‘We are an organisation in East London set up to work with brilliant young people from under resourced communities who want to use their lived experiences to better their community for everyone.’
These are the words our founder, Lisa Stepanovic, uses to describe Social Ark, the social enterprise she created in 2015, helping young East Londoners develop and grow sustainable businesses that both reflect and support the communities they grew up in. The young entrepreneurs come with ideas in abundance, and Social Ark provides them with the tools to make those ideas a reality, supporting them to ‘tap into their assets and talents and actually learn the skills needed to go and lead change in the community’.
Lisa has created an organisation like no other, placing loyalty and trust at the forefront of everything they do. Lisa explains, ‘our strength is in our social network’, a network that stretches right across, from the young entrepreneurs, to the mentors right through to the board: every member of Social Ark is a family. There is a level of wraparound support at Social Ark that is unique and is always there whatever the situation may be. Lisa takes immense pride in the help and encouragement Social Ark provides, telling me ‘you might have your diary planned out and then you get a phone call, and somebody needs support and everything else stops.’ That extends to the mentors too, who, despite being extremely busy will always make time for their entrepreneurs. As Lisa says, ‘We don’t just talk it, we walk it.’
At the heart of it, Social Ark is a family, with a level of care and support that is one of a kind. There is no ‘them and us’ culture here, Social Ark belongs as much to the young entrepreneurs as it does to Lisa and the team, as well as every person that has been a part of its journey. This feeling of ownership is integral to Social Ark’s ethos and its mission, and to the community Social Ark has built. ‘Everything we do, every program we deliver is codesigned by them because it's important that they own what we do’, Lisa explains.
Social Ark strives to take back its community, giving the people at the heart of it the resources to become the gatekeepers of their own funding. East London is changing, and whilst gentrification is not a new phenomenon it has become more and more pronounced as time goes on. ‘I feel there's a lot of bias going on’, Lisa tells me. ‘A lot of CEOs of big organisations lean towards people that look like them and people that speak like them.’ This is the drive behind Social Ark, to level up the playing field and give the people East London was built around, those with the lived experiences, a chance to do things themselves. ‘We need to empower them with the skills, they’ve got the drive, determination, passion, lived experience, but what we do is equip them with the skills and the tools and support to actually be that change that we all want to see.’
‘I think that supporting them to lead change benefits everyone. It’s making our streets safer, more cohesive, more inclusive, and yeah, it is creating stronger communities.’
Social Ark’s mission is a vital one, and it’s one that is even more important in this current climate. The demographic of Social Ark’s young entrepreneurs have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19. It is not just the virus itself, which has been shown to affect those from under resourced communities and BAME backgrounds at alarmingly higher rates, but every aspect of the pandemic. Economically and socially, Social Ark’s young people have been hit hard, both in their personal and business lives, with start-up social enterprises the last in line for community funding, and therefore the first in line for cuts when tough economic times hit. This means that amplifying their voices and experiences is even more important at a time when they are being more marginalised and cast aside than ever. How they have dealt with these setbacks is something Lisa is extremely proud of, telling me ‘I’ve got so much admiration because even hit with all these barriers; health inequalities, social inequalities, race inequalities, all this stuff… but they are still driven to do what they've got to do and what they want to do.’
As we embark on a new journey for Social Ark with the creation of this blog, we endeavour to reach a wider audience than ever before, and there are a lot of things Lisa hopes readers will gain from it. Showcasing the importance and the brilliance of the Social Ark family is top of that list, and by giving a platform to the young entrepreneurs and their businesses Lisa believes that will shine through.
‘I think lots of people think young people from under resourced communities just haven't worked hard enough. I hope this will give an insight and give them a different mindset, because when you have those lived experiences, you know it isn’t that easy. That’s why I think they are so special because they are young people doing socially driven business in a world that excludes them and doesn't let them have a foot in the door.’
‘Yes of course I want investment, but I want our young people and their businesses to be legitimised, I want people to really see the value in them. I don’t want them to hire them because it ticks the box, I want them to completely see the value in it, and so if we can do that then this has been a success.’
Social Ark and its young people are changing the narrative, and it is vital that their voices are heard.
