Our Aims and Values
These are just a handful of our aims and values! We are a caring registered charity that enjoys making a real difference to people's lives! We are customer-led, not target driven like most business start up services in the UK!
We are here for the people in our community who have faced barriers when trying to gain employment. We provide them with the knowledge, skills and support specifically relating to exploring the idea of self employment or starting a social enterprise. We educate people and provide practical hands on support, equipping them with the knowledge required so they can make an informed choice as to whether self employment is a career pathway they wish to take.
* We care about people and want to help to rebuild communities working collaboratively with other partners.
* We want to give people who may consider themselves at a "disadvantage", the chance to widen their skills and unlock their potential.
* We want to help the unemployed find work and regain their confidence and self esteem!
* We believe that learning about self employment should be tailored to each persons needs rather than a one size fits all service!
* We are non judgmental and aim to provide a service that meets the needs of our clients.
* We are advocates of helping to reduce poverty, create equal opportunities, empower people, increase life skills and support people through every step of their journey into enterprise.
Mission Statement - Banana Enterprise Network helps to reduce poverty, by removing barriers to self-employment opportunities for disadvantaged people. We equip people with the essential skills and knowledge to make an informed choice about self-employment, build a sustainable ethical business and support them along their self employment journey.
These are just a handful of our aims and values! We are a caring registered charity that enjoys making a real difference to people's lives! We are customer-led, not target driven like most business start up services in the UK!
We are here for the people in our community who have faced barriers when trying to gain employment. We provide them with the knowledge, skills and support specifically relating to exploring the idea of self employment or starting a social enterprise. We educate people and provide practical hands on support, equipping them with the knowledge required so they can make an informed choice as to whether self employment is a career pathway they wish to take.
* We care about people and want to help to rebuild communities working collaboratively with other partners.
* We want to give people who may consider themselves at a "disadvantage", the chance to widen their skills and unlock their potential.
* We want to help the unemployed find work and regain their confidence and self esteem!
* We believe that learning about self employment should be tailored to each persons needs rather than a one size fits all service!
* We are non judgmental and aim to provide a service that meets the needs of our clients.
* We are advocates of helping to reduce poverty, create equal opportunities, empower people, increase life skills and support people through every step of their journey into enterprise.
Mission Statement - Banana Enterprise Network helps to reduce poverty, by removing barriers to self-employment opportunities for disadvantaged people. We equip people with the essential skills and knowledge to make an informed choice about self-employment, build a sustainable ethical business and support them along their self employment journey.
Our History
Jayne Allman came up with the idea for BEN in 2013 but didn't do anything about it at the time because she didn't think she would be tough enough and resilient enough to cope with the barriers faced when starting a new charity. She also knew that it would take a lot of hard work (which she wasn't afraid of!), quite a bit of funding (she knew this would be difficult!) and sheer determination to prove the sceptics wrong, break down new barriers and get the charity off the ground. It was an ambitious project she thought, and early refusals of help/funding from particular organisations didn't help her confidence either. It was so frustrating for her because she knew there was a gap in the market, but the funders needed proof before they would help!
Jayne couldn’t get the idea out of her mind, and felt a strong motivation to help people in need. While working as a Business Advisor, every day, she would have to turn away many new clients because they didn't meet the entry criteria for Government funded support provided by her employer. This was because the people she saw often suffered from a lack of business related skills, lack of confidence or knowledge and/or had not undertaken any meaningful market research. Most of the clients she saw, were not fully aware of what's involved when starting and running a business and meeting the entry requirements of statutory business support services, because its not something they have ever done before.
Jayne couldn't provide too much time to support them because she was targeted to start up at least 8 businesses per month and comply with time limits of 8-12 weeks in which to get them started. Such restrictions were set by the contract she was working on. As a result, Jayne had to carefully select clients that she could work with, who she believed would be able to start their business within the given timescale. Jayne tried to find someone to help those people who had been "rejected" by the system because they simply were not ready and didn't meet the entry criteria. She soon discovered there was no FREE specialist "pre" self-employment support available, especially for people who may consider themselves to be disadvantaged. Hence, the idea for Banana Enterprise Network was born and little did Jayne know, but this would be the start of her own "journey" filled with ups and downs!
In early 2014, Jayne researched the idea more fully and identified key partners who she believed would help her make the project become a reality. In July 2014, Jayne registered Banana Enterprise Network as a social enterprise and the rest, as they say, is history......
Jayne has gone on to defy all the odds, dealing with many doubters along the way, and facing many barriers and personal challenges, but despite this, she has been blessed with the support of a handful of key people and many organisations, who believe in what Jayne and the team are doing and this led to launching the first pilot scheme (January 2015). Between January and December 2015, 291 unemployed people had been personally supported by Jayne. As at October 2016, she had supported over 550!
Banana Enterprise Network is a UK registered charity.
A personal and heartfelt thank you goes out to those who have supported Banana Enterprise Network so far and we look forward to the future as we continue to grow!
Jayne Allman came up with the idea for BEN in 2013 but didn't do anything about it at the time because she didn't think she would be tough enough and resilient enough to cope with the barriers faced when starting a new charity. She also knew that it would take a lot of hard work (which she wasn't afraid of!), quite a bit of funding (she knew this would be difficult!) and sheer determination to prove the sceptics wrong, break down new barriers and get the charity off the ground. It was an ambitious project she thought, and early refusals of help/funding from particular organisations didn't help her confidence either. It was so frustrating for her because she knew there was a gap in the market, but the funders needed proof before they would help!
Jayne couldn’t get the idea out of her mind, and felt a strong motivation to help people in need. While working as a Business Advisor, every day, she would have to turn away many new clients because they didn't meet the entry criteria for Government funded support provided by her employer. This was because the people she saw often suffered from a lack of business related skills, lack of confidence or knowledge and/or had not undertaken any meaningful market research. Most of the clients she saw, were not fully aware of what's involved when starting and running a business and meeting the entry requirements of statutory business support services, because its not something they have ever done before.
Jayne couldn't provide too much time to support them because she was targeted to start up at least 8 businesses per month and comply with time limits of 8-12 weeks in which to get them started. Such restrictions were set by the contract she was working on. As a result, Jayne had to carefully select clients that she could work with, who she believed would be able to start their business within the given timescale. Jayne tried to find someone to help those people who had been "rejected" by the system because they simply were not ready and didn't meet the entry criteria. She soon discovered there was no FREE specialist "pre" self-employment support available, especially for people who may consider themselves to be disadvantaged. Hence, the idea for Banana Enterprise Network was born and little did Jayne know, but this would be the start of her own "journey" filled with ups and downs!
In early 2014, Jayne researched the idea more fully and identified key partners who she believed would help her make the project become a reality. In July 2014, Jayne registered Banana Enterprise Network as a social enterprise and the rest, as they say, is history......
Jayne has gone on to defy all the odds, dealing with many doubters along the way, and facing many barriers and personal challenges, but despite this, she has been blessed with the support of a handful of key people and many organisations, who believe in what Jayne and the team are doing and this led to launching the first pilot scheme (January 2015). Between January and December 2015, 291 unemployed people had been personally supported by Jayne. As at October 2016, she had supported over 550!
Banana Enterprise Network is a UK registered charity.
A personal and heartfelt thank you goes out to those who have supported Banana Enterprise Network so far and we look forward to the future as we continue to grow!
© 2014-2017 Banana Enterprise Network – the charity “helping to remove barriers to self-employment ’ is registered in England and Wales as a company limited by guarantee, no. 9133991 and a registered charity, no. 1161408