We are constantly responsible for a great deal of change ourselves here at Spark but its always nice when someone offers their time to give a helping hand. This is exactly what a group of B.A.T employees have done for us and the result is a magnificent area of our garden that everyone can be proud of! The centre piece to this garden is our 'Rise and Fall' fence which of course made up part of th Places of Change garden at Chelsea.

I would like to say a massive thankyou to B.A.T and in particular all the staff who came along and helped with the garden.

I hope everyone is taking advantage of the lovely weather and making the most of their gardens.

Helen

We have been very proud of the work the staff and volunteers at Spark have all put in to get us where we are today and it is lovely that this has been acknowldeged.

On Tuesday myself, Jon and Roy went to Reading for the Homeless Link conference where we had been nominated as one of four finalists for the Michael Whippman award. The award had over 60 applicants so we were very pleased to get this far.

The Michael Whippman award is awarded to the social enterprise that best involves homeless people and empowers them to make a contribution, is aspiring entrepreneurial and profit making and can demonstrate its impact on society.

On the day Jon and Roy were very brave in carrying out a dragons den style pitch to explain the work of Spark and the judges all seemed very impressed. The audience however made the final vote and went with a different group. Despite this it was lovely to be able to get out and explain about the great work we have been doing.

Congratulations to the Sandwich people for winning the award and thankyou again to Roy for attending the conference with us.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer,

Helen x