Spotlight on Kahina

Kahina has thrown herself into volunteering during her time with Dot Dot Dot and has spent over 50 hours giving back to the local community. She has worked with young people on a mentoring project and with other guardians on the Divest Bexley climate campaign. She described moving to this area as ‘the best thing that’s happened to her in a long time!’

Here’s what she has to say about being a guardian:

‘I moved to Abbey Wood in November as a new Dot Dot Dot guardian. What made me choose Dot Dot Dot Property is the fact that, unlike other Guardian Companies, it’s first and foremost a social enterprise. And having a strong background in volunteering, it was the right and obvious choice for me.

I decided to volunteer at The Link as it’s near to my building, which means that I can be flexible with my hours. I also like the fact that they offer a lot of help and support to the Thamesmead community. And it also happens to be a great building, which is a bonus!

I have been volunteering there alongside Lorraine Heath-Norwood, who is their Young People Employment Advisor. With her, I mentor Young People and help them getting work and professional training. A typical session would involve us meeting a young person for a follow up, seeing how they are doing with their job search, helping them with either writing or editing their CV, cover letter, work experience application, but also mock job interviews and tips of all sorts. What we offer is guidance and help. I have recently been asked to oversee the content of a leaflet advertising their next Careers Fair, so my involvement there is quite diverse, exciting and interesting!

The young people we guide come from different walks of life. Some have left school before gaining their A Levels, some hold a University degree but are struggling to get a job, and others have mental health issues that are holding them back. The highlight of my volunteering at The Link so far has been seeing one young person with mental health issues overcoming his disability and gaining enough confidence to get back into work. Which is extremely rewarding!

They are expecting their department to grow, which means that hopefully the number of young people seeking our help will increase. And that’s something I’m really looking forward to!’

Get involved

• If you’re interested in volunteering and becoming a guardian with dot dot dot, apply here today
• Keep up to date with our news and our guardians’ volunteering experiences on Facebook and Twitter

Dot Dot Dot’s big win with the Big Venture Challenge!

We’re excited to announce that Dot Dot Dot is one of the winners of this year’s Big Venture Challenge, a social ventures programme run by UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs.

The competition was tough. With over 450 social ventures applying to the programme, Dot Dot Dot is one of only 40 organisations selected to be part of 2015’s Big Venture Challenge.

In the final stage of the challenge, our very own Katharine and Peter presented to a Dragon’s Den style panel of investors and business leaders on:

• what Dot Dot Dot currently achieves
• the growing demand for our award-winning property guardian service
• our strategy for growing Dot Dot Dot.

The panel were looking for social enterprises with successful existing models that could be further scaled up, to make the most of the programme’s support and investment.

What does winning mean for Dot Dot Dot?

The Big Venture Challenge has given us a bespoke support package to help us scale up further and spread what we do to more areas of the UK, to work in more communities and to work with different types of building owners.

Last year our guardians gave 20,000 hours to more than 100 different charitable causes. We house more than 100 people at around a third of private sector rent in buildings that would otherwise be empty. Expanding Dot Dot Dot’s work will help us to:

• offer affordable housing to more great volunteers
• provide building security to more to building owners of all kinds
• spread the social impact created through volunteering to more communities and more voluntary and charitable organisations.

We’ll also be able to pitch for up to £100K of match funding which can be used to lever in more social investment. The support package and the investment combined will help take us to the next level and to expand our reach and increase our social impact.

Expanding Dot Dot Dot’s work also means expanding our team!

We have several new roles we’re recruiting for, and pretty excited about the next few months… subscribe to our newsletter to stay tuned and up to date!