The unusual ‘triple whammy’ of the initiative (Fairtrade price PLUS UK skills building and social profits for local people, forging cohesion between christian and muslim groups in an area at 'risk of extremism') PLUS the extremely high quality of the coffee has led to the OCC being inundated with demand. The OCC brand is now available in a number of retail outlets and many approaches from ethically minded community groups, churches and faith groups who see the value in the initiative are being made. The company has also just secured its first corporate contract. The company is now growing and has an increasing number of Oromo residents receiving training and support in running their business and selling this ‘high end’, high quality filter coffee from Ethiopia – the birthplace of coffee. Please contact us at the LYF if you have any questions in relation to the OCC initiative, or, if you would like to buy Oromo coffee itself, contact the OCC. www.oromocoffee.org “The LYF is forging an innovative new path in this vital sector bringing together local communities from around the world. They help deliver for the producers as well as forging strong community links here in the UK and are raising the expectations and aspirations of all involved. I fully support their work and wish them all the best in the future”. (James Purnell MP/former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) Ethiopia and Kenya – Creating African Peer Partners to support Smallholder Coffee Farmers We have now initiated a project, partnering Ambo College with Nyeri Technical Training Institute (Kenya) to transfer the knowledge and experience of Ambo College (Ethiopia) on working with smallholders - to the NTTI – so that the NTTI can engage with and train smallholder coffee co-operatives locally in supply chain management. This is all about developing the capacity of African institutions to support each other to assist with smallholder business education. There is also a specific emphasis on the inclusion of women within decision making. As with all LYF projects, we are working to provided added value to our project - so that the direct focus on supporting coffee growers to access regional and global markets is bolstered by getting African institutions to share their own skills and to create stronger educational support, available locally, for their own farmers. ![]() | ||
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