“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men and women to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
The Wisdom of the Sands
Antoine De Saint Exupery
Arc & Social Enterprise
Arc has established an inclusive social enterprise to enable members and volunteers recovering from emotional and psychological distress to:
• gain social and creative skills,
• build towards career opportunities,
• help run the social enterprise,
• link to other groups, organisations, and social enterprises, and
• become increasingly more socially integrated in the local community.
Under the broad umbrella of Arc’s social enterprise are grouped:
• ArcMedia, undertaking commissions in a wide range of disciplines including graphic design, web design and visual art.
• The Arc Community Gallery, showing work by individuals and groups and accepting consignments of work by new artists
• Community Outreach, including projects, partnerships and training workshops
Members told us they want to help Arc rather than just receive it’s benefits: to plan and organise exhibitions, and to produce Arcware for sale in the new gallery. They want opportunities to develop new skills.
The business activities of Arc’s social enterprise will earn valuable income to be ploughed back into the organisation.
ArcMedia has already shown that it is able to perform to a high professional level and meet these goals, and the service is expected to grow markedly in the next few years.
A holistic approach will be adapted to the way in which Arc’s varied skills, facilities and services interlink to create unique packages to satisfy clients’ needs. Arc is especially interested in working with other ethical companies.