is a Yorkshire-born United Reform Minister who was moved to London’s East End in 1984. His church in Bromley-by-Bow had a leaking roof, a damaged piano and a small congregation of mainly elderly people. A social entrepreneur in waiting, he transformed it into a major community resource, hosting and supporting local entrepreneurs on weekdays. On the back of his success he raised money from Royal and Sun Alliance and NatWest to fund special youth projects which encouraged enterprise and entrepreneurship and then later an adjacent health centre for the local community. He later founded the Community Action Centre (CAN) with Adele Blakebrother to champion social entrepreneurship Nationwide. The original ambitions were relatively modest and focused on building a network. But Andrew Mawson has always been good at finding both opportunities and funding, and several other projects have been sponsored. In London CAN now acts as the focal point for a range of similar-minded organisations.
Andrew Mawson OBE
The penny dropped when we had a young lad who was 16 called Bobby, who wanted to build a radio station. He’d failed at school but he said, I’ve really got this idea for a radio station. So our response is not don’t do it, our response is let’s try and do it Bobby.
I was already there developing a team in Bromley by Bow that had this mind set, they were always alert to people and opportunities and passions so when Bobby pops up you immediately recognise it. So one of the things that’s going on with me and my team is expecting to find these people and believing that people and their passions are what count, rather than just formulae. What I found on this east end estate in Bromley by Bow was, far from it being a place full of problems, which everyone, all the Social Workers and others had told me it was, actually it was full of people like Bobby with ideas and passions.
is a Yorkshire-born United Reform Minister who was moved to London’s East End in 1984. His church in Bromley-by-Bow had a leaking roof, a damaged piano and a small congregation of mainly elderly people. A social entrepreneur in waiting, he transformed it into a major community resource, hosting and supporting local entrepreneurs on weekdays. On the back of his success he raised money from Royal and Sun Alliance and NatWest to fund special youth projects which encouraged enterprise and entrepreneurship and then later an adjacent health centre for the local community. He later founded the Community Action Centre (CAN) with Adele Blakebrother to champion social entrepreneurship Nationwide. The original ambitions were relatively modest and focused on building a network. But Andrew Mawson has always been good at finding both opportunities and funding, and several other projects have been sponsored. In London CAN now acts as the focal point for a range of similar-minded organisations.
