Entrepreneur who is changing pain into purpose

THE path to becoming an entrepreneur is rarely straightforward, but Steve Dixon’s route has been far tougher than most.

Earlier this month the founder and chief executive of social enterprise Changes UK opened the doors on the £1m Recovery Central development in Digbeth, a recovery centre for people with drug and alcohol problems.

He has the ambition to make it self-funding through a range of services, from the on-site cafe to social enterprises offering building and gardening services.

But Mr Dixon’s entrepreneurial zeal is not limited to his own organisation. He wants to work with people who have been through the recovery programmes to create their own social enterprises, using incubator space at Recovery Central.

He knows what it is like, because he was an addict for 15 years before he was able to break free and successfully go through a recovery programme.

“I ended up in Weston-super-Mare in a hostel with other people that were in recovery,” he said.

“I started going to meetings and met other people in recovery. Hope was a big thing. I saw other people who were clean who had a similar story to me. I realised that people who were staying clean were pro-active.”

He succeeded in breaking his own cycle of addiction and then started to help others. He moved back to Birmingham, where there was no recovery community, and set about creating that.

It began with a house in Sheldon a number of years ago but, since last month, Changes UK has had its 15,000 sq ft headquarters to bring together and grow all of its activities.

Mr Dixon said: “The drug and alcohol strategy in 2010 changed to being recovery focused rather than treatment focused.

“Addiction is an equal opportunities destroyer. It’s about sick people getting better rather than bad people getting good.”

Russell Brand has described Mr Dixon as a “benevolent spiritual egomaniac”, and has been up to Digbeth to show his support for the work that is being done.

The biggest ambition is to make the organisation self-funding, which it wants to achieve through its social enterprises and corporate support. The facilities and space in the new building provide opportunities for would-be social entrepreneurs to develop their ideas. This can be done either with the help of Changes UK or through a more formal partnership.

“There are three parts to it,” said Mr Dixon. “People who want to set up their own social enterprises who just need business support in the entrepreneurs’ suite will get that support around business finance, bid writing and so on to get them going.

“The second part is the business incubator – people who want to set up their own business with us. We will help with the capital if we think it is viable after we have done a feasibility study.

“The third part is our social enterprises – Changes Gardening, Building Changes, Small Changes, Changes Coffee, Friends’ Kitchen, then coming next is Active Changes.

“All the profits get reinvested into the charity so people can feel good about buying our services too.”

Mr Dixon demonstrates the entrepreneur’s zeal as he talks about the future.

“I have the model now, I have the vision,” he said. “I want to go to other cities – Liverpool, Manchester and others – to make this happen.”

But he also remains committed to the outcomes which have motivated him from the beginning.

He said: “It’s about instilling hope into the community – changing pain into purpose, that’s our strapline.

“What excites me, now that I have built this for the recovery community, is to see them develop and be successful. I am excited for them.”