East Belfast Mission

I happened to be in Belfast to meet a good friend from my New York days - we hired a car to go up the coast to the Giant’s Causeway, a thoroughly recommended trip in my view

Photos from the road

Coincidentally, I had come to hear about an innovative model being operated by the East Belfast Mission so we took a small detour before we headed up the coast. We parked up in a side street in a rather deprived area that had some striking political murals like the more famous ones on the other side of the city

East Belfast Murals

I was met by Gary Robb, Centre & Development Manager at the SKAINOS Centre which is a state of the art facility operated by EBM since 2012 hosting other community support organisations like New Life Counselling, Tear Fund and Age NI.  Gary was kind enough to tell me more about the local context, EBM’s work and in particular how it extracts value from the circular economy.

The local area of Ballymacarrett of East Belfast is particularly socially deprived having been decimated by the decline of the shipping industry resulting in high unemployment and homelessness. EBM continue to play its historic role since the 1800s of supporting and regenerating the community through a variety of activities including outreach, homeless support, employability training, day care, cheap access to community spaces and a community café. A small but poignant symptom of the pressures of the area’s deprivation was highlighted in the café – I noticed that we were only given disposable cutlery and our hot drinks were provided with just the milk required. This was because unfortunately there was a tendency for proper metallic cutlery and jugs of milk to go missing.  

EBM operate a triple bottom line i.e. social, environmental and financial objectives for their business arm (‘social economy projects’) that help the sustainability of the social projects. They run several ventures that showcase the circular economy through the social enterprise model, going to market with a nice suite of brands:

• Restore: 12 charity shops (including a Vintage shop with bridal department) selling repaired, refurbished, reused donated goods
• Refurb: a refurbishment workshop for good quality second hand furniture
• Recycle:  repair and refurbishment of bicycles donated by local councils and the public
• Repaint: taking leftover paint from nine local councils and providing a collection service for the public. The paint is either used by Refurb or sold in Restores.
• Rekindle: a wood chopping project, providing heating fuel. Much of the internal wood inside furniture is untreated and is suitable for kindling and thus the ‘waste’ from the Refurb venture is processed to be sold as fuel.
• Refresh: a cheap and cheerful café with subsidised meals for the community. Also operate a meals on wheels service locally using the same brand name.

Refresh and Restore (including some Refurb, Recycle and Repaint products)

Beyond this EBM provide cheap access to high quality facilities i.e. sharing economy:

• East Belfast Social Enterprise hub: to tackle local unemployment and reduce the number of eyesore derelict premises within communities, a shared space for working, training, networking and trading.
• SKAINOS Centre: office rentals and hiring out of conference spaces, sports hall, meeting rooms and party rooms. It is able to facilitate children’s birthday parties with meals for between €1 and €4.50 to cater to almost any budget.
• A well-used therapeutic garden on site for socially isolated people.

Employment project poster, chapel and sports hall for hire and therapeutic garden

​It was great to see the excellent work EBM was doing, delivering social and financial value from the principles of the circular economy. Thanks to Gary for his time and sharing his insights. ​​