Partnerships
By partnering with us, you’ll be helping transform the lives of millions of people by providing food, jobs and hope to those who needs it most.
For over 30 years, The Message has been transforming the lives of the hardest-to-reach people in some of our country’s toughest places, giving people hope for the future.
Through innovative solutions, we’re tackling some of societies big problems head on. From families who are going hungry, to providing ex-offenders and those facing significant barriers to employment with the jobs and training they need.
We work in partnership with private-sector organisations, to maximise the impact for communities, the environment and your business. We can’t wait to partner with you to achieve your corporate and social responsibility goals, whilst authentically making the world we live in a better place – today, and for future generations.
Find out more about:
How You Can Work With Us
There are many ways that we can work to support your company’s corporate social responsibility objectives. Our dedicated team will work with you to ensure that we create a partnership that it is right for you.
Some of the ways we can work together include:
Volunteer days
With Community Groceries across the UK your staff could spend time helping out in our stores giving back to your local community. It’s a great way of team building, inspiring colleagues and building shared values.
Food donations
Our Community Groceries rely on food donations. If you’re from a Food Retailer or FMCG company, we would love to talk to you about redistributing your products, whether that’s a one-off donation or utilising your surplus stock.
Sponsor a team member
Want to help someone break free of the cycle of re-offending or breakdown the barriers they face to finding a job, then why not sponsor an enterprise team member?
Employee fundraising
Wanting to plan a fun sponsored event for your team, why not do it for The Message – improving staff wellbeing and boosting culture, all whilst changing lives!
Charity of the year
You can show your commitment to supporting those for who life is toughest by adopting The Message or our Community Groceries as your Charity of the Year.
Share employee expertise
As a charity we’re always looking for people to stand with us, here’s a chance for your team to share their expertise in areas they can help in and use their skills to make a difference.
PR opportunities
We’d love to tell people about our story and about our partnership together by using PR opportunities to let internal and external audiences know about what’s happening.
Give
As a charity we rely on donations to be able to make a difference. Could you support our work financially so that together we can see countless lives turned around?
Host an event with us
Looking for somewhere to hold your next business event, then why not look at our conference facilities and see our work in action?
Community Groceries
Bridging the gap between food banks and supermarkets, our network of Community Groceries is helping to keep families fed by giving people who would otherwise go hungry access to the affordable food they desperately need.
At the Community Grocery, anyone can sign up to be a member for £5, with no proof of their situation. When they become a member, they can choose from a range of fresh food, cupboard staples and personal care item for £5 per shop. Often members bring their children along to be part of the choosing process, making it a real community experience.
On top of this, we offer support and courses, including money management, cooking classes and Alpha courses. This is so important to giving people life transforming help, as they learn skills they can apply in their personal and professional lives.
We’re also committed to helping the environment. We often accept surplus food from local supermarkets, which reduces waste to landfill and provides food to the local community.
Donate
We rely on monetary and food donations. If you’re from a Food Retailer or FMCG company, we would love to talk to you about redistributing your products, whether that’s a one-off donation or utilising your surplus stock. Monetary donations are also vital to keeping our doors open and our shelves stocked, so any gift is a huge help.
Volunteer
We would love for your team to get stuck in with helping at one of our groceries, as it’s a great way of team building, inspiring colleagues and building shared values.
Enterprise
There are so many stories of ex-offenders struggling to leave their old criminal lifestyles behind when they’re released. Without entry to employment, those who are desperate to turn their lives around, can get easily drawn back into old habits and trapped in a cycle of re-offending.
We set up Enterprise as a way of offering jobs to those who couldn’t get work so that they could earn a decent wage, be trained and discipled so they could find further employment and truly turn their lives around.
89
The number of enterprise team members we’ve offered employment, training and housing to so far.
13%
Our 10 year re-offending rate compared to a nine-year national average of 75%.
100%
Graduates got their qualifications and entered employment. Graduates are team members who finish our two-year programme.
£8,060,000
Over the last 10 years, 89 team members have gone through our two-year enterprise programme in Manchester changing lives for eternity. With it costing the Government £65,000 to house a prisoner in their first year and £45,000 per year after that this has saved the Government £8.06m (based on an average three year sentence). Source: Ministry of Justice.
Knowing there was more to do, over the years, we’ve expanded our work to support those who have significant barriers to employment. This includes those who may have struggled with an addiction, the homeless, refugees, the long-term unemployed, as well as those with additional needs. The impact on lives has been huge as people have found paths into long-term employment.
Increase Positive PR
Helping ex-offenders, homeless and refugees, is a great way to boost your PR, as these are topical issues your customers and employees care about. We would love to work with you to create an internal or external campaign to promote the partnership.
Sponsor A Team Member
Want to help someone break free of the cycle of re-offending or breakdown the barriers they face to finding a job, then why not sponsor an enterprise team member?
Cafés
One of our key Enterprise businesses is our cafés. We have five cafés across the world where we provide jobs, training and discipleship to help people turn their lives around.
The Mess Café in Manchester
Based in Sharston, Manchester, The Mess Café is our first Enterprise café and the number one rated café and coffee shop on TripAdvisor (correct as of Winter 2023). Onsite, there are plenty of seating, training rooms you can book and you can check out our flagship Community Grocery.
Read More
Neal St Espresso in London
In the heart of Covent Garden, London, Neal St Espresso is providing jobs and training to ex-offenders. Make sure to bob in for a coffee and a cake!
Read More
GangStar cafés in South Africa
In South Africa, 8 out of 10 ex-offenders go on to reoffend. This is often due to being unable to find meaningful work. Our three GangStar cafés are focused on employing and training ex-offenders to help break the cycle of re-offending and gangsterism.
Read MoreSupporting You
We’re committed to working with you to create a successful partnership that works for you. We will tailor our support to your requirements but could include:
- Providing assistance with press coverage to raise the profile of the good work your company is doing to your target audience and our website.
- Providing volunteering opportunities that match your requirements
- Supporting you as you develop team building community initiatives or fundraising opportunities
- Providing fundraising materials
Next Steps
We’d love to tell you more about how we can partner together to meet your corporate responsibility goals. You can get in touch with our team today at:
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 0161 946 2300