Working with the community
Lorna Young Foundation
Grumpy Mule is a big supporter of the Lorna Young Foundation and the amazing work that Ian Agnew and Christina Longden do in running the charity. It is also useful that they live in the next village along from the Grumpy Mule roastery!
Recently, Grumpy Mule has been working with the Lorna Young Foundation and Tameside Council on a project to develop the Oromo Coffee Company, a community interest company run by refugee Oromo Ethiopians living in the UK and selling Fairtrade Ethiopian coffee from the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union.
The Lorna Young Foundation is a UK registered charity that helps growers transition from providers of raw product to managers of their own businesses and business relations, adding value to their products and lifting the burden of poverty. The Foundation asks grower groups to set out ideas and concepts for evolving their activities, supports them in developing ideas into business plans and identifies skills gaps and business opportunities.
Working with grower communities and local specialist organisations, the foundation develops programmes for learning at all levels. It ensures that development respects and reflects the cultural sensitivities of the community in which it is based. Intervention involves the provision of specialist learning materials and support, bursaries for university access, help with purchasing specialist equipment and technical training.
The foundation evaluates and records all outcomes (successful or not) of the projects and makes this data available to other grower communities and support organisations. The foundation believes in the value of collecting and disseminating good practice information. The long term aim of the foundation is to develop the Lorna Young Academy – a virtual learning centre where growers can access and learn from a wealth of good practice information and share ideas and issues with other growers and stakeholders.
The foundation’s trustees work on a voluntary basis and receive no payment. They have one paid staff member and source services from partner organisations. This way, they keep overheads to a minimum and maximise their efficiency. In other words, your money goes where it’s needed. Projects are selected by the trustees in regular quarterly meetings. As this initiative evolves, the foundation will create a Project Selection Panel that will include representatives of the growers themselves.
For more information, please visit www.lyf.org.uk
