Street Cred

Street Cred is a micro-credit project working with women living in east London who want to start their own small businesses. Street Cred provides advice, support, business training and micro-credit. Set up in 1999, it is one of the family of projects run by Quaker Social Action.

Street Cred’s Business Support Groups are an essential part of its group work approach, aiming to provide peer support and to facilitate the peer lending system. The approach is adapted from the micro-credit model developed by the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. This eliminates the need for collateral and creates a banking system based on mutual trust, accountability and participation.

The groups are made up of four to six clients, who have already attended an introductory workshop to discuss the steps involved and the skills needed to start a business. A Business Support Group is formed and will meet every fortnight with a Street Cred Development Worker. The meetings offer women the opportunity to focus on the steps they are taking to set up their business and to exchange information. The Development Worker delivers business training based on the needs of the group, using a 40-module business training manual developed by Street Cred.

The Business Support Groups enable clients to develop their businesses over time. This is ideal for clients who wish to take a cautious approach to their business development. Street Cred has found that this long-term approach is the most appropriate service for developing clients’ sustainable business ideas.

“Someone is always there to support you. When you are trying to solve a problem, sometimes the solution is so simple you can’t think of it, but someone else can”.
- Rosina Cassam, Street Cred client, Atelier le Flamboyant

You can contact: Isebail Mackinnon, Street Cred, 45-47 Blythe Street, Bethnal Green, London, E2 6LN. Tel 020 7729 9267, streetcred@qsa.org.uk.
Website: www.quakersocialaction.com/streetcred.htm.

A useful PDF report “Making Microcredit Work: an East London Journey, QSA 2006” can be downloaded from QSA’s website.