Keeping community at the heart of everything

So often when it comes to business, we become focused on numbers, spreadsheets, and profits. The nuts and bolts of making things work. And of course, that’s important. But at People Arches, community is right up there as one of the priorities, and key to making the business successful.

Like most businesses, People Arches recognises the community as its neighbours, its customers and its supporters.

This doesn’t just mean a one-off effort, says the company’s Founder Dawood Ibtehsam. It means consistently looking at ways it can help, and listening to what people actually need. People Arches Ltd started with regular litter picks, listening to concerns from the local community about litter, and its own potential role in that.

The company also speaks regularly to local organisations about what they need.

Whether that’s Warwick Town Council needing the skills to provide a video to market the town free of charge, sponsorship for the Christmas lights, providing pantomime tickets for foster children, or simply providing parties so families can celebrate birthdays affordably.

People Arches’ latest initiatives have seen them offer somewhere for Coventry, Warwickshire and Worcestershire Mind’s wellbeing vehicle to park up so people experiencing mental health distress can access crisis intervention, de-escalation, and mental health support.

The company has also recently announced it will be sponsoring Warwick Sports Club to the tune of £1,000 following a competition run with local family website Take It From Mummy, so they can help even more children through their hockey, tennis and cricket clubs.

Dawood said: “Some might think we should spend less time doing stuff like this, and more looking at our balance sheets. But without our community, we don’t have customers. We don’t have collaboration, and we become just another big business in a small town. Rather than part of that community. Which is why we put community first, and always will.”