Impact Report
Social Stories Club is on a mission to share social ventures and their amazing stories with the world. We are a speciality gifting company and create gift boxes and hampers. The products in our boxes are all from social ventures and support different social causes. With each gift bought, our customers are empowering artists with disabilities, reducing landfill waste, providing education for young girls in tea growing regions, and more. We include a story booklet with each gift so the gift recipient can learn about the impact and discover our social venture partners.
We have invested over £120,000 into the social enterprise economy
We directly support 19 social enterprises - and we're growing
We support nine of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
“Social Stories Club is the most beautiful combinations of hand-selected high-quality ethical gifts that are then curated into a gift box to bring joy to anyone no matter what the occasion. Each item in the collection has its own documented social story. I found my gift box to be a superb introduction to social enterprise products that I may well never have found.” - Celia Hodson - Founder, Hey Girls.
“The Social Stories Club is a great concept which introduces a customer to a variety of high-quality social enterprise products without having to look for them all over the place. We are quite pleased to have our tea cartons included in their gift boxes. Our packets of tea have now reached new audiences and customers who would probably have been out of our reach otherwise.” - Neeraj, Tea People
All our packaging is sustainable with either a biodegradable box or a reusable hamper. Printed on our boxes are the words "this box supports different social causes". Our boxes are beautifully illustrated with designs of figures carrying out the UN's sustainable development goals, which is a great way to educate people on social causes.
The wood wool which fills our gifts is sourced from sustainable timber forests. We encourage all of our recipients to get creative and find an interesting afterlife for their box or hamper.
One of the social ventures we support is Arthouse Unlimited. Arthouse Unlimited is a collective of artists living with complex epilepsy and learning disabilities and difficulties, all of whom require varying levels of support. The artists work alongside instructors to create artworks which are developed into designer products for sale. All the artwork is derived from the skills each artist brings to the enterprise and every contribution holds real value. Offering a sense of purpose lies at the heart of Arthouse Unlimited's’ philosophy in line with their belief that feeling truly respected improves health and well-being. They strive to challenge perceptions and to create better acceptance and inclusion for all people living with disabilities. As they grow, they hope to offer more opportunities to people in other towns across the UK. 100% of sales revenue sustains the enterprise, enabling it to expand and evolve.
“I had a stroke at the age of 17 months old which was a right – side hemiplegic which was caused by a bleed or blockage to the brain. It caused my right hand to have muscle spasms in my forearm and upper arm called dystonia. I was having absence seizures up to the age of nine years old then I started to have fully grown fits. I am on three types of pills. And touch wood now I am seizure free.
I volunteer at Arthouse Unlimited, as well as doing my own art.I want to make my mark with my art, and let people understand what it’s like to have epilepsy. Making art helps me, and makes me feel more relaxed and less stressed. I feel appreciated when my work is out there in the world, being enjoyed by people. The best thing about coming to ARTHOUSE is the nature of the people. They’re nice, and give you lots of good ideas and help to achieve the work and put it out there.”
This Christmas, we will be hiring individuals with barriers to employment to help pack our gift boxes and gift hampers. It is very important for us to provide quality employment opportunities to those who may struggle to find work while helping them learn new skills in a safe work environment.
100% of our profits are reinvested back into our social enterprise. We donated 50% of our profits from April 2020 to help our community during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is something we want to do more of. In the future, we want to give back with every box sold.