The Wandsworth based charity Carney’s Community has launched its latest social enterprise Carney’s Cycles, helping disadvantaged youth and providing bike repair services for locals.
Carney’s Community was established in 2011 and aims to improve physical, mental and social well-being of young people aged 11-30 around Wandsworth.
Carney’s Cycles formed when young members expressed interest in attending cycling meetups but lacked the bikes to do so.
Co-founder and CEO George Turner said: “We’re launching the shop where the young people we’re working with can earn some money by selling some of the bikes they’ve fixed up, fixing up other people’s bikes.
“So it’s creating an opportunity for them and giving them their first step on the ladder of employment.”
Carney’s engaged with the wider community to donate old bikes and worked with mechanics to repair them with the help of the young people.
Participants attend a five-week course with workshop lead Denise to learn bike maintenance and repair skills and are gifted the bike they’ve restored on completion.
Carney’s have given out more than 150 bikes so far through the initiative.
Carney’s is open to all young people, but targets the hardest to reach such as those who have been excluded from school, lived in care, have a criminal conviction, experience poverty, have a disability or are neurodiverse.
Watch the video below to find out more.
Image credit: Nick Cornwall
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