Monday 9 May 2016

Little Steps at PS Hairdressing

Earlier this year we won the Surrey Heath Business Award for Social and Environmental Responsibility. We were absolutely delighted to win and it gave us the perfect opportunity to reflect on how we have been able to improve our social and charitable activities in the salon and where we may be able to go next.

Our main outreach has been working with the Little Princess Trust. This has been a wonderful charity to get involved with from the salon and we have been able to collect fifty hair donations over the past couple of years.

The key to this success has been doing something simple and sticking with it. Our clients and friends understand what we’re doing and how they can help. This small change has quickly become routine leaving room to make new small changes that in turn can become part of our routine.

Whilst working with the Little Princess Trust has given us the chance to support a charity that is close to our hearts as hairdressers, the next step for us was finding a charity that we can collaborate with locally; and this is where Step by Step comes in.

Step by Step is a charity based in Aldershot that offers help and support to young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in the surrounding area. They are able to offer emergency accommodation and longer-term help with employment skills and life skills as well as helping families build relationships to reduce the risks of homelessness in the future. To find out more about the work they do visit their website - https://www.stepbystep.org.uk/

Everyone needs a bit of help and direction in their teens to be able to reach their potential. Step by Step use workshops, talks and visits with small businesses to help their young users develop employment skills, giving them a boost at the time when it is needed most.

Pippa first became aware of Step by Step through collections at her church and as a team we hoped to find a way to use our hairdressing skills to help and were optimistic that we could do something useful to assist the charity. So in March, Pippa and Eleanor met up with Jenny Jackson from Step by Step to discuss ways of getting involved. The conversation with Jenny made us realise how easily we could help Step by Step on a short and long term basis.

As we have started finding out more and talking to people about Step by Step we’ve discovered ways people have previously been involved in the past. Arranging discussions in schools, fundraising and gift collections have all been popular.

Lots of people making a small effort can make a big difference. So we wanted to find ways for you to help too. Any work we do with charity is always more successful when we can involve you.

We are excited to announce that we will be commencing our support of Step by Step with Step by Step week in the salon from Tuesday 24th May. Have a look at our facebook page for more information and ways to get involved.