Story So Far

March 10, 2016 | Kelly Salambasis

Kelly, Glenda and I met through the Bridge where we are Director’s and were friends before becoming business partners – we bonded at fundraising events, during 1am email conversations about the Bridge, during the school run (we have 9 children between us aged 3-12) and over a passion for multiple cups of tea. We knew we'd enjoy working for ourselves but also giving back to the community and making a difference to people’s lives.

We’d been talking about different business ideas for a while but had we got the guts to invest our own savings, get a huge bank loan and go it alone?

More2childcare was born at Glenda’s kitchen table, one September morning in 2014 shortly after school drop off.

What if we could solve working parent’s problems with one service and give back to the local community at the same time? We could set up a social enterprise (a CIC or Community Interest Company) which would mean we operate as a non profit and all profits must be invested back into the community.

Our wish list looked something like this:

• A flexible, fairly priced nursery, with the highest standards of care
• A nursery that led through sport and nature and absolutely must have a decent outdoor space on site (so many of Greenwich’s nurseries do not have this and this is part of the reason it’s taken so long for us to find premises)
• To be THE nursery in Greenwich that parents put as their first choice.
• A work hub on site – so parents can rent flexible office space and have their child nearby in our nursery space. Then, if they wish take lunch with their child or join in a gardening group or other activity they can during the day.
• A training service to help parents’ who wish to change career, change direction, become self-employed or simply have support with their company to work near to their child and more flexibly
• Business training programmes for parent’s wanting to get back to work
• Education progammes via ProInfinity sport to deliver back to work qualifications and apprenticeship for parents and students including sports based qualifications i.e fitness trainer, sports development.

Nearly 12 month’s on, our guiding principles have stayed the same and we are delighted to have secured our first location in the heart of East Greenwich.