BUSINESS Leader lends Recycling Lives Support

RECYCLING Lives Residents have helped to forge new relations with business leader BAE Systems.

The eight male Residents, who are currently aiming for full time employment and Independent Living, have been part of a new initiative that has seen thousands of pieces of unwanted office furniture removed from derelict office buildings at BAE’s Samlesbury site.

The Residents who live in the Essex Street Centre, Preston took on the huge task of sifting and moving the furniture under the supervision of Nick Chadwick, a member of the training department at Recycling Lives and the Facilities Management team at BAE.

Recycling Lives Sales Manager Mark Simpson was instrumental in securing the contract for the Recycling Lives Charity which offered the Residents the opportunity of further work experience.

Each of the Residents underwent training before the project began and gained a certificate in manual handling.

They removed the furniture from derelict office buildings facing demolition and stored it at the Recycling Lives Recycling Park.

Recycling Lives onsite training facility SEE (Social Enterprise and Education) is now looking into launching furniture restoration courses so that Residents have more varied training and work experience options.

Some of the furniture has since been refurbished and is now being used in the Recycling Lives Business Incubators; while others have been earmarked for use in the new Recycling Lives Cafe due to open in June.

The Business Incubators give support and guidance to new and developing businesses that would benefit from business support and mentoring.

Charles Jackson, Chief Executive of Recycling Lives Ltd said: “I hope this is the start of a long term relationship with BAE Systems and just the first in a number of projects we can work together on.

“They seem to be decommissioning a number of their sites in the North and we have the resources to step up to the job.”