What's Growing in Your Greenhouse?
November is a lean time of year for gardeners but over at Republic we’re sowing the seeds for what we hope will be a bumper crop of innovation at our newly-opened incubator space, The Greenhouse.
Trilogy has established The Greenhouse at Republic with our partners The Trampery and the University of the West of Scotland to create a space for early-stage entrepreneurs and start-ups to grow their businesses. The Greenhouse has a mission to offer space and business support to local people, Republic tenants, graduates of the UWS and impact-focused businesses. This will be delivered by the Trampery Republic’s EVO Pioneers programme, which offers free desk space for six months alongside workshops and a network of business support.
Why is this important? Because when businesses like Republic are serious about our commitment to social value, we are able to use our convening power to provide opportunity and make connections that benefit the people that live in our neighbourhood. Trilogy’s Head of Sustainability & Stakeholder Engagement, May Molteno; The Trampery’s Kelly Coeur-de-Leon and Jessica Roper and UWS’ Lucie Pollard all deserve credit for their ongoing work making these connections actually happen at Republic.
One of the success stories of Republic to date is Maher Anjum and her not-for-profit organisation, Oitij-jo Collective. Maher first bought Oitij-jo to Republic in 2018, when she secured a desk through a predecessor of the EVO Pioneers programme. Maher used her space at Republic to initiate Oitij-jo’s TATI project, which works with women from the British Bangladeshi community in Tower Hamlets, crowdfunding the project and securing money from the Mayor of London’s office, the GLA and Tower Hamlets Council.
TATI works with women to help them recognise their skills and explore their potential an environment that has encouraged many to access formal education and skills training. We’ve since given TATI a long-term home at Republic in one of our ground floor retail units, from which Maher and her team run craft and textiles workshops, provide school holiday activities for local children, and sell freshly cooked meals to the office workers based in Republic.
You can read more about The Greenhouse and apply for membership here: