South Shields Business Works tenant Northern Rights celebrates 10th birthday with plans to increase staff

Northern Rights, a Community Interest Company (CIC), was launched in 2012 by Katherine Murray and Dawn Brown, who had for many years worked together delivering Government-led employment support programmes.

The organisation which recently marked its 10th birthday helps disadvantaged people back into secure, sustainable employment.

As the company celebrated the milestone it announced further growth plans for the future.

The company initially started out in Peterlee where Katherine and Dawn specifically aimed at disadvantaged people who had faced physical or mental health challenges which had prevented them from entering or remaining in employment.

Fast forward 10 years, Northern Rights now has premises in Sunderland and South Shields as well as Peterlee, employing 63 staff with plans to recruit at least a further 10 people during the course of 2022.

Katherine said: “Our journey since launching 10 years ago has been quite remarkable and it’s only when we sit back and look at everything we’ve achieved that we realise how far we’ve come.

“The growth of our organisation has been significant, however what’s even more rewarding is when we hear from the people we’ve helped over the years who, thanks to the support they’ve had from Northern Rights, are now in secure employment, in jobs they genuinely enjoy but never thought was possible.”

Dawn added: “We have all worked extremely hard to compete and succeed in the welfare to work sector dominated by the financial might of national and multinational corporations.”

Northern Rights offers one-to-one and group support in areas including basic skills improvement, CV building, confidence building and interview technique training.

One person they’ve helped back into employment is 64-year-old grandmother Maureen Bagley from South Shields. She said: “I never thought I’d work again but thanks to Northern Rights I am now employed as a part-time cleaner and I love it. Working keeps me in a routine, especially since I became a widow four years ago.

“I cannot praise the team at Northern Rights enough. They were very good with me, really nice and made me feel very relaxed.”

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