Making Waves with Leaps & Grounds
The next generation of Leaps & Grounds is here!
Hello from everyone at the Leaps & Grounds team! Before we launch into what’s next, we want to show you the impact Leaps & Grounds has had since the relaunch. Our social enterprise coffee project empowers refugee women, and so far we’ve achieved…
- nearly 700 hours of paid work experience for refugee women,
- over 50 hours of 1–2–1 mentoring from women within the BRC,
- over 8,150 drinks and 400 snacks sold at Moorgate,
- inclusion in Culture Mile’s ‘City Vistas’ project with a new mural, and
- 10 refugee women supported!
In one of the most exciting developments of the programme so far, one of the participants from our 2021 pilot, Linda, has rejoined the Leaps & Grounds team as a manager! Her experience in the pilot gave her the confidence to successfully apply for a MSc, as well as begin looking for permanent barista positions — so we decided to hire her before any of our competitors could! With the skills she developed during the pilot, Linda has been passing on her expertise to our Leapers (participants) for the last couple of months, and is overjoyed to be back with us!
But it’s not just facts and figures — we’ve been getting great feedback from customers and Leapers too…
“Lovely coffee, and the barista is friendly, smiling and takes care with your drink! Oh, and it supports a great cause, so triple-win!” Chris (5-star Google review)
Shahnaz’s story was shared across the BRC social media channels earlier this month, highlighting how Leaps & Grounds has given her the confidence she needs to start the journey towards opening her own business supporting refugees!
Another one of our participants found the confidence to navigate London’s transport system because of her weekly commute. Now, she feels able to explore the city, unlocking her access to London’s rich offerings and allowing both her and her family to become more integrated into life in the UK.
“I don’t even like coffee… but I love coffee from Leaps & Grounds!” — Martha, Leaps & Grounds customer
It’s been an action packed few months for us — July saw the first wave of refugee women complete their journey at Leaps & Grounds, which began back in February. Whilst it was sad to say goodbye to old friends, we’re looking forward to supporting each one with their next steps towards building a brighter future.
Last week, ‘Empathy Has No Borders’ (a collaborative mural commissioned for Leaps & Grounds) was installed at Moorgate — you can read more about that here!
We also tried our first pop up event at the BRC’s Refugee Week celebrations at our Hackney site! It was an amazing opportunity to meet our service users and local community, and talk about the need and impacts of Leaps & Grounds.
With the end of one wave comes the beginning of a new one. This week, five new Leapers have begun their journeys with Leaps & Grounds, so regulars at our Moorgate site can expect to make a host of new friends over the next three months!
July also heralds our first time trading outside of London, with the Leaps & Grounds crew pitching up at Dorset’s Camp Bestival next week. As a family-oriented festival, we are thrilled to be able to bring Leaps & Grounds to an entirely new kind of audience, as well as to test the UK summer festival market! Building on our learnings from Hackney, we’ll be looking at festivals as a potential revenue source and testing our assumptions about customers in that space. Leaps & Grounds is also a great way to introduce people to the BRC and talk about all the work we do across the organisation —Alice Bardrick, Charlotte Wilton, and Jackie Prins will be on hand to support us and chat all things BRC with the festival goers.
As we transition into the third quarter of the year, we’re focusing our attention on site number two, opening in September. We are currently exploring several business models to see how we can test different aspects of the Leaps & Grounds project — there are a lot of really exciting options on the table, even as we whittle things down! Whatever shape it takes, we’re thrilled that the third wave of Leaps & Grounds will expand to include at least 10 refugee women, doubling our impact, and expanding the brand to a whole new location.
Lastly, we want to thank everyone for their support with our Moorgate Coffee Pod. Every coffee served genuinely makes a profound impact on the lives of our Leapers and we treasure every customer who supports us! We can’t wait to welcome you to our new location, so stay tuned for more updates about where you’ll be able to find us!
