Stepping on Out

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Our History

We are a not for profit organisation run by Adults with Learning Disabilities. We design and produce hand made greetings cards which we sell at various venues throughout the Borough of Richmond upon Thames. You can now order our cards through this website.

Stepping on Out began life in September 2004 as an essential skills Business Studies course at Richmond Adult Community College (RACC). Originally we were called Stepping up and we ran a small profit making business operating from within the college. However after discussions between us, RACC and Social Services, we decided that we would like to move out into the community and reform as a non-profit making social enterprise group.

Because we were moving away from the college and into the community we changed our name to Stepping on Out and John Harrison (one of the members of our team) designed our logo which represents people with learning disabilities stepping out of the restrictive circle of day centres and colleges and out into the general community.

When we first moved out of RACC it was to the Avenue Day Centre in Teddington, where we were kindly provided with a rent free room. However this did not feel like a real office as we were unable to have our own computers and phone, so in May 2005 we moved to Teddington Baptist Church and rented a small office from them which we use for production and general office administration. From this time until April 2007 Social Services paid the rent for us, with the agreement that from then on we would have to rely on charitable funding to pay for this. Since then we have secured six months rent from Hampton Fuel Allotment Charity and are at present applying for charitable fund support for rent for the next five years. We have also applied for various grants to buy equipment to help us to run our business (for a list of our funders please see Our Links).

The aim of the business is for Adults with learning disabilities to be able to gain independence in the community through business and work experience. In order to promote the ongoing development and independence of Stepping on Out, it was decided to incorporate as a registered company and charity. Three independent trustees were appointed in December 2004 and we became a company limited by guarantee under the Companies Act 1985 on 28th April 2005. Charity Commission registration soon followed on in June 2005.

Until July 2007 Richmond Adult Community College continued to provide an educational programme designed to develop the essential business and creative skills necessary to take an active role in the running of a small business as well as teaching basic literacy and numeracy. But from September 2007 it is hoped that they will instead provide several short courses specifically planned to help us to learn the skills needed to run our particular business, such as basic Microsoft Publisher, Textile Design and Health and Safety in the Workplace.

The core business continues to be the design, production and sale of greetings cards and other decorative products at table top sales in the local community (see Our Products). In addition funds are supplemented by the sale of donated items such as books, DVDs and CDs.

In April 2006 with help from the The Rowan Organisation and RUILS, we applied for Direct Payments and pooled these into a joint bank account in order to employ a project co-ordinator to help us to run our business. We were the first Social Enterprise Group to use our direct payments in this way and have become a model for other Social Enterprises which are planning to start up in our local area.

Over the last year our business has expanded greatly and in May 2007 we were chosen to be the Mayor of Richmond's Charity.

In January 2008 we moved from Teddington Baptist Church to larger premises in Hampton Road, Twickenham so we could provide gainful employment for even more people with learning disabilities who will help us with production as well as simple administration tasks. These new premises were officially opened by the Mayor of Richmond on 30 January 2008.