NW briefs: Secondhand Styling; Thaxted Capital; Together; Peaks & Plains Housing Trust; Harrison Leisure; PinkNews Futures
With the aim of slowing down fast fashion and making sustainable secondhand fashion more stylish, Secondhand Styling UK is opening its first swap, shop and style studio in Knutsford next month.
Located on Minshull Street, above children’s boutique Mini & Moi, the studio will officially open on Saturday, April 22, (Earth Day), a date specifically selected as it aims to highlight the importance of climate change, sustainable fashion and food and an end to plastic pollution.
Lucy Norris, creative director, stylist and founder of Secondhand Styling UK, and a recent contestant on Dragons’ Den, is committed to transforming the shopping habits of consumers, making secondhand more fashionable, desirable and accessible for all. The opening of the studio will allow Lucy to continue to educate on the benefits of swapping clothes and shopping secondhand, highlighting how it can help to reduce carbon footprints and impact the environment.
With vast experience in the fashion sector in the UK and US, Lucy is already an established and successful stylist and will be offering personal styling advice from the studio. Lucy said: “I have always wanted to open a studio, allowing people the chance to swap, shop and pick up styling tips, so this really is a dream come true for me. My mum brought me up on her own and she made pre-loved items look fantastic, which is where I inherited my passion for secondhand. Now I want to impart my knowledge and top tips to customers, encouraging them to shop consciously, buy better and love things for longer.
“The items in the studio will be carefully selected and quality controlled, ensuring we only offer the best pre-loved items. They will be colour co-ordinated and grouped into ‘looks’, helping customers with direction and styling, and putting some fun back into everyday dressing and our individual style statements.”
The studio will be open on a part time basis (Friday and Saturday) to start with, and appointments will be required for a 10 minute style chat and consultation with Lucy. There will be a fee of £25 to swap three items, including dresses, tops and jackets, and a dedicated rail of designer and/or vintage pieces. A service to repair and alter items will also be available, and private swap, style and shop parties can also be arranged.
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Jack Bradley-Seddon
Manchester-based specialist small case litigation funder, Thaxted Capital, has announced plans to increase its litigation funding to include larger cases requiring more than £1m of funding.
Known for their small case litigation funding of under £1m across the North and Midlands, Thaxted Capital will continue to offer this, along with the new service to support commercial disputes requiring more than £1m of funding.
Led by partners Jack Bradley-Seddon and Mark Dawkins, Thaxted Capital is positioned to fund commercial disputes across the North East, North West, Yorkshire and Midlands. The firm was launched last year with a unique regional focus, supporting smaller cases.
The removal of the £1m cap in funding signals further confidence from Thaxted Capital’s financial investor, Sandton Capital Partners, which has backed the firm since inception.
Jack Bradley-Seddon said: “Although we are a relatively new entrant into the competitive commercial litigation funding market, we are in the enviable position of being based in the regions and able to make funding decisions with certainty and speed. We continue to serve the market for smaller claims but are delighted to announce the removal of the £1m cap, which opens-up opportunities to fund larger claims as well.”
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Cheadle-based specialist lender, Together, has provided a donation of £30,000 to Manchester charity The Fed. The funds will pay for a full time volunteer coordinator, and help with the ongoing support and running of the charity.
Each month thousands of Jewish people receive support, guidance and advice for conditions that include mental illness, suicidal thoughts, domestic abuse and violence, sexual abuse of children, loneliness, self-harm, neglect, and poverty. The Fed’s community services team, helps just under 1,600 – a staggering one in seven – Jewish homes across Greater Manchester and more than 6,500 people every year across the city region.
The Fed also supports many families with young children who are disabled – either physically or mentally – suffer from conditions such as autism, have significant learning and behavioural disabilities or suffer from acute poverty. More than 550 community volunteers, coordinated by The Fed, help look after these vulnerable people. The charity also operates Heathlands Village Care Home, which is the largest Jewish care home in Manchester.
Kevin Fisher, group people director, said: “We are really pleased to be able support The Fed, a charity that supports all ages within our local community. As a Manchester born-and-bred company, we are passionate about helping those in the locality who need it – inclusive of all faiths, beliefs and backgrounds. Targeting our donation to support a full time Fed volunteer coordinator enables Together to help 200 households every month, along with 200 volunteers. We continue to demonstrate our commitment to supporting communities as part of our Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives.”
Raphi Bloom, director of fundraising, marketing and communications at The Fed, said: “The support required in the community is never ending and if you layer on any external factors, for example as we are seeing now with the cost of living crisis, then the need for help is hugely magnified. We are grateful for the support that Together has provided and which will enable us to deploy much needed extra support at the very heart of the community.”
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Mark Howden
The Regulator of Social Housing has confirmed that the Peaks & Plains Housing Trust has regained the highest possible rating for governance (G1) and retained the highest financial viability rating (V1).
The regulatory judgement comes on the back of an in-depth assessment and outlines the extensive steps that it has taken to gain a G1 rating.
Jules Booker, director of resources, said: “We are delighted that we have regained our G1 status following a recent In-Depth Assessment (IDA) by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). G1 is the highest rating a housing provider can achieve, showing that we meet the RSH’s governance requirements.”
Chief executive, Mark Howden, said: “Retaining our V1 status for financial viability and regaining the highest rating for our governance is a huge achievement for the team. This is the culmination of a massive effort by the whole team at Peaks & Plains to get us back to a G1. It’s a reflection of the hard work that everyone at the Trust has played a part in. Importantly, the regulator also interviewed customers and observed our involved tenant group.”
Jane McCall, chair of the board, said: “It is good to see that the significant improvements we have seen as a board have been recognised by the regulator. This judgement is a real credit to the hard work of the whole organisation including our involved residents.”
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The team from Harrison Leisure Group has shown support for the British Red Cross by making a donation to the Ukrainian Crisis Appeal. The group, which has its head office in Southport and holiday parks across the North of England, has been making regular donations from the sale of holiday homes, and as a result has made a donation of £4,500 to the appeal.
The humanitarian crisis that has resulted from the conflict in Ukraine has seen millions of people forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in other countries. Red Cross teams have been on the ground throughout to provide essential emergency support that has included food, water, medical care and shelter. There has also been vital work to reunite families who have been torn apart by the crisis, and provide them with much needed emotional support.
George Harrison, one the founders, said: “We’ve all been struck by the scale of the tragedy in Ukraine and the suffering that it has created. It was important for us to do something as a family for the families of Ukraine, who have lost their homes, their schools, their communities and so much more. The work of the British Red Cross has provided a lifeline when it is needed most, and we are glad to add our support to their crucial work.”
Kerry Threadgill, regional fundraising manager for the British Red Cross in North West England, said: “We would like to thank Harrison Leisure Group for their kind donation. We have already supported millions of people affected by the conflict with food, water and medical care. Our staff and volunteers have also been welcoming people arriving here from Ukraine – providing them with emotional and practical help when they need it most. This donation will help us continue to support people affected by the conflict.”
The work of the British Red Cross’s Ukraine Crisis Appeal will continue as long as the conflict in Ukraine is ongoing and donations of all sizes are welcomed, the charity said.
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PinkNews Futures, the LGBTQ+ FREE careers event in the North West, is coming to Manchester on Saturday, May 20. The free event is the first in a series of career-focused events taking place this year and is open to young professionals, students, and those who are looking to take the next step in their career who are part of the LGBTQ+ community or an ally.
The Manchester event will take place in the heart of the city at Etc Venues, 11 Portland Street, from 10 am- 6 pm. Attendees can expect to gain constructive career advice, learn essential workplace skills on how to build themselves up, engage with inclusive employers from around the UK, gain practical skills in CV creation, network with professionals and mentors from various business sectors and have their professional headshot taken for free.
A 2020 Stonewall and Britain Thinks first-of-its-kind research uncovered that discrimination in the workplace, lack of home support and anti-LGBTQ bullying have a devastating impact on mental health and hinders LGBTQ+ young people from reaching their potential. Almost one in five LGBTQ+ people looking for work have faced discrimination trying to get a job because of their identity.
PinkNews Futures will bring together experienced professionals, mentors and businesses from a range of different industries and backgrounds in a collection of workshops, drop-in sessions and talks including: ‘Advocating for yourself’, ‘Social Mobility and the LGBTQ+ community’, ‘Being yourself at work’ and ‘Managing the symptoms of burnout and stress’.
The careers event will host a panel of expert speakers from across the creative, engineering, freelance and law sectors. Young people wishing to attend the event need to reserve their spot via the PinkNews Futures website as spaces are limited.
