New life cycle

This isn’t your average homeless hostel. It gives people struggling to find a home and employment somewhere to live, but it also offers them training, a sense of community and support as they find their feet. Then, when they’re ready, it offers them a job.

Recycling Lives is a commercial recycling business, a training college and a home for homeless and unemployed people, all under one roof.
And what a smart, shiny roof it is. Purpose-built in red brick, steel and glass, the centre’s appearance reflects Recycling Lives’ ambitions: the centre in Preston, Lancashire, is the blueprint for a further 50 planned across the UK over the next five years.

When you step inside, you discover that, among many other things, Recycling Lives is also a tyre retailer, selling new and second-hand tyres at a price in tune with the local market. Walk through the tyre bay and you find a door that leads to a maze of corridors, offices and classrooms.

Deeper into the labyrinth, on the upper floors, are residential quarters, with 20 en-suite rooms and a living area with a wide-screen TV, games console, games room and gym.

Developing a work ethic

‘Residents look after the cleanliness of the living quarters and the charity office,’ says community manager Edward Archer, who worked previously for Kent-based Church Army Youth Centre and also as a local authority housing officer. ‘It’s the first step,’ he explains.

The second step is social enterprise education, or SEE, as it’s called here. Each resident is offered work experience and training designed to widen their horizons and prepare them to contribute to their community.

‘We provide the motivation, training, qualifications and experience that result in real jobs,’ says Steven Jackson, the organisation’s founder and chair. ‘Residents [like Mick Barrowclough, pictured right] choose to come here and we choose them back. To come here you have to be ready to seriously develop a work ethic. Everyone understands that.’

Financially, it helps that Recycling Lives is not only a social welfare charity but also a commercial recycler. Formerly Preston Recycling Ltd, the commercial arm employs more than 200 people on four sites.

Job success

The Preston centre’s 18 residents are exposed to as many career options as possible, including via access to the recycling business and also to business mentoring. ‘I believe in entrepreneurship,’ says Mr Jackson, who enjoyed considerable success during the dotcom boom and as a property developer, as well as with the family recycling firm.

The aim is for residents to find a full-time, paid job and make plans to leave the centre within six months, although there is no strict time limit on how long they can stay. If they can’t find what they want within the organisation, it has a growing number of partners (currently more than 200) who might place them, ranging from global engineering company BAE Systems and consumer goods giant Proctor & Gamble to smaller, local businesses. So far half of the residents have found full-time, paid jobs.

‘At the end of the day, it’s about what the resident wants. When residents arrive, we draw up a personal development plan with short, medium and long-term goals, looking at their hopes, aspirations and dreams,’ says Mr Archer.

‘It’s up to us to facilitate their development. Sometimes the next step isn’t necessarily within Recycling Lives, but they can always come back for a chat.’

Financial backing

So far, so good - but the progress of Recycling Lives hangs in the balance. The £4 million pilot received £750,000 from the now defunct Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Hostels Capital Improvement programme, the predecessor of the Homes and Communities Agency’s Places of Change programme. The HCA met the team at Recycling Lives to discuss plans for the proposed development of centres in Accrington, Lancashire, and Wigan, Greater Manchester. But decisions about funding are on hold following the emergency Budget on 22 June.

The Northwest Regional Development Agency contributed £400,000 towards the Preston centre’s training and business incubation facilities, which offer cheap space for start-up businesses - but this agency is also likely to be scrapped following the Budget. The Westminster Foundation, which awards grants to social welfare projects in areas where the Duke of Westminster owns land, gave £20,000, and the rest of the development cost was shouldered by Recycling Lives’ commercial wing and by Mr Jackson himself.

Model for the future

Kevin Williams, acting chief executive of the organisation and former assistant director of development at housing association Great Places Housing Group, says the team remains hopeful: ‘We’ve used the time created by the cuts positively to tweak the model before rolling it out nationally,’ he says. ‘Expansion plans are progressing well, with interest from several local authorities in the north west.’

As for Mr Jackson - his passion and determination are tangible: ‘We’ve proved that it works,’ he says. ‘In the design for the next 50 centres, we’ve separated the recycling from the residential quarters with a glass atrium. The next one will be much bigger.’

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