Simon Danczuk MP sent a message to our Retail Ready People graduates in Rochdale:
“I would like to congratulate you all on the fantastic project you’ve taken part in. It’s been a breath of fresh air seeing such vibrancy and enthusiasm on our high street.
Taking those first steps in setting up a business are often the most challenging. I hope the lessons you’ve learned with Retail Ready People will prepare you well for the next step of your journey. Good luck!”
In the last 12 months the programme has supported 60 young volunteers to open four pop up shops in Brighton, Enfield, Leeds and Rochdale. Volunteers have benefited from coaching and workshops that not only helped them plan and run their shops, but have given them useful skills to run their own projects. Retail Ready People graduates have completed over 6500 volunteer hours.
The 2013 cohort of volunteers have had the support from retail mentors such as existing corporate partner Dixons, and other retailers; Hotel Chocolat, Swarovski, JD Sports and Disney – as well as Revolutionary Arts.
In the course of delivering the programme it’s become apparent that the Retail Trust and vInspired would like to take forward future developments in different ways. Retail Trust will be launching a new programme ‘Retail Right’ in autumn 2013.
And Revolutionary Arts are very excited to be moving on to work with the Transported project in Boston and South Holland – two pop ups will be opening there in July/August.
Empty Shops Network 