Social enterprise support

Our ambassadorial role

With a staff steeped in journalism, Words Words is very enthusiastic about putting something back into the media industry. As a result we have become Business Ambassadors in schools through the Essex Education Business Partnership.
Recently Words Worth representative Graham Lowing attended a "Guess my Job" morning at Cecil Jones School in Southend-on-Sea. In a question-and-answer session in which his profession was kept secret, the students had to guess the job - and two smart groups out of the five worked it out correctly. There were later briefings to about 100 students on what a career in journalism, PR and the media entailed.
Graham said: "It was an interesting experience and one that brought me full circle. At a school careers' evening at the age of 13 I had been enthused by the chief reporter of the local paper to go into journalism. I followed that right through and have been in the media ever since."

PR expertise supports Emmaus funding bid

Recycling furniture helps the homeless

How to secure £750,000 from hard-nosed businesspeople in a Dragon’s Den-style confrontation?
That was the problem facing social business Emmaus Bristol when it found it needed a cash injection to fund the expansion of its operation helping homeless people.
The answer for Emmaus came in the form of businesswoman Adrienne Lowing, founder of Words Worth PR, who was called in to mentor the company get through the process of pitching for funding support.
While Emmaus is unquestionably a worthy cause, it needed more than just good social credentials to convince the dragons panel of Equal-Invest that the money the Bristol company was asking for was not only deserved but would also be well used.
That required a professional pitch, and that was where Adrienne came in.
Drawing on the years of experience gained in setting up, running and expanding Words Worth PR, Adrienne coached the Emmaus presentation team on how to hone their pitch to its sharpest, how to best present themselves in front of the panel and how to catch and hold the attention of potential investors.
Her coaching enabled Emmaus to make it through a practice pitching event that saw 15 hopeful companies and organisations whittled down to five.
Adrienne's advice helped Emmaus to finally stand before the Equal-Invest panel of potential investors including Sue Cooper, senior manager at Triodos Bank; Nigel Kershaw, CEO of Big Issue Invest; Naomi Kingsley, CEO of the London Rebuilding Society; and Henry Pitman, an independent investor.
It was Adrienne’s advice that finally helped Emmaus to walk out of the Dragon’s Den with the green light to go for the £750,000 investment.
Emmaus Bristol Director Richard Pendlebury said: “We are very grateful for the effort that Adrienne put in to our appeal to Equal-Invest. It was a pleasure to work with her and having an outside view of our business was very helpful.
“Her support helped us sharpen up our pitch which will be very useful for future approaches for financial support. It is an additional skill which will underpin the continued success of our work in helping homeless people take the first steps off the streets and back in to mainstream society.”