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Social Enterprise Awards 2023 !

We were delighted to pick up the Community-Based Social Enterprise Award from Social Enterprise UK, at the national sector body awards, which recognise impact and innovation in purpose-led business.

The ceremony which took place at the iconic Roundhouse in London saw social enterprises from across the country come together to celebrate each others achievements in the sector. Having been nominated in two categories; Environmental Social Enterprise and Community Based Social Enterprise, we were honoured to be recognised for our work alongside so many other fantastic social enterprises who were shortlisted from across the UK.

The team made our way to London in Silk Executive Travel people carriers generously provided by the LFC Foundation who have been using our Launderette as a commercial customer since 2020. Both LFC Foundation and Everton Football College use our services in line with their commitment to ensure they’re working with third parties who employ people at the Real Living Wage.

As a social enterprise our Launderette is committed supporting our local community and invests everything we make back into creating local job, paying the Real Living Wage, quality services and free social and educational events. We have also continued to offer a Free Washing which you can find out more about here which aims to tackle financial and social barriers people might face due to hygiene poverty.

Having started in May 2019, surviving a pandemic and growing into a thriving community hub this award felt like a great testament to our local community and those from further afield who have continued to support us on our journey.

Peter Holbrook CBE, the chief executive of Social Enterprise UK and organiser of the awards, said:

“The last year has been a difficult one for businesses across the UK, and it has been no different for social enterprises. The Awards were a real evening of hope and inspiration and brought home the sheer ingenuity, adaptability and determination of the social enterprise community, which has continued to deliver for the people and communities they work with and support.

“The winners include businesses which are breaking down barriers for groups marginalised in the workforce, organisations at the heart of local economies, and those finding innovative ways to tackle the climate crisis. The ever-growing movement of social enterprise truly represents business at its best. Congratulations to all of the winners and to Kitty’s Launderette for their award.”

We were also featured in The Echo off the back of this award which was great and brought lots of new friendly faces into the launderette. You can read the article here.

Earlier in the month we also won the Community Business Award at the Laundry and Drycleaning Awards (LADA). The Laundry and Drycleaning Awards is the original industry award event that aims to recognise companies, individuals, services and products which stand out from the crowd, those bringing a new level of customer service and professionalism to the industry and helping it face the challenges of changing society and technology head-on. These awards, open to all sectors within the textile care industry; individuals and companies alike.

Being recognised by a national organisation representing the laundry industry felt amazing as this affirms our belief that equitable business can provide professional and quality laundry services while serving our community.

We are just one of thousands of Social Enterprises spread across the UK and if you would like to find out more about how our business model works please feel free to check out the resources below. We’ve also included links to the awards shortlist and would encourage you to check out and support the work of fellow nominees from the social enterprise awards:

Social Enterprise UK Website

List of award nominees at Social Enterprise Awards 2023

The School for Social Entrepreneurs supports those who are wanting to create business that make meaningful impact in their communities.

An article about our Launderette written by Stir to Action which is a publication body that focuses on strategic economic development projects

Social Enterprise Awards 2023 !

We were delighted to pick up the Community-Based Social Enterprise Award from Social Enterprise UK, at the national sector body awards, which recognise impact and innovation in purpose-led business.

Peter Holbrook CBE, the chief executive of Social Enterprise UK and organiser of the awards, said:

We were also featured in The Echo off the back of this award which was great and brought lots of new friendly faces into the launderette. You can read the article here.

List of award nominees at Social Enterprise Awards 2023

The School for Social Entrepreneurs supports those who are wanting to create business that make meaningful impact in their communities.

An article about our Launderette written by Stir to Action which is a publication body that focuses on strategic economic development projects

Kitty’s Launderette team fundraising run for local charity Love, Jasmine

We’re coming together to support one of our own team members and her small local charity here in Liverpool.

Kathy is co-founder of Love, Jasmine, a charity which supports family members directly affected by the loss of a child by providing practical, emotional and respite support.

Love, Jasmine was set up in 2016 following the sudden death of Kathy’s own daughter Jasmine, who was only 6.

The last year has been extremely challenging for us all, even more so for small charities who have seen all their normal fundraising events cancelled, but with the need for their services being just as much in demand.

So we’re getting involved and joining Kathy in her virtual running/walking event which is taking place over the weekend of 17th/18th April.

We would really appreciate it if you could help us to support Love, Jasmine by donating what you can on our Just Giving Page and sponsoring the laundry team participating in this event.

Or, why not also get involved yourself and sign up to take part and raise some much needed funds:https://www.lovejasmine.org.uk/lovetorun

Visual artist needed

Kitty’s Launderette are looking for a local artist to help brighten up the outside of our community launderette. We have two large metal shutters which are currently unpainted and a bit drab.

We would love something that celebrates our values of creativity, community, and care for the environment. However, we are open to any proposed artwork and are happy to be surprised!

To fee for the commission, inclusive of materials is £1500 and will take place in spring 2021.

Please send us 100 words about your idea and either a pencil or digital sketch of your proposed design or artwork. Plus 2 images of your previous work.

Email to creative@kittyslaunderette.org.uk
before the deadline for proposals 5pm Friday 19th February.

The measurements for the shutters are:

Launderette Shutter: 3.4 x 2.4 meters
Other Shutter: 2.4 x 2.2 meters
(larger lenths being the widths)

Here are some pictures of the shutters and the front of our launderette…

Please note the temporary window coverings above will be being replaced by windows this spring also.

Kitty’s in the community

Did you know that, for every pound you spend at Kitty’s, you help us generate £7.11 of value in return?

Or that, over the next three years, Kitty’s is calculated to generate over £3.5m (£3,552,739) of social impact?

We’ve been working with Nick Small at Social Impact Consulting to create a social value report. It’s the measure that we use to calculate the community – or social – impact of a business, by putting a value against a range of positive impacts it has, like wellbeing, jobs in the local community, self esteem, improved confidence, family support – a whole range of things that can’t be measured in simple financial terms. But they’re the sort of things that can have a transformational impact on people’s lives.

*`Here's our lovely Lawrence on the left who does our free deliveries for elderly and vulnerable people and people in financial hardship within our community.`*

We have five key social impacts:

Reducing hygiene poverty by providing high-quality, affordable ecological laundry and dry cleaning services in a friendly, non-judgemental, open community setting. ‘Hygiene poverty’ is having to make a choice between heating your home, paying your rent, eating or being clean. It includes not being able to launder your clothes, school uniforms or sports kits when needed and has a big impact on the confidence and wellbeing of people who’re struggling to make ends meet.
Rebuilding a sense of community. Do we need to say more? We love to catch up with our customers, whether you’re popping in for a cuppa or calling to check if you’re laundry’s ready.
Raising awareness of healthy living and wellbeing by encouraging people to come together in a community space and encouraging people to take control of their own mental and physical wellbeing.
Creating good jobs with training and paying the real living wage as well as providing quality volunteering opportunities, all contributing to creating inclusive economic growth.
We also have a good environmental impact – although it’s harder to quantify in numbers right now. We use pioneering ecologically-sound improvements to dry cleaning and use electric (not gas-powered) washing machines and driers, buying our energy from 100% renewable sources. Our plastic bags are biodegradable (and we offer canvas alternatives); our ecological detergent refill service cuts down on single-use plastic and we partner with Agile Liverpool, to use cargo bikes for laundry drops.

*`Here's some of the scrubs we did for the Royal hospital during the first lockdown of Covid19`*

Our social impact report is important, because it helps us to measure the things that are traditionally difficult to calculate – the difference it makes to people’s lives.

Most importantly, it helps us measure the impact of different things that we do, so that we have a way to keep true to our values and our vision here. It’s a way to show us the social value of different ways we spend our money, so our members can decide which has the most impact in our community. It helps us to see things in a different way.

Click here to read the executive summary of our impact report. Or get in touch if you’d like to see the full methodology behind it.

Hanging Out with Our Researcher: Project Update!

This update is written by Kerrie McGiveron, our researcher on our UK Lottery-funded heritage oral history project, ‘Hanging Out, The Histories of Liverpool’s Laundry Life.’

Gathering Stories

Those of you who follow us on social media will know that our heritage project is well underway. Back in May I started interviewing men and women at Kitty’s Launderette, chatting to them about their memories of wash houses and launderettes in the Liverpool area. As a social historian, it means a lot to me to hear the stories and memories of men and women who recalled streets, shops and aspects of daily life around the wash house. These interviews were recorded and transcribed for our archive at Kitty’s Launderette.

Collaborations

It is important to me that this history project is shared with our community. I believe that history is for everyone and it is important to communicate and celebrate these lesser-known histories of Liverpool’s laundry life. Back in June, I contacted the Museum of Liverpool to see if we could work together to bring this project to a wider audience in a creative and engaging way. Kay Jones, the curator of urban community history at the museum and Paul Gallagher the deputy director of the museum visited our beautiful launderette on a particularly busy day.

Against the backdrop of whirring washing machines, babies crawling and washing-folding, we chatted about possible ideas for a display in the museum.

Over the coming months we firmed up our plans and I continued with the oral history interviews at Kitty’s (in between doing the sheet dance and folding laundry of course!) As I am also doing a PhD at the University of Liverpool I was able to enlist their help for me to work on the display as a placement. In September I began my short placement at the museum to help put together the display along with Kay Jones. We came up with the idea of using some of the items from the museum’s collections as well as some of the interview material I have gathered. Led by the interviews and the memories of the participants, items were selected from the museum stores and key quotes printed onto washing, as well as folded sheets stacked on an old Silver Cross pram. I won’t add too many spoilers about the display here!

Original photographs in the museum’s collection. These have been scanned to be used in the display and as part of a video to be shown on the screens at the museum.

Behind the Scenes

In early October, Kay and I visited to the museum stores to select the objects for display as well as photographs to be scanned. The items, which included a mangle from Christian Street wash house from around 1930, had to be handled carefully with gloves, wrapped and transported to our office ready to display.

One of the conservators at the museum showing us the mangle.

Our idea about printing quotes onto washing was also coming to fruition around this time!

I am very much enjoying bringing together this exhibition with the Museum of Liverpool, Kitty’s Launderette through the University of Liverpool’s placement scheme. The display will celebrate the history of Liverpool’s laundry life, showing some of the memories and lived experience of ordinary people in our community.

The exhibition opens at the Museum of Liverpool on Friday 22nd November 2019 and will run until mid February 2020.

Introducing Our Heritage Project

My name is Kerrie and I am excited to be part of the Kitty’s Launderette team as the lead researcher on our community-led heritage project, ‘Hanging Out: Histories of Liverpool’s Laundry Life.’ The project is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and will explore Liverpool’s washhouses and the community around them. My aim over the next few months is to gather and record stories and memories of Liverpool washhouses from members of the local community to explore these lesser-known social histories of Liverpool life.

Washhouses in Liverpool have played a significant role in urban development and public health as well as being a social space for the community. As a PhD researcher interested in social history and lived experience, this project is absolutely fascinating for me and I am so proud to be a part of it.

Kitty Wilkinson

The starting point for my research has been our namesake, the inspirational Kitty Wilkinson. Catherine Wilkinson (1786–1860) who became known as the ‘Saint of the Slums.’ Her commitment to public health and community work resulted in the opening of Frederick Street washhouse, the first in the UK. Michael Kelly’s book The Life and Times of Kitty Wilkinson provides a rich and fascinating account of Kitty’s life and has been a wonderful resource.

Mapping Wash-Houses

For background research I really wanted to think about ‘mapping washhouses’ in Liverpool. This is no easy task, as Liverpool has altered so much, with the slum clearances of the 1960s and 1970s changing the face of city. I began by using the book, Talk of the Wash House by Peter Ellison and Paulette Howe and have been researching the development of washhouses in Liverpool from the nineteenth century. These include Burroughs Gardens washhouse which opened in 1879 and closed in 1985. Burroughs Gardens was threatened with closure in the 1970s and this led to many women demonstrating successfully to keep the wash house open. This is just one interesting aspect of the research I have undertaken so far, and I am looking forward to continuing with my ongoing aim of ‘mapping’ these washhouses, their key events and people.

Demonstrations outside Burroughs Gardens, 1970

Opening Event

We are launching our heritage project officially on Monday 13th April with a welcome event from 7.00pm – 9.00pm. We are delighted to also be hosting Cinema Nation with a selection of film-screenings celebrating the lives of women in Liverpool. Three short films will be shown which encapsulate ‘The Spirit of Liverpool’ and will be a welcoming and informal event to celebrate the opening of our launderette and the launch of our community-led project.

Recording Memories

Once Kitty’s Launderette is open, I will be running a drop-in session once a week. These sessions will be an informal chat over a cuppa, where we will interview and record memories of wash houses in the Liverpool area. From my research already, it is clear that these wash houses were part of the fabric of life. One of Liverpool’s folk songs about the changing face of Liverpool and resettlement of residents outside of the city includes a line demonstrating the importance of the washhouse as a nostalgic reminder of family life and community:

‘We’ll miss the Mary Ellens
And me Dad’ll miss the docks
An Gran’ll miss the washhouse
Where she washed me Granddad’s socks
Don’t want to go to Kirkby
Or Skelmersdale or Speke
Don’t want to go, from all we know
On Back Buchanan Street’

I am very much looking forward to hearing the stories of men and women who used launderettes or worked in them. As the project takes off, we are hoping to produce a series of zines, an exhibition and other events. The next few months are going to be very exciting for myself as a researcher, for the local community and for Kitty’s Launderette.

The drop-in sessions will run each Thursday from 1.00pm – 8.30pm. For more information and to book an appointment at the drop-in please call Kerrie on 07943 008 592 or email heritage@kittyslaunderette.org.uk

Tickets are available for ‘The Spirit of Liverpool’ film screening on Monday 13th May by donation at Eventbrite

Getting The Technical Set Up Right

A few years ago, we had an idea to create a community launderette in Anfield/ Everton with affordable washing and drying facilitates as well as a space for people to gather, talk and learn.

We’re almost ready to open for business thanks to the hundreds of hours our small team have put in to renovating our space.

For our third blog our project coordinator Grace shares her experiences of bringing together the skills and knowledge of lots of different people to pull together a functioning launderette space

My name is Grace and I have been involved with Kitty’s Launderette since the early days, I’m responsible for a lot of the research and co-ordination of getting our idea off the ground. Since securing our building in Spring 2018, we have been working closely with a number of people and organiations to create a functioning top-quality launderette; which is accessible, safe and efficient. It’s taken a lot of planning, consultation and collaboration, pushing us all beyond our comfort zones, as many of us have never undertaken anything of this size and complexity before.

Throughout the planning process we were lucky to work with Alex from Lj Architects based in North Liverpool and Paul, our structural engineer. They’ve both given us that technical underpinning of the lay out of the space, ensuring we are complying with complex building regulations and fire safety standards. They have been incredibly supportive of what we are trying to achieve, investing and sharing our vision from the early days and helping us gain planning permission in December 2018.

Since the beginning of our project we have been thinking about how we could make our new set up as environmentally friendly as possible. After undertaking research into the industry, we took the decision to opt for a completely electric set-up for the water heating and drying. Gas is largely traditionally used for this and can be cheaper from suppliers however part of our reimagining of a launderette means it needs to be fit for a fossil free future so we’re very proud to be using a renewable energy provider.

This meant that we definitely needed a brilliant electrician and thankfully we found one! Phil was responsible for undertaking a total refit of the space, installing powerful three phase sockets for our machines, trunking and a new large powerful fuse board; not to mention all the lighting and new sockets. Phil approaches every work day with a smile on his face and enthusiasm for his job. He has delivered the whole refit over a couple of months becoming a key member of the team and developing a good set of jokes with our lead builder Ehsan.

Alongside Phil, Ehsan has been working on the detailed insulation and fire boarding of the walls and ceiling. As the ceiling in particular can be quite challenging with several layers of heavy fire proof board, Ehsan (also known as the inventor) fabricated himself a plaster board lifting machine on wheels to assist him in this job.

Ehsan’s desire and ability to turn his hand to everything has meant, he built and installed our new electric roller shutters as well as the new higher capacity plumbing and drainage in the launderette space. He also ensured we made a great accessible toilet and baby changing facilities in the space for all visitors to use. He’s also installed plumbing to our all-important tea and coffee station!

Ehsan cutting and welding our new roller shutters, behind the machines: electrics, plumbing, drainage and ventilation. Fred painting the beams with lots of layers of high spec fire resistant paint.

A long- time friend of the laundry, Kenny resident and award-winning plaster, Yagob did an amazing job helping to plaster the launderette in just a couple of weekends. It was amazing to watch him work with such speed and precision and the final finish of the space is fantastic.

Since 2017 we have been researching the washing machines that we hoped to have in our new community launderette. Since we had the opportunity to build the launderette from scratch we wanted to get the most environmentally friendly machines on the market, with efficiency and quality manufacturing of great importance. We have been to visit loads of different launderettes around the country, talked to them about their experience of their machines and sought as much advice as we could possibly glean!

We have been thrilled to work alongside Goodman Sparks, a 30+ year old family business in Sheffield who have been incredibly generous to Kitty’s Launderette with their time and knowledge, helping us shape the best set up for the space and giving us the low-down on all the industry tips. They will be delivering the training to our new team so we can deliver the best quality laundry and eco dry cleaning services.

Research trip to Goodman Sparks launderette in Sheffield, getting shown the ropes by Barry the pro!

Machine delivery day finally arrived with great excitement and anticipation, we all had our fingers crossed (seriously) that all our measurements were correct and we got all the plumbing, electrics and ventilation in the right place! Goodman Sparks team did the install with Ehsan on hand for building support and cups of tea.

They are now all fixed into place, all the services connected and ready for us to now complete the design finishes’ in the space ahead of opening. We of course have begun doing some test washing to make sure they are working well, which is handy because we all have loads of dirty building clothes from the last months of hard graft! So, here’s to a spotless, clean smelling future!

Do you want to join the Kitty’s Launderette team?

Please email team@kittyslaunderette.org.uk with two paragraphs about yourself and why you would like to join us, or come along to one of our drop-ins and tell us about why you want to work at Kitty’s.

Drop-in sessions…

77 Grasmere Street, L5 6RJ
• Wednesday 6th March 12.30pm – 5.30pm
• Saturday 9th March 10am – 2pm

What are we looking for in new team members?
We are looking for people who…
• Like working with people and as part of a team
• Are excited to learn new skills & ways of working while earning a living wage
• Want to have a positive impact on our neighbourhood and the environment?

Applications close Midnight, Tuesday 12th March
For more information on the wider project visit www.kittyslaunderette.org.uk

Designing the look and feel of the launderette

Three years ago, we had an idea to create a community launderette in Anfield/ Everton with affordable washing and drying facilitates as well as a community arts space.

After a lot of hard work from our small team of workers and volunteers our building is beginning to take shape.

Soon we’ll be opening our doors but before we do, we want to share our journey! Our blog series gives you an insight into all the wonderful people bringing our vision to life.

For our second blog our lead designer, Louis shares his work on developing the look and feel of Kitty’s Launderette.

My name’s Louis and I’ve been leading on the visual identity for Kitty’s Launderette for the last 3 years alongside the team. I wanted to share some of the designs we’ve made and the thought processes we’ve had while developing them.

When designing the look and feel of the launderette, we had many conversations to develop the core values we wanted to communicate. It needed to feel clean and fresh as well as communicating our desire for more environmentally conscience processes. We chose a natural and vibrant green colour and added a sky/ freshwater blue as a neutral colour complimenting the green.

ITC Conduit Extra Bold was the perfect choice for a typeface because its design is based on the kind of letters used on laundry labels and also on the shapes created by pluming. I love the directness of it, it also has quite a lot of interesting quirks. I created a small caps version of the font too which emphasised the direct launderette feel we wanted.

In keeping with this directness, the logo I created is simply Kitty’s Launderette spun round like a washing machine. I referenced laundry icons for this. I like that it’s simple enough that you could draw it by hand and instantly recognise it as Kitty’s Launderette.

I went on to create some illustrations which developed naturally from these ideas. They relate to the directness of laundry icons but with a freer hand-drawn style shape. We first used these on the soap we made for the Kickstarter and have gone on to use them in other designs.

After trying this colour out on the initial flyers, we’ve begun to expand our palette with other vibrant and fun colours drawn from flowers.

When we started to think about the shop front signage we wanted to hand-paint it, not just because we love building things ourselves but it was also more economic and it gives the launderette a homely and welcoming feel. We drew inspiration from established businesses in our local area – Handyman’s Corner, The MOT garage and Frank Greens who all have great hand-painted signage.

The building we are in was formerly a builder’s workshop and consequently there were many materials left in the space. Throughout the renovation work we’ve tried to re-use things as much as possible including materials for our new shopfront. This spirit of recycling and giving things a new life has been the grounding for a lot of the look and feel of the launderette.

We used a projector to translate the designs onto the plywood boards which we bought from our neighbours at Handyman’s Corner. Then hand-painted the colourful designs.

As well as the main Kitty’s Launderette sign above the door we wanted to experiment with some temporary decorative signage around the buildings exterior while building work is ongoing. I started putting the arrows from the logo onto the illustration and realised it looked like a movement diagram, a dance you could do in the launderette. Or maybe instructions on how to do the laundry “the dance you do while folding the sheets” as one of our friends and supporters once said. I like the idea of developing this into a kind of hop scotch game which we could use on the ground at the opening event.

I love how playful and imaginative we can be when doing projects like this. We can think of exciting ideas that are engaging for our community, members and workers, they’re also fun to create!

In recent weeks we have had some great volunteer days down at the site, focusing on the shopfront; helping us come on leaps and bounds with the renovation works. Tom B, Tom C, Fred and Myriam have all pitched in with painting, cleaning, carpentry and much more. It’s lovely to have new energy and input down on the site, especially on those rainy cold days!

Volunteer days: Fred taking off the old paintwork, Tom taking down the old signboards, Myriam painting the new window woodwork.

These hardwood doors give gives the shopfront a traditional feel and brings in natural light. Ehsan made them a concertina so we can open up the shopfront in warm weather or for events.

We worked with Local Business Taylor Glass on Anfield Road to install double glazing in the doors. They have been amazing to work with and offered us lots of advice and contacts for other trades people in the area.

Ehsan designed and constructed this beautiful guard for the windows out of scrap metal already in the building, making the most of his welding skills and creativity.

We’re creating something positive for our community so it’s been important to design the space with as much love and attention to detail as possible.

Starting with a core grounding, it’s easier to make decisions on designs and anything to do with the launderette. When we have difficult decisions to make, we can just ask whether the options fit with what we all believe in.

Once you have the basis for what the project stands for, with elements that represent that, you can see how far you can stretch the ideas. I’m looking forward to how the space continues to develop and where we can take the designs we have.

The team keep laughing at my idea of “bring your undies bunting” for our opening weekend, but I think it’s a pretty good idea!