Brave, Strong, Beautiful
Kerry Anderson, founder of Brave, Strong, Beautiful, set up her social enterprise to help change the lives of young people in Scotland.
Brave, Strong Beautiful salons offer quality hairdressing services whilst providing training opportunities, employment and mental health support to the most disadvantaged and vulnerable young people living in areas of deprivation.
Kerry set up the salon to bring together her passion for helping people who have struggled in life, with her skills as a hairdresser and a career in social care and counselling. Coming from a challenging background herself, she understands the difficulties some young people face when trying to gain skills and employment.
Having started piloting the idea in 2018, by January 2019 Kerry and her team had provided employment, training, and counselling to five disadvantaged young people who had been affected by homelessness, neglect, and abuse. Two of them successfully went on to complete SVQ2 qualifications and now work in the salon, while the other three continued with their training. In addition, Kerry delivered wellbeing workshops, connected with local youth groups and partnered with Skills Development Scotland.
The reason I set up Brave Strong Beautiful was because I became aware that some young people were being overlooked by society. I realised that the most vulnerable were struggling to find training and gain employment whilst dealing with difficult home lives.
Kerry secured a place in the LaunchMe programme in early 2020 seeking investment to open a second salon in Edinburgh city centre, as well as an additional salon in 2021-22. By securing investment, Kerry will be able to employ additional staff and create more training and employment opportunities for up to 20 disadvantaged young people, as well as taking their employability support and hairdressing workshops to local schools and youth groups.
Since gaining a place on LaunchMe in March 2020, Kerry has gone through an intensive programme of business and investment-readiness support. The hard work is already paying off, having secured £50,000 funding from the Scottish Edge competition earlier this month. Kerry is now ready to pitch for investment to secure the remaining funds needed to finance her growth plans.
More information about Brave, Strong, Beautiful is available on their: