Last week, Nelsandro Farmhouse, founder of Sandro’s Online, had a knock at his door, a package, which, when he returned inside to open it, live on zoom with many members of the Social Ark family, he found to contain an award and a cheque.
Voted for overwhelmingly by his peers, Sandro had been rewarded for his work as part of Social Ark’s recent funding partnership with Eastwick and Sweetwater and the London Legacy Development Corporation, using the funding he received to pilot his new project whilst supporting and encouraging the rest of the Social Ark family with their pursuits.
His project, Sandro’s Online, devised alongside Social Ark founder Lisa Stepanovic and his mentor Tony Colville, seeks to combine cake making and decorating with mental wellbeing, bringing people together and giving them a space to learn a new skill in a supportive environment.
The project’s aim is clear: “I want to bring people together and give people a chance to have fun and relax a bit. Baking is relaxing and therapeutic, so we want to give people the opportunity to learn skills in that type of environment.” Sandro tells us.
Born out of his self-taught, lifelong passion for baking and his desire to provide an encouraging and compassionate space for those who may be vulnerable or isolated in society, Sandro used the funding he received to pilot his new baking sessions, taking place over zoom. Hosting different groups for those with autism and suffering from anxiety among other things, the sessions don’t just stop at baking together.
“We don’t just bake things; it goes a lot further than that. For example with my autism groups, when the cake is in the oven we are going to talk, we will do activities and learn things, when it’s my anxiety groups we will talk about strategies and tools to help when they are struggling.”
“Sandro’s Online is about more than just baking cakes.”
And these pilot sessions are only the start of Sandro’s Online, as he hopes to grow the project exponentially in the coming months, learning from everything the pilots have taught him.
“I got exactly what I wanted out of the pilot period,” Sandro explained, “it helped me to really develop the idea and create a plan of what I want to do moving forward as an official CIC. It was a time for development more than anything, to continue making an impact and growing awareness for the project, and I feel like I’ve done those things.”
Whilst the Zoom, and ultimately in-person, baking sessions will certainly form the core of Sandro’s Online, Sandro is placing no limits on where the project could go. Current plans to develop it further include taking workshops into schools and creating an online interactive platform to promote wellbeing and learning, and the ways baking can be an outlet for those things. Eventually, Sandro hopes he will be able to hire people with autism and anxiety to help run these projects, providing stable employment for adults who often struggle to find it, an issue in society Sandro believes vitally needs to change.
Despite Sandro’s Online being a relatively new venture, kickstarted mere months ago through the funding partnership, Sandro’s journey with Social Ark has been a much longer one. Originally connecting with Lisa through the grandparent of a mutual friend, he is the first to admit that he hasn’t always been the most consistent.
“In my early days with Social Ark there were a lot of times I went quiet and didn’t speak with Lisa for a while, but she never forgot me and would always check in. This project is a perfect example of that, I hadn’t been very involved with Social Ark for a while but when the pandemic began she called me and said she had an opportunity for me and here we are.”
The award is evidence that this time around Sandro is making the most of the new opportunity, despite all the difficulties the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown up, and is testament to the potential Lisa sees and has always seen in him.
This is what, Sandro believes, makes Social Ark so special, and why it has been so important to him over the years. It is the personal side of things, the support and the belief Lisa has in every member of the Social Ark family, her willingness to be there for the young entrepreneurs and not give up on them, whatever the time of day and however busy she is. It is that belief, Sandro stresses, that has helped him believe in himself and not give up.
“She’s been a real mentor, she’s not just helped with the logistical and business sides of things, she invests in us as people first and foremost.”
Of course Social Ark has also been vital for Sandro on the business side of things as well, broadening his knowledge and understanding of how to create, run and grow a successful, and socially conscious business, providing him with the tools to learn about things like ‘funding, policies and procedures, insurances needed’ and other financial and business help.
But what Sandro highlights as the thing he has been most grateful for over the last few months is the contacts Lisa, Tony and Social Ark has provided him with, allowing the project to reach new people and grow in new ways, with fresh insight, support and guidance. This is evident as he explains, “Recently Social Ark facilitated a cakes session on zoom for me with all the mentors, and they all chipped in with their insight and went out of their way to connect me with people that will be beneficial for my project.”
As Sandro looks to the future he stresses how lucky he feels, that despite the hardships and personal struggles of the last six months, his new project has thrived, not even in spite of the pandemic but because of it. It has helped him make the most of such a difficult time, creating a socially conscious business that serves his community at a time when they need it most.
“Before the pandemic I didn’t have the idea of using zoom to bake with people and run workshops. It only came about because I thought to myself, if I’m going through anxiety because of the virus there must be others elsewhere going through the same thing. Through using zoom we have been able to reach so many more people with our sessions, we have had people joining us from Mexico, Germany and other places baking with us on zoom.”
Receiving the award last week has been the icing on the cake for Sandro, the perfect recognition for the way he took this funding opportunity and ran with it, not only in developing his own ideas but supporting and championing his peers with theirs. It puts into perspective all the hard work of the last few months, and that it was his peers that voted for the winner makes it even sweeter.
“The award is great recognition for what we’ve been doing, and the money I have received as part of it can now go straight back into the project in order to keep growing it with extra financial support. But I’m also using the award as motivation to keep going, it’s a symbol of motivation for me.”
“I probably opened the box with the award in about 30 times that day, and practiced speeches in the mirror thanking my mum and everything. It was a really special feeling.”
Though Sandro’s time with Social Ark definitely hasn’t been the smoothest of journeys, he is true embodiment of the core values Lisa has built the organisation around: wraparound support, compassion and guidance whatever the situation may be, helping young people with lived experience to go out and better their communities. Sandro is doing exactly that, and as he opened the award on zoom with the other members of the Social Ark family watching on, delighted for him and his success, those values couldn’t have been clearer.
