FERRING COUNTRY CENTRE - good business practice for work training charity

The Ferring Country Centre is a registered charity that helps over 600 children and adults with a range of disabilities through a combination of work training and therapy, which includes horticulture, cookery and horse riding.

Centre General Manager Lynda Vowles had been working with business development manager Nick Rodgers from the University of Brighton to develop a funding strategy for the organisation. He introduced Lynda to a Profitnet group which had been set up specifically for charity and social enterprises.

Lynda felt this group was particularly appealing because most of the members’ experiences were very close to her own. “I knew I could speak completely confidentially to these people and they weren’t going to run off and tell everyone what I was experiencing” she said. “We were all the same in that regard – feeling quite isolated as we struggled with certain issues, and thinking it was just us!”

Coming from a commercial background, Lynda was concerned to make the centre as sustainable as possible. “Even though we are a charity - if the money doesn’t come in, it can’t go out” she says. The business has a commercial garden centre which sells plants and vegetables. Everything is grown from seed and the centre’s work experience clients handle the propagating, planting and growing of stock. “For this reason we can’t be too precise about our productivity, but we are as business-like as we can be” says Lynda.

Lynda feels that she has developed and honed her personal skillset through Profitnet. “At every single meeting I felt I developed a new skill to take away with me and apply back at the centre” she said. “One of my fundamental beliefs is that a successful business must have a strong vision that is shared by all – and whether you work for a charity, social enterprise or commercial company it is imperative that you have that vision".

“Most of the members of my group were fortunate to be in a position where we could introduce change. I believe Profitnet made us focus on our businesses and helped us to create that vision which hopefully we pass on to other employees and trustees - this in turn will make us all successful.”

Meanwhile, the centre has developed multi-faceted links with the University of Brighton. Nick has been helping Lynda to write a strategic plan and clearly prioritise potential funding streams.

“One of the strategic aims is to change the focus of the centre from a day centre which sells plants, to a garden centre which employs people with disabilities” says Nick. In order to do this, several operational challenges need to be addressed. One of the first is in developing retail systems and processes which will maximise income from the garden centre, taking into account the needs of the client group. Dr Gulden Uchyigit at the university will be leading a Knowledge Transfer Partnership in which a graduate ‘associate’ will work at the centre for two years to investigate and implement IT infrastructure, which will help the client work force to interact more efficiently with their garden centre customers.

A further collaboration is also underway between the centre and Dr Elizabeth Manzanares from the university, to test an anaerobic digester which will process animal waste, creating methane which can be used generate electricity for the centre. The design is ultimately intended for use in developing countries where many people are involved in small scale farming. Foundations for the digester are currently being dug at the Ferring Country Centre by the community reparations team, and the project is due to commence in autumn 2009 when the unit will be monitored and tested for optimum thermal qualities.