Paperworks Awarded Major Contract, September 2010
Christmas cards were not top of the “to do” list back in April but that’s when Paperworks got a call from Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance Trust asking for help with their Christmas fundraising effort.
Paperworks beat several competing companies to win the contract to promote, take orders and despatch Christmas cards and merchandise for the Trust.
Work includes mailsort, preparing and posting over 30,000 brochures, setting up online and telephone ordering systems and preparing and posting up to 8,000 packs of Christmas cards to meet customer orders.
The Thames Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance had previously done this work themselves but found it overwhelmed their staff and offices.
Patrick Conafray, Head of Fundraising at The Thames Valley & Chiltern Air Ambulance said, “Last year we felt that we could adequately handle requests and distribution using our own staff. This proved to be a big mistake and clearly outsourcing was the most cost effective route to take. Paperworks was one of the bidding companies and very soon into the process it became clear that they would ultimately become the preferred choice.”
Paperworks operate mail order fulfilment services and prepare mail shots for many organisations and so are well set up to cope with work of this type.
“Preparing items to post in bulk can be nerve wracking if you are unfamiliar with the idiosyncrasies of the postal system, and the sheer scale can sometimes catch people out. “ Says Damien Handslip, Manager at Paperworks “We do this type of thing all the time so we know how to organise a job to ensure the customer gets what they need, on time.
We were delighted when we found out we had won the contract. This is a great opportunity for two charitable organisations to work together to generate income to further the charitable aims of both. The work itself also has great training value for Paperworks trainees and demonstrates the value each can offer to the workplace.”
Paperworks Awarded "Social Enterprise Mark" a first in North Yorkshire!
23rd June 2010
Paperworks has just become the first Social Enterprise in North Yorkshire to be awarded the Social Enterprise mark.
The Social Enterprise Mark is the brand for social enterprises and was launched 1st February, 2010. The Mark identifies businesses which meet defined criteria for social enterprise, and consumers will recognise that businesses displaying the Mark are trading to benefit people and planet.
Paperworks joins other ethical businesses that have been recognised by being awarded the Mark such as the Eden Project and The Phone Co-op bringing the total nationally to over 100.
“We were very excited to hear we had been awarded the Mark” says Paperworks Manager, Damien Handslip. “Paperworks has been operating as a Social Enterprise for over 15 years but to now see the term being more widely promoted is fantastic. We hope that being awarded the Mark will help people recognise us more easily as a business aimed at delivering social benefit.”
Paperworks primary aim is to provide work experience and work skills training to people with learning disabilities, mental health or other health related barriers to work. It does this by operating as a business providing printing, mailing and fulfilment services and relies on this work to provide the income and the basis for training.
Alex Sobel, General Manager of Social Enterprise Yorkshire and Humber says ‘I am extremely pleased that Paperworks is the first Social Enterprise in North Yorkshire to gain the Mark, Paperworks are setting a real example for other enterprises that operate for the community and not for private profit by being awarded this prestige standard.
Damien explains, “Operating commercial and training services side by side raises it’s own challenges but Social Enterprise is a business model that suit Paperworks specific aims very well. Printing and collating letter and flyers, preparing mailshots, pick, pack and despatch work is ideal for training.
Knaresborough Bed Race, June 2010
Paperworks entered a bed in the Great Knaresborough Bed race this year!
They did fantastically well preparing the bed for the parade, pushing during the race (and swimming!) as well as raising an estimated £4500 for Paperworks.
To see more click here
Business as Usual! January 2010
During the cold period in January 2010, Paperworks managed to stay open everyday despite the heavy snow. Tuesday 5th was the worst affected day as no trainees were able to get to work and some staff from outside Harrogate were snowed in. One of the trainees unable to make it on the Tuesday was Allan, who had to stay at home after his transport was cancelled and no taxis were running. Out of the staff who couldn’t get to Paperworks - Anna was snowed in at Wetherby, and Tom couldn’t get in from Ripon as all bus services were cancelled. Luckily Damien, Chris and Jackie were able to open up Paperworks and keep it running!
The postman who collected our post on Tuesday said we were the only business that he had tried to collect from that was open that day…
On Wednesday things began to get back to normal. All staff were eventually able to get to work and there enough trainees in to start clearing the snow. Ross, Paul and Roberta found this a useful training exercise in teamwork as Roberta explains:
“We cleared the snow with a board, then shovelled the rest off with a spade. Finally the last job was to sweep any remaining snow to the side with a brush- we worked as a team it was a good training exercise.” Once grit had been put down on the cleared path Paperworks was able to operate as normal.
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