Latest news with #JoshLittlejohn
The Herald Scotland
a day ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
John Watson 'elated' with CBE in King's birthday honours
Mr Watson has focused largely on philanthropic work since selling the family printing firm he had run for several decades to Multi-Color Corporation of Ohio in a multi-million-deal in 2013. By then John Watson and Company, which Mr Watson had run as managing director from the age of 28 and specialised in labelling for the Scotch whisky industry, was the largest printing business in Scotland. Read more: Since retiring Mr Watson has given significant support to a range of causes through his Watson Foundation, including Social Bite, the charity set up by friend Josh Littlejohn to tackle homelessness. The Watson Foundation provided financial backing to the campaign established by The Herald to establish a Covid memorial garden in Pollok Park, which raised nearly £250,000 for the cause. The philanthropist has also supported the Marie Curie Hospice in Glasgow and the restoration of Clyde steamer TS Queen Mary through the foundation. Mr Watson, who remains an influential figure in the Scottish business community, was awarded the CBE just seven months after he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow for his charitable work and business achievements. He said tonight that he was 'honoured and elated' to receive the CBE, noting that having been awarded the OBE 19 years ago, the latest honour to be bestowed on him 'came as a considerable surprise'.
Scotsman
14-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
From sandwich shop to social movement: how Josh Littlejohn turned a small Edinburgh café into a national force against homelessness
Watch more of our videos on and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565 Visit Shots! now Josh Littlejohn MBE is a social entrepreneur whose efforts to combat homelessness have reshaped support systems not only across Scotland but around the world. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... As the founder of Social Bite—a movement that began with a small sandwich shop in Edinburgh and grew into a nationally recognised charity—Josh has become one of the country's most influential voices on social enterprise. As one of the UK's most respected leadership speakers, Josh has addressed global leaders and worked alongside high-profile advocates such as George Clooney and Prince William. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad In this exclusive interview with Champions Speakers Agency, he reflects on how a single act of kindness led to the creation of a village for homeless individuals, why Edinburgh remains at the heart of his mission, and what more needs to be done to fix the UK's broken system. Josh Littlejohn MBE - Champions Speakers Agency Q: How did a small Edinburgh café become the starting point for Social Bite's mission to tackle homelessness? Josh Littlejohn: 'Well, it kind of happened by accident really. Social Bite's become quite well known now for our work with homeless people, but when we first set up, it didn't really have much to do with homelessness at all, to be honest. 'What happened was we opened up a little café – it's kind of a sandwich coffee shop in the city centre of Edinburgh – and we were in there making coffees and serving customers. There was a young man who was 19 years old, he was homeless, and he was selling The Big Issue magazine on the street corner just outside the front door of the café. 'After a couple of weeks of us being open, this young man – his name was Pete – he came in one day and he sort of plucked up the courage and he asked us if he could have a job. We kind of thought, why not? It seemed like quite a nice thing to do. So, we gave him a job in our kitchen. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'We just saw that he was working really hard, and we saw that employment was quite transformative for him. We thought we might try it again and we asked him, 'Pete, do you know anybody else that's homeless that might want a job?' He said, 'Well, my brother Joel is also homeless – he also sells The Big Issue.' So, we said, okay, we're going to give Joel a job. 'Then Joel was working hard, and we said, 'Do you know anybody else, guys?' They said, 'Well, there's a guy down the street called John, maybe you could give him a try.' And we said, alright, we'll give him a job. I think at this point they kind of realised we were basically soft touches as employers, and they could maybe recommend some of their other friends. They recommended this guy called Colm. 'So, that's kind of how it all got started – we got involved in this homeless issue by offering jobs in this café to people. As we got a bit more engaged in it, we introduced this pay-it-forward system. We started to encourage customers to buy something extra for someone that was homeless to get something for free later. 'So, customers started to buy extra sandwiches and extra coffees, and before we realised it, we were feeding maybe 40 or 50 people every day in this little café. That's kind of how it all got started.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Q: What difference has the Social Bite Village made for rough sleepers here in Edinburgh and beyond? Josh Littlejohn: 'Well, it's kind of grown exponentially. We started with that one little café and decided to try and open a bit of a chain of cafés. We thought we'd try and maybe give Starbucks a bit of a run for their money here in Scotland. 'We ended up opening five cafés across three cities, and we made a policy that around a quarter of our workforce would be people that had been homeless. By this point, we were giving out quite a significant quantity of free food across this chain of cafés. But out with the kind of immediate locality of the shops, pretty much no one would have ever heard of us or known much about what we did. 'We got a bit of a profile boost, which really helped to propel the scope of our work. In 2015, as crazy as it sounds, I decided to write a letter to George Clooney and invited him to come to Edinburgh and visit our little café. Amazingly, in November 2015, he did come and popped into the café. He brought Edinburgh to a bit of a screeching halt – there were hundreds of women camping outside the cafés from six in the morning just to catch a glimpse of him. 'I went into the newsagents the next day and suddenly Social Bite was on the front page of every single national newspaper in the whole of the United Kingdom. It was on the News at Six. Suddenly, our tiny little charity had quite a big profile. We thought we could maybe use that profile to develop some much more ambitious projects and programmes to tackle the issue. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'That led us to embark on a whole range of things. One of the projects we developed was a project called the Social Bite Village, where we took on some vacant land that was owned by Edinburgh Council and we built a small village. 'We put into production eleven two-bedroom prefabricated houses and a big community hub for 20 homeless people at any one time to come in, live, and find their feet. That's a project we're really proud of, and that's so far helped around 45 people into housing through that project.' Q: From your experience, what practical steps must the UK take to meaningfully address homelessness? Josh Littlejohn: 'Well, the big thing that we've sort of advocated for is a policy that's known as Housing First. Basically, what that means is that the way the UK currently responds to homelessness – kind of the status quo – is if someone finds themselves becoming homeless and they're sleeping on the streets (and obviously all of us walk past people every day in most cities in that situation), we ask these people to prove that they're what's known as 'tenancy ready' before they end up being able to get their own place, their own flat, or their own house. 'We're asking them to say, 'Well, you need to show us that you're on top of any mental health issues, on top of any addiction issues, maybe you need to show us that you're able to get a job.' If you're able to clear all these hurdles, then you can have a house. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'So, we kind of make people try and show themselves to be up here, but common sense would tell you, if you're sleeping on the street, in a doorway, freezing cold, or living in fear, then your mental health is obviously going to deteriorate pretty rapidly. You're probably going to turn to drugs or alcohol to try and escape that. Certainly, you're going to be 100 miles away from trying to get a job. 'It's a very broken system at the moment – we're asking people to show themselves to be up here, but in reality, they're living in a situation that sends them down here. 'What Housing First proposes is that the first thing that we need to do to help someone that's homeless is to find them a home. That shouldn't be the last thing – that should be the first thing. Only from that stable place of a home can they possibly start to solve mental health challenges and addiction challenges and reintegrate into society. 'One of the things that we developed in Scotland was a big Housing First programme, where we've helped around – it's almost 600 rough sleepers, people that were on the street for a long time – into their own permanent flat. We've helped to fund a wraparound support to give them the support they need to sustain that. That's very much a pilot that we think should be rolled out in a significant way throughout the UK. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I think that's the keyway we can really address the rough sleeping problem and help get people off the streets, because the current system is definitely very broken.' This exclusive interview with Josh Littlejohn was conducted by Chris Tompkins.
Scotsman
25-04-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Business awards raises over £1 million for Edinburgh charity Social Bite
Watch more of our videos on and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565 Visit Shots! now An Edinburgh charity will benefit after it was chosen as the charity partner of an awards event that celebrated businesses across the country. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... The British Business Awards, in association with NatWest, has recognised 18 leading companies from across the UK at its first ever event, hosted at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. The ceremony welcomed over 1,500 prestigious guests frombusinesses around the country, who together raised over £1 million for homelessness charity, Social Bite. The sum will allow Social Bite to continue to deliver support to people experiencing homelessness. The Edinburgh-based charity offers free food services, employment programmes, and social enterprise coffee shops which generate money to support the work Social Bite does across the UK. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Funds raised will also go towards the building of Social Bite Villages in Edinburgh and South Lanarkshire which will offer people a home with round the clock support to break the cycle of homelessness for good. Josh Littlejohn, founding partner of the British Business Awards said: 'I want to say a huge congratulations to all 18 winners of last night's awards, and a big thank you to everyone who came along, had fun and donated to Social Bite. 'It was striking to see so many of the UK's businesses together in one room. These awards have shown that there is still a huge amount of strength and confidence in the sector, and with that, comes collaboration, innovation and, ultimately, growth for our whole economy.' Major multi-nationals including Scottish Power, Addelshaw Goddard and BaxterStorey were among the winners at the ceremony which boasted a glittering line-up of celebrity guests including compere, Rob Brydon, Keynote Speaker Sir Bob Geldof and international superstar, Sting who performed a number of his greatest hits. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Other winners included global businesses such as Walker's Shortbread which was named International Business of the Year, technology and innovation led companies Dynisma which won Technology Company of the Year and Edinburgh-based consultancy Stellar Omada which walked away with an accolade for its CEO Colin Frame who was named Entrepreneur of the Year. All 300 businesses shortlisted were carefully examined and judged by an independent panel on the positive impact on their workforce, sector and overall contribution to the British economy. The judges, all key figures from British industry including Vinodka Murria OBE, Phil Urban, CEO of Mitchells & Butlers and Emma Crystal, CEO Coutts Bank, commended all the businesses shortlisted, but were particularly impressed with the winners which stood out for generating success in their field. Alan Jope CBE, former CEO of Unilever and Chair of the judging panel said: "Last night's awards represented a significant achievement. The substantial funds raised for this charitable cause were made possible through the collective contributions of all attendees and our distinguished guests, for which we express our sincere appreciation. 'We extend our congratulations to the award recipients as well the many finalists who were nominated. The level of talent, innovation, and business acumen demonstrated throughout has been exceptional and a worthy reflection of Britain's thriving business community." Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad James Holian, Head of Business Banking and International Retail, NatWest Group said: 'Congratulations to all the winners and nominees at last night's British Business Awards. 'It was an inspiring and fun night, and a real showcase of the breadth of talent and innovation on display across the UK business landscape. 'We are equally proud to have played a role in an event that raised so much for worthy causes, and congratulate all at Social Bite on all the important work they continue to do in support of those affected by homelessness.'
