GLASGOW. Hogganfield Loch.
HMP Barlinnie cargo bike built and designed by prisoners at HMP Barlinnie.
On Bikes - Launch of grassroots social enterprise in Hogganfield Glasgow
Beyond Bars Cargo. In a ground-breaking collaboration with HMP Barlinnie, donated bikes are being repurposed into high-quality cargo bikes. Prison residents help dismantle and rebuild the bikes, gaining valuable skills in the process. Once sold, 100% of the profits go straight back into the community. These locally-made cargo bikes represent a full-circle model: built in Scotland, by the community, for the community.
Neil Young, CEO of St Pauls Youth Forum said: At SPYF we are passionate about supporting communities to flourish and the launch of SPYF On Bikes and Beyond Bars Cargo is a really exciting point in furthering our mission to alleviate transport poverty in Blackhill and make it easy for everyone to choose to cycle.
The opening of SPYF On Bikes marks a major milestone in the journey of St Paul’s Youth Forum from grassroots beginnings to a driving force for social innovation in Glasgow’s north east.
With funding for charities shrinking and community needs rising, many organisations are searching for new, sustainable ways to stay afloat and make a greater impact.
St Pauls Youth Forum is leading that change by opening a new social enterprise called SPYF On Bikes, in the North East of Glasgow.
Situated at Hogganfield Loch, between the affluent suburb of Stepps and one of Glasgow’s most disadvantaged communities, Blackhill, SPYF On Bikes isn’t your typical bike shop.
Every penny of its profit is reinvested into the local community through the work of St Pauls Youth Forum, a local charity empowering people through cycling, education, food, and friendship.
The work of St Pauls Youth Forum includes distributing free bikes across Glasgow, offering bike repairs, teaching cycle safety, and promoting inclusive cycling with adaptive bikes. They also run youth programs that provide a safe and fun environment for young people to learn,
grow, and explore new opportunities. Beyond bikes, the organisation addresses food insecurity by supporting community growing and cooking, and creating spaces for people to meet, move, and eat together with dignity.
To generate income, SPYF On Bikes focuses on two unique areas of the cycling market.
Firstly, they specialise in adaptive bikes cycles designed for people who may not be able to use a standard bicycle. Their Hogganfield Loch showroom features a full range of Van Raam adaptive cycles, which customers can try out onsite. Staff are trained to provide one-on-one
consultations to customise bikes to individual needs. And their commitment doesn’t stop at the sale: SPYF On Bikes offers full aftercare
HMP Barlinnie cargo bike built and designed by prisoners at HMP Barlinnie.
On Bikes - Launch of grassroots social enterprise in Hogganfield Glasgow
Beyond Bars Cargo. In a ground-breaking collaboration with HMP Barlinnie, donated bikes are being repurposed into high-quality cargo bikes. Prison residents help dismantle and rebuild the bikes, gaining valuable skills in the process. Once sold, 100% of the profits go straight back into the community. These locally-made cargo bikes represent a full-circle model: built in Scotland, by the community, for the community.
Neil Young, CEO of St Pauls Youth Forum said: At SPYF we are passionate about supporting communities to flourish and the launch of SPYF On Bikes and Beyond Bars Cargo is a really exciting point in furthering our mission to alleviate transport poverty in Blackhill and make it easy for everyone to choose to cycle.
The opening of SPYF On Bikes marks a major milestone in the journey of St Paul’s Youth Forum from grassroots beginnings to a driving force for social innovation in Glasgow’s north east.
With funding for charities shrinking and community needs rising, many organisations are searching for new, sustainable ways to stay afloat and make a greater impact.
St Pauls Youth Forum is leading that change by opening a new social enterprise called SPYF On Bikes, in the North East of Glasgow.
Situated at Hogganfield Loch, between the affluent suburb of Stepps and one of Glasgow’s most disadvantaged communities, Blackhill, SPYF On Bikes isn’t your typical bike shop.
Every penny of its profit is reinvested into the local community through the work of St Pauls Youth Forum, a local charity empowering people through cycling, education, food, and friendship.
The work of St Pauls Youth Forum includes distributing free bikes across Glasgow, offering bike repairs, teaching cycle safety, and promoting inclusive cycling with adaptive bikes. They also run youth programs that provide a safe and fun environment for young people to learn,
grow, and explore new opportunities. Beyond bikes, the organisation addresses food insecurity by supporting community growing and cooking, and creating spaces for people to meet, move, and eat together with dignity.
To generate income, SPYF On Bikes focuses on two unique areas of the cycling market.
Firstly, they specialise in adaptive bikes cycles designed for people who may not be able to use a standard bicycle. Their Hogganfield Loch showroom features a full range of Van Raam adaptive cycles, which customers can try out onsite. Staff are trained to provide one-on-one
consultations to customise bikes to individual needs. And their commitment doesn’t stop at the sale: SPYF On Bikes offers full aftercare
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NewsTranscript
00:00My name's Neil Young. I'm CEO at St Paul's Youth Forum, which is based in Black Hill in the north
00:05east of Glasgow. As part of our more environmental aspect of our project, we've been working with
00:10bikes for the last 10 years. And now we have this culmination of a bike shop, which has added onto
00:18when we've been distributing free bikes around the north east. Over the last year and a half,
00:24we've distributed over 1,700 bikes to people in our area. This has enabled folks who can't afford
00:31the £3.10 bus fare into town to be able to get to work for free, to be able to improve their health
00:37and fitness, and to be able to improve their well-being. We've been working with the bike
00:43workshop in Barlinny for a number of years. They've been helping us build up and reclaim some bikes
00:50that have been put on the junk heap. Quite often though, some bikes are beyond what they would
00:55call economic worth. They're too expensive to be able to fix. So Beyond Bikes Cargo Bikes is a new
01:03initiative where we've taken some of the broken bits of bikes, and then the broken people who have
01:08been discarded by society into prison have put these two things together. And these guys have been able
01:15to create a brand new cargo bike, and so they've not only been able to transform the bikes, but
01:21transforming themselves. I'm Rick Baxter. I'm the active manager for On Bikes at St Paul's Shoe Forum.
01:27So the bikes are built within the prison, and between the metal fabrication workshop and the bike
01:33workshop. So the inmates are learning new skills, new technologies, obviously bike maintenance first
01:39of all, but also frame building and kind of repurposing old bikes into products you see today.
01:46What we're looking for from the project is to upskill the prisoners, to give them a qualification,
01:51to give them a new skill set which they don't normally have, and it's to looking at employability
01:55for these guys when they come out of prison. These kind of bikes can get used in other charities,
01:59other organisations. It's a cheap alternative to both for transport and raveling using a car.
02:05My name's Stuart Bell. I'm a prison officer. I've worked in HMP Berlin for 23 years, and I currently
02:12work in the bike workshop. We've been in partnership with St Paul's Shoe Forum for the last two years.
02:18So we currently employ between 14 and 16 prisoners. They vary from qualified car mechanics to guys that
02:28have maybe just shown an interest in cycling in the past. It gives guys the opportunity for purposeful
02:34activity. What I find is we get a much better relationship with the prisoners in the workshop
02:41environment, as opposed to the residential setting. You really do see a different side to them.
02:46It gives us the opportunity to get a bit more quality work done with them. They open up a lot more.
02:52They'll speak to you more about their family. They'll open up about any problems or issues that they might
02:59have. It gives us a chance to build a much better relationship with them.
03:05A sense of pride, yep. Certainly. I mean, some of the bikes that we take in, they're donations. Some of them
03:12are literally, they've been pulled out of the canal and they're a bit of a state. But the bikes are
03:18completely stripped down, refurbished. So the guys are basically following the process right through.
03:23I think it's a kind of pilot. I mean, we've, as I said, we've only been going for two years,
03:29but it's been successful. It's grown arms and legs. We started off probably putting maybe between 10
03:36and 15 bikes out on a weekly basis. We're now up to between 25 and 30. We're now branching out.
03:43We've got a metal fabrication workshop as well, who have made this bike in the background. They've
03:50made that from scratch and every part of the bike there is recycled. So that all comes from old bikes
03:57that were donated, that weren't fit for purpose. So it was kind of cut up and made into this bike.
04:05There's a lot of talented guys in there and it's good to give them the opportunity to show
04:12what they're capable of. The project is hugely significant because it ticks so many of the boxes.
04:17It's an impact on young people, training them how to use the bikes. And also really importantly,
04:21creating apprenticeship opportunities for young people to learn how to fix or repair the bikes.
04:26The health agenda, it's hugely important getting people active. And of course, the economic agenda,
04:32don't forget, because this is an economic entity. It makes money and then is able to put that money,
04:38the profits from this, which I understand when I'm talking about six-figure sum back into the community
04:43to support the other great work that's in Paul's youth forum.
04:46Paul's sort of rode around in my wheelchair. I've never had the opportunity to exercise.
04:53Met Dan and they were telling me they were setting up this bike thing and I asked them if they could
04:59find a bike for me. I think they sold their bike from Bellini and it's been referred to,
05:05so I like to suit my needs. So several times a week I'm able to come round and go cycling and do a
05:13little bit of exercise and otherwise I would have just been laying on my settee really doing nothing
05:19at all. I don't really saw work. So this has given me the opportunity. It's changed my life really
05:25because, you know, I met a lot of good people here and as I'm riding around, I've talked to a lot of
05:30people and I've got a new network of, you know, people that I know and people that I trust and I
05:36really enjoyed, you know, the chance to come out here and have a bike and ride around just like
05:42anybody else and, you know, it's really been helpful to me and my recovery. It's given me a lot
05:48of social activities to improve my wellbeing and I'm very grateful for this opportunity. Thank you.