Strength & Stem will be a social enterprise florist that empowers survivors of human trafficking through meaningful employment, life-giving community and skills training.

We are raising money to fund a pilot series of community floristry workshops.

Our community floristry workshops will exist to provide the opportunity for women to be creative, to find community and to learn new skills. We will use floristry as a therapeutic tool to help women flourish.

The four full-day workshops, which will run over a series of four weeks, will teach ten women a range of floristry skills including hand tied bouquets, buttonholes, flower crowns, wreaths and table arrangements. For the duration of the pilot we will work with British flowers and without floral foam to reduce carbon footprint and waste, and to enhance the sustainable and ethical nature of the training.

The founders and florists of British flower growers Wolves Lane Flower Company have agreed to teach the workshops. To identify participants we will be working alongside a London charity with a leading modern slavery response team.

The money raised will be used to cover the costs of venue hire; hiring the experienced florists to lead the workshops; raw materials including the British flowers; food and refreshments for the participants; and participant travel - for the entire series of workshops.

Participants will complete an impact questionnaire which will help us to establish the link between the workshops and any improvement in participants’ sense of confidence, purpose and belonging in the community.

Everyone who donates will be updated on our progress. We will also publish updates on our website www.strengthandstem.com in due course.

Following this, Strength & Stem will be launched as a social enterprise in late 2019.

We are excited to play a part in helping survivors of human trafficking not only to survive, but to flourish.