Bloomsbury Babies
Bloomsbury Babies, a social enterprise supporting entrepreneurial parents, is calling for mums with kids under 5 to join their new ‘parent-cubator’ group. By Figen Gunes. //
The parent-cubator is the first of its type in London, providing a 12-session ‘self-help’ action learning programme for parents who want to start their own business or enterprise, with a free creche on site.
Founder of Bloomsbury Babies Ann Nkune says the first group has had 10 meetings and will complete on 29 October. Some innovative ideas such as a breast-feeding app, life coaching notebooks and wound care for caesarean mothers have been developed in the first group.
She wants to see parent-cubator, based in community gardens called the Calthorpe Project on Grays Inn Road, to take off and spread to other London areas.
Among toddlers kicking my feet as I listened to guest speaker Uju Asika of Mothers And Shakers, at a parents’ taster event, the room was filled with babies gurgling as mothers tried to focus on the speaker.
Planning a business, researching markets, selling/funding opportunities, marketing and legal requirements will be touched upon in fortnightly meetings to be run until 29 April 2014.
With support from entrepreneurial network Unltd, Bloomsbury Babies started mentoring groups in May and since then they have cooperated with Camden Council and also received funds from RBS and the RSA.
Camden’s Innovation and Development Fund is currently working on a pilot co-working space, where parents can hot-desk, use office equipment, network and brush up on their business skills, while their children are looked after in the creche.
Maternal unemployment increased by 45 per cent in the last 8 years in the Camden borough according to Camden’s Equalities Taskforce. So Bloomsbury Babies are working towards tackling unemployment among parents in the area. The average annual cost of childcare is £14,000 which is nearly 20% higher than the national average. Over one third of Camden’s school children qualify for free school meals and maternal unemployment is a strong driver of child poverty in the borough.
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