Real-life Tales of Earning - Betel of Britain

Marrying mission and money

Origins
Services
Property
Who do they help?
Planning
Funding
Salaries
Earning
Covering costs
Instilling a work ethic
Shops
Gardening
Working with addicts
Hiving off other businesses
Future plans
Conclusion

Origins

Betel International is a group of Christian communities dedicated to mending the lives of drug addicts, alcoholics and homeless people around the world. It was founded in 1985 by a missionary agency, WEC (Worldwide Evangelisation for Christ) International, as a not-for-profit outreach project in northeast Madrid. Having spread from there, it now looks after around 1300 men and women in 50 cities in 12 countries.

The British arm (Betel of Britain) was established in 1996 following a fact-finding trip to Spain by several British rehabilitation specialists and church leaders. The problem with rehabilitating addicts in the UK was escalating and funds were shrinking, so they decided to introduce Betel's income-generating model and try to fund rehab through methods other than conventional government and private funding. Two Americans, Kent and Marie-Alice Martin, who had been working for Betel in Spain for five years, agreed to come to England to launch the project, where they remain joint directors.

(back to contents )

Services

"We take in the homeless and addicted and provide residences for them, train them to work and help them establish drug-free values and lifestyles." - Kent Martin

The essence of the Betel schemes is that residents work in the charity's shops and workshops to fund the cost of their stay in the residences and in the process are restored to productive independent lifestyles.

This is done in the atmosphere of an "extended family" (a Betel expression) and the whole set-up is very peer-led and peer-motivated. Much supervision is undertaken by those who were themselves Betel residents at some point, but the community remains under staff oversight.

Residents can observe and learn character-building principles and then put them into practice at home and at work, giving themselves the foundations for a future off the streets. Teamwork helps to build job skills, diligence, self-esteem and respect for others.
Entry to and departure from the communities is entirely voluntary, although the charity recommends that residents plan to stay for 12 to 18 months.

Betel estimate their centres around the world save governments and families £15.6 million annually (£1,000 per month x 12 months x 1,300 individuals) in rehab fees alones, not accounting for millions more in reduced crime, courts, police, prison and medical costs.

(back to contents)

Property

The first British base was opened south of Birmingham at Windmill House, a site owned by the Bournville Village Trust. This charitable foundation was established by the Cadbury family to provide low-income housing and owns many acres in the south Birmingham area.

Betel took control of the property after the previous tenant (another charity) arranged for the transferral. For the first nine years of Betel's existence in the UK, the Bournville Trust, as social landlords, took 'peppercorn rent' of just £1 a year. However, from 2005 that will leap to £3,300 per month because Betel is now adjudged to be capable of paying its way.

Betel hosts more than 100 men and women in environments that are drug-free, alcohol-free and tobacco-free. They have six shops - three in Birmingham, two in Nottingham and one in Derby - and they will soon have ten residences (currently they have six) in similar locations.

Apart from Windmill House, all the buildings that Betel uses are leased from local landlords. One of their shops is leased from Kwiksave on a special low rent (because it was standing empty), but otherwise they pay market rates and are treated like any other shop. They are hoping to buy a property in South Derbyshire with the help of two specific grants totalling £60,000.

(back to contents)

Who do they help?

Residents come from all over the UK, with about 30% from the Midlands. They range in age from 18 upwards, although Betel will take in 17-year-olds with parental permission. Half are aged between 20 and 30, and there are nine times as many male residents as female. ("That's the way it is around the world," says Kent. "There are more men involved in drugs and alcohol.") All residences are single-sex. Referrals are made by homeless hostels, prisons, community drugs teams, probation services, the police, church leaders and voluntary drug and alcohol projects.

(back to contents )

Planning

The system that Betel of Britain has for earning money is the one used in Betel projects throughout the world and they did not conduct feasibility studies or risk assessments before beginning their work in the UK.

Having been given a base at Windmill House, six people came to the UK to establish Betel here. These were the Martins, another couple and two recovered addicts from Spain who spoke no English (one of whom is now married and runs Betel Nottingham).

They began by leafleting people in the local area asking them to donate furniture. They then collected this and sold it from Windmill House at weekends. Eight months later they opened their first, separate shop.

Starting small and growing slowly meant the risks of failure were never that high. "Small, simple and gritty" is how Kent describes Betel's methods for opening new businesses. They never look for big capital investments and do not worry about gleaming new trucks and tools. "We just get out there with the leaflets and start small."

Betel Spain gave them a start-up gift of between £6,000 and £7,000 which they used to buy a van (for picking up furniture from houses) and a fax. Local churches helped to spread the word and give them their first referrals, but there was no significant other help.

They worked on the assumption that, since Britain was a first-world culture like Spain, the materialistic lifestyles of its population would provide sufficient left-overs for them to utilise. Kent said they had a "mental business plan" which they brought over from Spain and adapted to British culture, but there was not much difference.

They always believed that they could get their furniture shops up and running in the UK, but have been surprised by how quickly their gardening project has taken off. There is no real demand for their gardening services in Spain, possibly because of a trend towards high-rise living, but in the UK the demand has been prodigious.

There are five trustees: Kent Martin, Elliott Tepper (Betel founder) and three British others. All are members of WEC and three have been long-term missionaries. They are very involved in the running of the charity.

(back to contents)

Funding

In 2002, incoming resources totalled £1,055,000. 27 per cent of this came from donations, grants, gifts and fundraising events; the rest was earned. Betel's income-generating ethos derives strongly from its origins in Spain where there is no social welfare provision for charities of this type.

"Most charities [in the UK] have been raised on the notion that finance should be given or donated, and it should come generally from government. For most charities it is not part of their mentality to have to generate income. All they are doing is looking for ways to fit into funding slots."

Betel believes that dependency on grants risks influencing a charity's philosophy over time. If Betel were to seek funds more aggressively, they believe the work ethos which is such an important part of their success would be diluted.

Funding takes the following forms:

• Housing benefit (recently cut): just below 10% of annual income.
• Donations from churches, small trusts and individuals: 10% of annual income. A small portion is planned giving; most is spontaneous.
• The Birmingham Drug Action Team: distributes small grants of central government money.
• Restricted grants: have enabled them to buy vehicles and tools. (Kent is hoping that a trust will give them a grant to enable them to do some advertising. At present they only do leafleting and Yellow Pages and he would love to expand this.)
• Corporate: Sainsbury's gives them food, between 50% and 90% of their needs, depending on the season.
• Specific fund-raising: done very sporadically, e.g. to raise money for a Kids Club. At Christmas they go do-to-door offering Betel calendars in return for donations (raised £13,000 in 2002).

(back to contents)

Salaries

One major outlay that Betel does not have to meet (and which is therefore not included in these figures) is the salaries of their 14 staff, who are all WEC members. These costs, which probably exceed £210,000 per year, are met by churches and individuals in the US, UK, New Zealand and Spain.

However, former Betel residents who have stayed on-site to become staff members and help new residents are paid by Betel. There are currently four such couples and by 2005 there should be three more. They assist others to go through what they themselves have been through and receive a stipend from the charity.

Betel receives no money from residents because entrance is free and accessible to all. Since Betel generates most of its own income, residents can stay beyond six or twelve months, the period which is the usual restraint on government funding. Also, people wishing to enter Betel do not have to wait three to six months to access Social Services funding.

(back to contents)

Earning

The work that Betel residents do performs two major roles. Firstly, it covers a majority of the charity's costs and secondly, it teaches the value of work to those who want to learn it. Many Betel residents come from a background of long-term unemployment and dole dependency.

"People come to us and one of the primary building blocks missing from their lives is the work ethic. They've been isolated in society, lost in an underworldIn the UK, they may have been on the dole all their lives and they lack a practical incentive to get off it."

"One of the weakest links in the dole system is where it meets drug addicts and alcoholics because they are not using it for the purpose it was given. It just fuels their addiction."

(back to contents)

Covering costs

Betel of Britain manages to cover 70-80 per cent of its annual running costs through money earned in its shops, gardening, renovation and upholstery services. Elsewhere in the world, where welfare provision is less generous, Betel earns an even higher percentage of its operating expenses.

Furniture shops and gardening are the two main businesses run by Betel, with shops the dominant income-generator.

(back to contents)

Instilling a work ethic

When residents arrive they are often completely disoriented. Some of them do know how to work, but most have never worked. For such individuals, work can become a means to build self-esteem and skills.

"Our genetics [as a charity] tell us to instil a work ethic in people and we needed a real-life working situation in which to train people. If your immediate focus is to build a dependency on external funding that will determine the way you build. Our determination was to build based on men and women paying for their own recovery, becoming as self-sufficient as possible. Along the way we would look for grants, but not vice-versa." Betel residents must not only break with all chemical dependency but also welfare dependency. Instead they are encouraged to depend on each other and on God.

The businesses teach people attitudes and skills required to live a wholesome life and so, by definition, are simple. The residents usually have a low level of skill and a marginal attitude and Betel gradually gives them trust.  For their first two weeks at Betel, new arrivals stay on site adjusting to the surroundings and routine. Following that, they will be assigned to a work team from 9am to 5:30pm

Most of the residents settle into a particular job so that they can learn a definite skill. The gardening is mainly done by male residents, while the women work in the shops and in leafleting and upholstering.

(back to contents)

Shops

This was Betel's first business in the UK and after eight years Kent believes Betel might be Birmingham's biggest second-hand furniture dealers.  In the shops you can buy all types of mainly wood furniture, and different shops now have different emphases:  Birmingham's Yardley Wood store, for example, sells older furniture in worse condition.  Other shops aim to improve the value of furniture by restoring what is donated or bought privately and at auctions.

The method for encouraging donations come from Spain: leaflet houses in the richer areas and sell through shops in the poorer areas.  Betel will collect furniture, bric-a-brac, clothing and books. If a piece of furniture is unsuitable for resale, the charity will take it away for a fee.

One of the workers (who is still with them after 8 ½ years) has been trained in furniture restoration and he has been able to pass on some of the techniques. Betel can now restore furniture and sell it on at a better price.

They will buy particularly good pieces privately or at auction to restore and sell on. And they also look outside the UK: every six weeks they go on buying trips to Holland and they also source new furniture from India, returning a percentage of the money they make.

Shop locations are determined by a variety of factors. One has a good rental deal, another is attached to Betel's central meeting hall. But otherwise they are simply sited in locations best suited to passing customers. Betel intends to move the central Birmingham shop to a higher-traffic area, confident the extra earnings will more than offset the additional rent.

The smallest of the shops in Birmingham is a large room measuring around 25 metres by 12 metres stacked ceiling-high with furniture. There are wardrobes, chests of drawers, mirrors and chairs, ranging in price from £25 to £500. Soft furnishings are rarer because they have to be fire-retardant if they are to be offered for sale.

The central Birmingham shop has an upholstery business attached to it, and there are three restoration operations in Birmingham, Derby and Nottingham.

(back to contents)

Gardening

Started in 1997/98, this has been Betel's surprise success and currently generates more business than they can cope with.

Three or four residents work together in a team. Some of them are sufficiently skilled to build patios and fences, but the majority of the work is jungle-clearing, turning over beds, and refuse and rubbish removal. Betel plans to train some of its residents in tree surgery to add to the services they offer.

Some customers are concerned about using addicts, but Kent says this is not really an issue. The work is always supervised and in eight years Betel has had fewer than five problems ("things just went wrong"). They get a tremendous number of referrals and are going from strength to strength. Since they are inundated with work they do not undertake projects that would bring in less than £150.

Gardening businesses are run from the residences, where the tools are kept. The furniture shops take the initial telephone enquiries and will try to screen out unwanted work. If an estimate is needed the shop staff will pass the information to the residence office and a member of the gardening team will go out to do the estimate.

Kent admits that some people will use them because of who they are, but for most people it's just a question of whether they do a decent job.

(back to contents)

Working with addicts

If they do not want to work, the residents can 'vote with their feet' and simply leave Betel. There is no coercion and Betel is very open about what is expected of residents.  "If they don't want to work, they won't last very long," says Kent. There is a healthy peer pressure in the residences because residents are very aware that they are, effectively, working for themselves.

If they work well, then they may be given a degree of responsibility, such as handling keys or money. Betel has had the odd problem with workers running off with money, but this is a tiny fraction.

Some residents grumble about the fact that they are working and not receiving a salary, but the Betel response - one invariably endorsed by the longer-term residents - is that if these individuals believe they deserve a pay packet for a normal job they are welcome to try to get one. The truth is that they are not in a position to get a job and get paid for it, which is why they are at Betel.

"Money will only be abused at this point," says Kent. "Companies pay people because they have good services and attitudes to offer. Frankly, we take the worst, so on what basis should we pay them?"

Betel is trying to instil in its residents the desire to work, equipping them with an attitude that could make them employable once they leave the community.

For their first two weeks at Betel, residents go 'cold turkey' and get involved around the house. Betel tries to change their sleeping habits; somebody teaches them the household chores. They take breaks, walks, baths etc. And when they start to feel better they can be assigned to a work team. Residences are run by former residents, living role-models of what can be achieved, and they are patient with newcomers who struggle to adjust to this new lifestyle.

In 2002, 157 out of 315 new residents stayed at Betel through the initial 14-day detox, and 57 stayed more than six months.

(back to contents)

Hiving off businesses

Betel once tried to set up a separate business in conjunction with a catalogue company. This would have been run by former residents as a way of providing employment for them once they had left the residence, with Betel acting as benefactor, seed-money provider and overseer.

It did not work out and consequently Betel took the decision never to hive their businesses off in this way, preferring to retain control and ensure that supervisors would always be staff or community members. They do not want to dilute what they do by too much diversity.

Losing money on this would-be ancillary business helped assure Betel of their core strengths. There was a lot of cultural pressure on Betel to ensure there were jobs available for residents when they left. Yet there is no rehabilitation centre in Britain successfully performing rehab and also competing on the open market with other companies by setting up fully-fledged businesses run by former addicts.

(back to contents)

Future plans

Future developments would most probably involve exporting Betel to other towns and cities in the UK. Which city/cities that might be is open to debate. "We operate a lot by faith," says Kent. "We know where we want to go [Glasgow, Dublin and London] but we respond to circumstances."

They are very flexible about their future and will grow organically. Much depends on where they are offered property. Ideally, Kent wants to see a new Betel opening every year in a British town for the next 10 to 15 years.

If Betel were offered a property they would probably take it up if there were at least 100,000 people in the urban area and the Betel shop would be no more than 30 minutes from the city centre.  "So long as there's a city where we can develop businesses, we'll go there in the right circumstances."

Any Betel operations in new regions would be given seed money from the existing set-up. As with the relationship between Betel of Britain and Betel Spain, so the relationship between Betel Birmingham and, say, Betel Bournemouth would have no legal or financial basis. Each would be responsible for its own finances. The money raised in Birmingham funds the residences in Birmingham. Particular shops do not fund particular residences; money earned in a region is pooled and then used to offset running costs for that region.

(back to contents)

In conclusion

Betel offers an excellent example of how a thriving business can be run from what appear to be unpromising materials. By engaging so openly with the non-financial benefits of work - the self-esteem and the sense of purpose that it can bring to a troubled life - Betel is able to combine one of the main planks of their ethos with the very process that funds their existence.

The work may fund the charity, but Betel never loses sight of its purpose. "The businesses are not an end in themselves, but rather a means to an end," says Kent. "We do our best never to let the economics overwhelm the situation. Sometimes we make decisions that are not hard-nosed business decisions, but that's because we prefer people."

(back to contents)