Success story: Coasts Return to Success stories

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Futurebuilders invested £65,335 in Coasts to help with start-up costs for a new scheme to provide mental health support for young people in the Plymouth area.

About Coasts

Coasts was established in 2006 by Penny Taylor and Tom Strannix, two young social entrepreneurs who had met each other while running a service at Plymouth Mind which had run out of funding. They had lots of experience running mental health awareness projects and knew that there was still a need for the service.

‘Tom and I decided to carry on with the work that we were doing because there was still a big need in schools. Because Mind weren’t doing it we weren’t treading on toes. They’d stopped it completely so we thought we’d set ourselves up and carry on’, Penny says.

Mental health awareness exercise with students

Services

Coasts first service was a 10-week mental health awareness course for students at secondary schools in Plymouth. A team of facilitators train young people, mainly aged 16-18, in mental health awareness. The course gives the young people a chance to explore mental health in a positive way and learn effective techniques for looking after their own mental health and keeping themselves healthy.

The course was originally provided through a contract with the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). Demand for the service was phenomenal, and Tom and Penny soon realised that there was a large gap in mental health awareness in schools that they could fill.

‘We quickly realised that young people need to learn in environments that are also encouraging the same ethos that we promote - acceptance, empathy and positive regard’, Tom says. ‘So we put together a training portfolio for teachers and anyone else that works with young people to train them in how to create a supportive and positive environment for young people to learn in.’

Coasts got a lot of interest in the training portfolio and were able to roll it out to schools, who paid for it though their own budgets, as well as other third sector organisations across Plymouth and the South West. And once they’d done that they realised that there was more to do.

‘We were coming across young people that needed a bit more intense work. There was the local mental health service, there were school counsellors, but there seemed to be a gap in the middle that we could fill. So we started a therapeutic service offering group therapy courses over six weeks for young people, and now we’ve moved into offering one-to-one courses as well. Again, that’s paid for through school budgets’, Tom says.

Coasts DirectorsTom Strannix and Penny Taylor

How Futurebuilders helped

Futurebuilders invested £65,335 in Coasts to help it set up. The investment consisted of a £25,000 loan for capacity building and to recruit a development officer to help expand the service; a £15,100 overdraft guarantee to provide financial security; a £15,000 revenue grant to employ a part-time administrator and a £10,235 capacity building grant to purchase a software package and training.

Tom and Penny applied for the Futurebuilders investment before they even became Coasts. ‘We did the application in my bedroom at home,’ Penny remembers. Using guidance from Futurebuilders they spent three months getting the business plan together and eventually the investment was approved.

Without the investment from Futurebuilders, Coasts wouldn’t have been able to grow as quickly as it has. As Tom says, ‘we wouldn’t be as sustainable or as large as we are now, I think it would only have been me and Penny, and we wouldn’t have the client base we have now. We are working across Cornwall and Devon and into Dorset and Somerset, as well.’

Coasts now delivers courses in more than 20 schools. They have also been successful in securing LSC funding for more than 750 young people and it is estimated that at least 3,000 young people will benefit over the next three years.

Students participating in an activity

Ensuring long-term sustainability through Futurebuilders

Coasts was keen on pushing for a loan element to the Futurebuilders investment. ‘We’ve always said that because we know we have to repay our loans it motivates us to become more sustainable’ Tom says. ‘We know that we have to generate income and keep going to do that. I think if Futurebuilders had just given us a grant, then we would probably just used up the money, thinking, ‘we’ll apply for some more funding when this runs out’ – but actually, more funding might not be available then.’

Sustainability ensures that Coasts can focus on what they are good at – providing great mental health services to young people. As Emma Goode, Workshop Facilitator at Coasts says: ‘It’s an absolutely great service for young people. I’ve worked with some young people, who at first, are literally screaming in your face, not wanting to be there, but by the end of it, it has helped them so much. I wish that when I was in college, this had been around. It’s a fantastic service.’

What next?

Are you an organisation like Coasts who need investment to help you successfully bid for, and win public sector contracts? Then find out which of our products is right for you and check if you could be eligible for a Futurebuilders investment.