Since 2008, Little Green Pig has offered creativity and support for underrepresented young people in Sussex. Explore their journey with Director, Nicky Crabb, hear about the impact they’ve made, and why they are a Living Wage employer.
Can you tell us about Little Green Pig?
We are a writing and mentoring charity for underrepresented children and young people in Sussex. We were first set up in 2008 and started off in Brighton and Hove where we now run four regular after school clubs and other one off projects.
We have also expanded to work in Worthing and Eastbourne. Our team is small but mighty, supported by some brilliant volunteer story mentors and freelance writing workshop leaders. They help deliver our programme, overseen by a very supportive board of trustees and also our youth board to make sure that young people have a real voice in the charity. We also work with schools and partner organisations to deliver projects, residencies and other programmes of work.
What do you do in your role?
I’m the Director, which in a small charity means doing lots of different things as we don’t have an HR department or a big fundraising team. I basically do a bit of everything, line managing our brilliant staff team, overseeing our fundraising and talking to funders, keeping an eye on finances and keeping in touch with the work we deliver across Sussex. It’s never boring! One day I can be at one of our clubs in Whitehawk Library, then meeting with our fundraiser to plan an application, to talking to the board about strategy or going to a networking event!
Why did you sign up to the Living Wage Campaign?
We try hard to be a compassionate and flexible employer, and so our board was right behind me when I heard about the Living Wage Campaign. We made the necessary changes and got signed up. Brighton is an expensive city to live in and we wanted to make sure our staff team were being paid the Real Living Wage.
Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to start paying the Living Wage, but isn’t sure how to go about doing it in their business?
To start with, we looked into the national Living Wage Foundation and what it represented and agreed that we wanted to make that commitment to our staff. We then looked across our organisation at all the different roles and worked out which ones would need to change and whether we were in a financial position to do that. Once we were, we did not hesitate to apply for the accreditation through the Living Wage Foundation and also sign up to the Brighton campaign which the Chamber runs.
What are the best bits of your job?
Seeing the children and young people we work with growing in confidence from one week to the next and knowing we are making a real difference to their life chances, as well as providing them with some fun and creativity.
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We have always voluntarily paid the Living wage but we have chosen to support the Living Wage Campaign as a demonstration to other businesses and encourage others to become part of the project. It is important to raise the profile of the campaign and in doing so support the wider community.
Our wonderful team are key to the operation of our shop and so it's only right to make sure they are paid fairly for their hard work.
