Fresh Start Blog – Celebrating achievements and following our dreams

The Fresh Start programme celebrated the success of participants at our award ceremony in London South Bank University on 23rd May. Nora Ponton, a London entrepreneur with an international background and a member of our advisory board, introduced the event and offered inspiration, congratulations and words of encouragement to all the participants. Fresh Start graduate, Lucy Isiah, then spoke about how she valued the contribution that Fresh Start had made for both participants and the wider community. She warmly thanked all the Fresh Start team of tutors, mentors, business advisers, project organisers and partners.

This was followed by presentations by graduating Fresh Start entrepreneurs who talked about the business they had started or were planning to start. These included an on line beauty brand, using strictly natural and healthy ingredients; an environmental cleaning business; a business to promote Iranian food in supermarkets; an African fashion business and an African food delivery service.

Loud applause followed and then all participants were presented with their Fresh Start certificates and congratulated by Professor Paul Ivey, LSBU Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Innovation) and Chief Business Officer, who talked about the high value that London South Bank University places on entrepreneurial education.

Ros Wade the invited all participants to a symposium at the House of Commons where they would get an opportunity to share their experiences with policy makers. Following this, Pete Brierly from Citizens’ UK invited all participants to share their 2 or 3 key points which they would like to make to MPs and local council representatives. These will be collated into a short policy briefing.

In relation to ongoing support and future development, the LSBU enterprise team was also on hand to remind participants of the range of courses freely available at the university. These organisations all offer participants a means to continue developing their entrepreneurial skills and enabled participants to extend their useful social networks. All agreed that Fresh Start has given a great opportunity to participants to follow their dreams and become the person they always wanted to be. We wish everyone who participated the very best of success in their future endeavours!