WHO IS FRONTLINE BIKES?
- Posted on
Frontline Bikes was created to address a need recognised by its parent organisation, Frontline Make Change.
Who is Frontline Make Change?
Frontline Make Change has been providing an addiction support service in the local community of Inchicore and surrounding areas since 1999. It supports over 300 people each year who are struggling with drug or alcohol misuse in locations in Dublin 8, Dublin 12 and the North Inner City, and provides a childcare service for clients – the Children’s Project – in Inchicore.
An issue that regularly arose was that clients with histories of long-term unemployment, addiction, or imprisonment often struggled to find employment. Employers are typically risk averse and reluctant to hire individuals with backgrounds such as this, which can leave few opportunities and drive them back into cycles of addiction relapse and recidivism.
Do Good Spend Well
In 2020 Frontline established a social enterprise – Frontline Bikes – to provide a solution to this need.
Social enterprises are businesses driven by a primary mission to create positive social, societal, or environmental change, rather than maximise profits. Their core objective is to directly improve people's lives and well-being.
Frontline Bikes started with a retail outlet in Inchicore, which opened during the pandemic, providing a bike repair service to people in the local community. The shop provided an opportunity for people with a background of addiction to gain a qualification in bike mechanics, as well as retail and customer service experience.
Frontline Bikes expanded in 2022 with the opening of a Training & Upcycling Centre in Bluebell, where training in City & Guilds level 1 and 2 in Cycle Mechanics along with aftercare support, counselling, and key working is provided to participants. The two services in Inchicore and Bluebell are symbiotic in nature.
Circular Economy
From early on, Frontline Bikes had a focus on being part of the circular economy, which is an alternative to today’s ‘take-make-waste’ linear economy where large quantities of natural resources are extracted to make products that may be used only once before being thrown away. By taking in donations of bikes and upcycling them and their parts, we provide a second use for these materials and reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.
Money earned from our social enterprise is reinvested back into the organisation so that we can ensure as many people as possible are given opportunities to upskill and learn a new trade, giving them further opportunities for employment.
The staff who work in the bike shop and Training & Upcycling Centre in Bluebell have lived experience and are an example of what a pathway to recovery and employment can provide.
Since its launch in 2020, Frontline Bikes has reached many milestones: we now have 6 employees; over 20 people have taken part in the training programme; we have donated refurbished bikes to children and families in direct provision; and we have developed a range of premium upcycled bicycles that we sell online and in our shop. All of the bikes we sell are donated bikes, which have been fully serviced and repaired and in the case of our premium upcycled bikes, these are stripped back, rebuilt and resprayed by our in-house mechanics and trainees.