Anthony Djondo is the Executive Director of Bootstrap Enterprises, an organisation in East London which works with people from disenfranchised communities, helping them to set up businesses. This is the 29th year of operation of Bootstrap Enterprises. The organisation was set up by Helen Evans and Martin McEnery back in 1977, initially in the Finsbury Park area of North London. They were looking for a system of tackling long-term unemployment and poverty, and using the Enterprise format to do that. They were helping local people to get into the co-operative housing movement, and supporting and advising them to set up their own businesses regarding finance and accommodation, etc. Then the organisation moved onto a housing estate, working with social landlords and local authorities, in a really deprived environment.
Bootstrap is also one of a number of organisations delivering employment skills and enterprise training to people in the local vicinity.
We shifted to Hackney in East London and we moved to our current premises in The Printhouse 18 years ago now. Slowly but surely, over the years, we developed the building to provide managed office and workshop spaces for budding enterprises. Bootstrap also set up several environmentally-focused businesses of our own, including computer recycling, paper recycling, etc.
It was around that time that Bootstrap moved into working on a housing estate, and also at the same time doing things around community finance like credit union development. Our main delivery is still hackney, but we are also delivering in Lambeth, Camden, Islington, Haringey and last year we worked in Housinlow doing credit union development work.
Our sister organisation in Blackburn, Bootstrap, has been operating for 16 years. They are wholly independent and doing regeneration work.
I joined the operation in 1999. I joined as Deputy Director and became Executive Director in 2001.
Before that, I worked for a project called the Community Enterprise Development Agency, which was a CSV (Community Service Volunteers) project. It worked with Black and ethnic minority community and voluntary sector organisations. The other arm of it worked with Black and ethnic minority individuals who wanted to set up in business. Ironically, Bootstrap took over that project in 2000. The project is now delivered by our Community Enterprise Department here. Running seminars around fundraising, management, staff, a whole raft of different issues. Then there is the one-to-one work with key officers and committee members within those groups in terms of organisational development.
As far as individuals wanting to set up their own businesses, they range from people virtually ready to go, in terms of their ideas, business planning etc., to those who need to filter all their different ideas, and then crystallise the ones that are feasible, build a business plan around that idea and submit it to banks, funders etc. I did that for about three years and we've now got that project in-house here.
