Tap Social Movement is one of six social enterprise hubs for the eScalate business support programme, which we at OSEP deliver in collaboration with OxLEP.
Tap Social Movement is an award-winning craft brewery, events and hospitality business, which grew out of a passion for great beer and social justice. It provides training and employment to people serving and recently released from prison sentences to assist in effective rehabilitation and seeks to champion the cause of inclusive employment in the hospitality industry.
We caught up with Paul, Co-Founder and Director of Tap Social to find out more about their vision, the impact they have made so far, and how eScalate as helped the organisation over the last 18th months. >>
What is Tap Social’s vision & mission?
Tap Social’s mission is to reduce reoffending by creating training and employment opportunities for ex-offenders, both in our own industry (hospitality) and more widely. Our vision is for a more inclusive approach to recruitment, where no one is excluded from the labour market, which would have a massive positive impact on various disadvantaged groups including helping to break the vicious cycle of reoffending which currently characterises our broken prison system.
What impact have you already made with Tap?
We have worked directly with over 30 ex-offenders as part of our long term training and employment programmes, several of whom have since joined our team permanently and many more of whom have found permanent work elsewhere with our help. We have worked with hundreds more prisoners and ex-offenders through our prisoner art projects (we display work by artists in prison on all of our products and at our venues) and through going in and running training sessions and events in prison. The success of our community taproom and our events locally have significantly increased the public profile of our social mission.
How has Tap adapted during the pandemic, and how have you supported your team.
As a hospitality social enterprise clearly the pandemic has had a major effect. We did some home deliveries at the beginning of the first lock-down to clear existing stock and have fast tracked our transition into cans to try and position ourselves better for the retail / off sales market. We are running an app-based table service system at our community taproom now and complying with all relevant social distancing regulations as they emerge and evolve. We have sought to support our team through regular catch-up meetings both in person and online and have managed to avoid completely losing any staff as a result of Covid so far.
Why did you want to be part of delivering the eScalate programme?
Tap Social is all about the power of business / enterprise to turn lives around and make a positive contribution to an important social issue, so it seemed natural and exciting for us to be involved in a programme to encourage and foster other social businesses.
What impact do you think supporting more socially conscious organisations will have on our local economy and community?
When you look at the great work going on by so many local community organisations and social enterprises, whether on the environment or social issues, the positive impact on the community is clear. What is sometimes less well understood is the economic benefit. Consumers are increasingly demanding that all businesses be more socially conscious, and helping charities and community organisations to be more business-like in their operations, and to harness the opportunities presented by trading activities can be really powerful.
How has the eScalate programme helped Tap Social over the last 18 months?
It has been brilliant to be centrally networked into the vibrant community of social entrepreneurs in Oxfordshire as a social enterprise hub, even if the effects of the pandemic have meant there have been less face to face networking opportunities than we would have liked. We have also been fortunate enough to be successful in our application for an eScalate grant to support our project to launch a new hospitality venture, including a training kitchen, at the White House on the Abingdon Road in central Oxford.
Tap Social will be hosting the social event (naturally!) for POP2020: Power of Purpose Week from 16th – 20th November. The evening will be showcasing Tap’s famous hospitality with free beer (collected from the Tap Room) for the 1st 25 people that sign up to the event , and a general knowledge pub quiz to round off the evening!
Paul Humpherson, co-founder of Tap Social Movement, will be hosting the evening and introducing a brand new social enterprise, which Tap has helped to mentor. The evening will be a great way to connect with other social impact organisations, hear inspiring business journeys, and enjoy a great Tap beer too!
If you would like to join this session, sign up here.
You can sign up to all the POP2020 events on Eventbrite, here’s the schedule >>
