Case studies - consultancy services
Project: Furniture on the Street
Organisation: Old Ford Housing Association
Funding body: ALG-ESF Co-Financing Programme
Old Ford Housing Association, based in east London, has established a street furniture social enterprise with funding received through the ALG-ESF Co-Financing Programme, which is managed and supported by GLE. “Furniture on the Street” aims to employ local people who have completed their ALG-ESF funded furniture design and build course.
The enterprise’s first bench was supplied to Camden council for St Martin’s Gardens, a small inner city park where drug dealing and other forms of anti-social behaviour are being tackled. One of the young designers, Idris Mumin (pictured right) , who lives opposite the park said, “I can’t believe it, when I go into the park I will think, I designed these!”
A beneficiary of the training project "Street Furniture Design and Build", Abdul Muhith, was taught and encouraged to develop new skills in furniture design and build - resulting in a high quality portfolio of his individual work. After the training project, Abdul, having previously been long term unemployed, volunteered for Furniture on the Street before enrolling at Buckinghamshire and Chilterns Metropolitan University in September 2006 on the HND Furniture Studies course.