Businesswise is about proper friendships and proper referrals with Dawn Prosser

Today’s presenter, Fiona Da Silva talks to Dawn Prosser, who has the charity seat in Businesswise and now runs the Swindon Night Shelter and Renew Swindon.Dawn, who has been a member of the group for 10 years, talks about how the networking group has supported her over the years. Initially, her subs were paid for by a previous member, and then she joined.When she joined the group she had set up Gateway Furniture and ran that between 2009 and 2017, when it was handed over to someone else. She joined the Night Shelter a couple days a week as the food manager, and also started the Renew Swindon project, which is a community centre in Penhill. She is now full-time at the Night Shelter too.Dawn explains how both Renew and the Night Shelter support people, and how both charities have developed over time. She also explains the difference between a CIC (Community Interest Company) and a charity, and therefore Renew is a CIC.We also talk about some of the reasons that people end up homeless, and how for both the people in the Night Shelter and those visiting Renew, having the opportunity to mix with other people is vital for their mental well-being.She also shares how members of Businesswise have supported the charities over the years – from rewiring a whole shop, helping with electrics in the Renew workshop, plumbing, photographs to, as a team transforming a porter cabin into emergency accommodation. Different members often give a day of their time to work as a team to support the charity. They also often donate ticket sales from open networking evenings.If you’d like to know more about Dawn and Businesswise, visit https://businesswise.org.uk/