Kiveton Park & Wales

Kiveton Park & Wales are two adjacent villages about ten miles South East of Sheffield. Until the mid 1990s the area had a large coal industry, and with the closure of the colliery came high unemployment and a general loss of community spirit.

In its early days, it was relatively easy for the trust to secure funding from coalfields agencies, European funds, and other agencies, but funding sources have diminished over the years and the trust recently ran into financial difficulties.The Board realised the need to develop an enterprising approach in order to ensure sustainability, and one of the projects they embarked on is Kivo-Ebiz, a social enterprise selling unwanted items on e-bay on behalf of local people. 80% of the sale price goes to the seller and 20% is retained by the trust to cover running costs, with any profits being ploughed back into community projects.The enterprise is run by local volunteers which helps keep the costs down.In October 2006, Kivo-Ebiz took part in a dragon den-style contest at the Footsey 100 social enterprise trade fair in York and was awarded a £15,000 prize from the Adventure Capital Fund (ACF) for what one of the judges described as “one of the best and truest community enterprise I have seen in years.”

“What we liked about the project was that it didn’t need any start up costs; we already had computers which we could use and a camera; we could operate it with volunteers and we could advertise it within our own newsletter so we didn’t have to go cap in hand for funding”, says Chief Executive, Steph Hryschko, who is realistic about the capacity of Kivo-Ebiz to generate profits in its present form, but believes that the project is fulfilling the Trust’s mission by improving the lives of people in the area.“This is probably the most proactive project the Trust has ever undertaken, we go out to the homes of people in the community rather than them coming to us.This is particularly important for hard-to-reach groups and we can signpost people to other services and projects.”Kivo-Ebiz also provides free training for buying and selling on e-bay and a number of people that have accessed the training then go on to volunteer with the project – developing new skills and making new friends.

In fact the service has become very popular amongst residents of Kiveton Park and Wales, and the trust is having difficulty coping with demand.A lot of older people in the area are keen to sell some of their possessions to complement their income, and because their children and grandchildren may not be interested in the items they want to sell.A lot of people, particularly older people would be reluctant to sell directly on the internet, even if they had access to the technology and had the skills, and so they value the service.But the trust is also careful to operate in a way that benefits the resident, and if it is given an item of very high value to sell, it may advise the seller against using the service “because at the end of the day it is there for their benefit.”

Over a period of 18 months Kivo-Ebiz has brought £50,000 to the local community. There are plenty of examples where the trust has been able to use Kivo-Ebiz to put money directly into the hands of those who need it. These include a disabled lady who at the age of 78 was making and selling ornaments at car boot sales to supplement her very low income, and a young dad who had just been made redundant.In both cases the trust was able to sell items on their behalf and provide them with much needed cash.

For more information visit www.kpwcdt.co.uk