BrightsideUNIAID

Value-for-money with top-class facilities

Education charity BrightsideUNIAID - a merger between The Brightside Trust and UNIAID - is a charity that seeks to build a society where all individuals are inspired and empowered to achieve their potential through education and employment. It provides information and support for people from disadvantaged backgrounds who want to enter higher education, along with resources for schools and universities. "Our overall mission is to tackle education inequality. We do that mainly by providing online information, advice and guidance, supported by mentoring," says Chief Executive Tessa Stone

Brightside originally moved into CAN Mezzanine's London Bridge building when their growing staff, who were all working from home, began to feel isolated.  "The organisation had grown to a sufficient size with five or six members of staff. Working from home is fine, but people wanted to see each other," says Tessa Stone.  "We were meeting in a coffee shop on London Bridge station, so finding a flexible office space was really necessary."

Uniaid moved into Loman Street at about the same time. When the charities merged in 2008 staying with CAN Mezzanine was the obvious choice.

The charity are now firmly based at CAN Mezzanine's Loman Street offices in Southwark. Tessa explains why. "The main benefits of being in ‘The Mezz' are the facilities we get for the price. There is no way that we would have access to this range of facilities in this sort of location, at this sort of price elsewhere. It's also a very flexible way for charities like ours to get really good quality space. Although we currently have 10 desks, we have gone up and down in numbers over the years."

As well as offering flexibility to scale up or down, BrightsideUNIAID makes use of the many meeting rooms available at Loman Street. In addition, the worry of equipment maintenance is taken care of. "We don't have to hire, rent or fix things like photocopiers or franking machines. Having those sorts of things taken care of for us is a real benefit."

Tessa describes the office atmosphere as "busy and purposeful" and there has been a boost in staff spirits since moving into CAN Mezzanine. "We've had a member of staff who's recently had to do a lot of work from home and she can't wait to get back to the office. The group dynamic is important for morale, particularly in the charity sector, people realise that they're all working to the same end."

For more information on BrightsideUNIAID visit http://www.brightsideuniaid.org/