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Phoenix C.A.N's Background by Susan
Hayward, Director (updated and
revised 9.11.07)
Creating from the Heart ...
In 1997, my work with the voluntary sector began
after a very traumatic personal situation. It was the weekend
Princess Diana died so I will never forget it and I needed help but didn't know where to start.
I became totally focussed on producing a magazine which would inform
people about the voluntary sector and small businesses as they shared
many similar problems.
Phoenix Bureau
Whilst writing articles for the magazine,
my journey took me to meet with
people in the voluntary sector and so I set up a
voluntary group called the
Phoenix Bureau, to provide an information and referral service for the
community.
I wanted to provide information on the
wonderful services provided by dedicated people who do things because
of the NEED not the money. Also, who do we turn to when we need
help when we are completely isolated from friends and family?
There is the saying 'God helps those who help themselves' but where do
we start? Mind you, I didn't know about the Law of Attraction
then... so, I started up my magazine, Good Services, and it was printed
thanks to a Benefactor who financed it.
The trouble is that ambitiously I tried to do
everything on my own with the aid of a few volunteers and no money...
of course I found it a struggle. However, I managed to obtain a
grant from the Scarman Trust
which helped to fund two more magazines.
Fundraising is often a full time job so I
was unable to do the work I really enjoyed - writing and meeting
people. This is the biggest problem for most small charities - getting
the funds to run their projects. It's the same with small
businesses too. This is why any donation you can make, however
small, will be a great help. We bought four ink cartridges
yesterday and they came to over £80! A laptop now needs a new
motherboard and we are so grateful that a benefactor kindly donated a
second hand one for us to use.
Phoenix Business Club
My idea for this club was to have people
working together - helping each other and learning new skills. I
often had a guest speaker at the monthly meetings. At the time
membership was just £12 a year.
Phoenix Community Action Network
This company was set up in
2002. It is a company limited by guarantee and a "social
enterprise". One of my dreams is to turn this social enterprise into a
self financing company that generates money for the various projects I
have in mind and to pay people to work with me. I started
writing a novel which then turned into a screenplay too (see
My Story.htm).
The different websites I had made have
become
projects of Phoenix C.A.N in order to have an income.
These include
the
Phoenix Business Club
of which you
have been invited to be a basic member … There
are many networking clubs and no doubt you belong to one or
more. I'm proud now to belong to a couple of the best -
ECADEMY and the
XL Results Foundation, however, the Phoenix
Business Club is somewhat different in that in that we have two
elements to this club - the business sector and the voluntary sector.
Working with Universal Laws
I came across the Law of Attraction in June
2006 (see My Story). The Law of Attraction
shows that we are all "creators" and if we follow our hearts and create a new business or
charity because we really want to do something positive with our lives,
then we should not allow ourselves to be drained of our life-force because of
negative thoughts, unnecessary red-tape and taxation.
The Law of Reciprocation can work well with
social enterprises. Why wait until you have made excess money to
give it to charitable causes? Why not include such giving whilst
earning your money. Tithing (ie. giving say 10%) is one way but
running a business to really benefit the community rather than just make
money out of it is what I mean.
The "Creating Paradise Project" is an unusual
project for our aim is to link up with people all over the world who
particularly want to make this world a better place in which to live.
In time
we will be able to take you on a virtual tour to show you the wonderful
things that are being done to make our earth a better place in
which to live. Meanwhile, I will keep you up to date with our newsletter called
INSPIRATIONS.
Social Enterprises
Any one can set up a charity, business or work for
themselves if they really want to. But not every one wants to set up a
Social enterprise.
Such enterprises can be a way of creating businesses with hearts and that
is what I want to encourage and I have now found many people who feel the
same way.
Most of Phoenix's work are web-based projects under the
"Creating Paradise" Project.and we have
several websites aiming attract an income to run this social
enterprise.
The services we provide via our websites are
INFORMATION, NETWORKING & TRAINING via:
The basis for promoting members
1)
We actively recommend our members as being people who provide
really good services.
This means that we provide a referral and marketing service in
the form of personal recommendation and advertising...more>>>>
2) Having
spent several years involved in the voluntary sector, I met
many truly dedicated people running voluntary groups for the
lonely, those suffering from ill health and disabilities or on
low incomes. It saddened me to see how these volunteers often
used their own finances to subsidise their work (in addition
to their time) because they found it difficult to obtain
grants which often when to larger and more established
charities. It takes time and skills to write funding
applications that many such groups did not for these
dedicated volunteers were often just ordinary good-hearted
people in the community. Therefore, my aim with the
Phoenix Business Club is
to match
small businesses and voluntary groups together in order to
combine resources and skills in order to run their ventures.
I believe this
will really show the true value of social enterprises in the
community.
Setting up
new social enterprises when there are also so many well
functioning, active groups in the community already needing
help seems to me to be the long way round of helping people in
a practical way. I believe that if a business was to "adopt"
one or more local groups (depending on the business owners
area of interest – disabilities, children, elderly etc) they
will be doing so much to help those already doing so much good
in their communities. I came across the Funding Network
recently and hope we will be able to work together.
Another service we will be providing with be
under Pathways For Life run by another Phoenix C.A.N. Director,
Christine Stocker-Gibson. We are just working on the web pages and
will provide a link to them in a few days.
We also have a shop,
Trimmings Galore, based in
Ilford, Essex from which we sell haberdashery and encourage creativity in
the community.
Future Plans
I'm
now looking for some premises in order to set up a
residential conference, business
and training centre to help budding creative entrepreneurs and local
business people. We are looking for a suitable country house to
buy (in the region of £1m) in the Essex/Herts area instead of the
industrial unit which was going to be for a five year rental.
This change in view was after I had attended the Life Shift Event when
a friend asked me why I was going all round the houses instead of
straight for my "dream". So if you fancy having a share of this
venture - let me know. Have a look at
www.thehealthyhouse.com
for an idea of what I have in mind.
See Latest News
for details of our forthcoming Event
Volunteers
I would like to thank the following
volunteers for all their help and encouragement. Without them, I
would never have achieved so much, learnt so much and achieved as
much. Their contribution has been priceless and I am so proud
that they considered my ideas worthwhile to help me!
Mark Snee |
Kaleem Pervez |
Darren Hayward |
Elizabeth Infanti |
Bill Whiffen |
Christine Stocker-Gibson |
Jenny Hawley |
Tejal Bhadresa |
Paris Jordanou |
Sylvia Tellalian |
Barry Greene |
and many more ... |
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Keith Jeffery |
Tracey Atkins |
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If you have similar ideas or are already doing
something for your community then do let us know.
Email....
Very best wishes
Susan Hayward
Director & Founder of
Phoenix Community Action Network
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