The Blackburne House Group is an independent Liverpool-based charity that supports local women, many of whom are vunlerable, to achieve their aims in life. The Group primarily targets women from BAMER groups and offers education, training and employment services in a 'safe space' for vulnerable women, that is sensitive to the needs of women from all backgrounds and cultural groups.

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The Group operates from a Grade II* listed Victorian building which is the oldest surviving all-girls school in the country. in 2017 Blackburne House approached Symbiont to support the development of the organisation and to improve the facilities at Blackburne House. We worked with the jChief Executive and Senior Management Team to successfully secure £2.5m investment to enable the organisation to carry out a programme of refurbishment and retrofitting of energy efficiency improvements, to create a more pleasant environment for all staff, users and volunteers, and effectively 'future proof' the premises to ensure the long-term sustainability of services for disadvantaged groups.

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Symbiont works with Blackburne House on an ongoing basis supporting the development of a suite of innovative services to meet the evolving demands of thier users, including the development of digital training and education, women's empowerment projects, and we are currently supporting their BEE You programme, taking beekeeping into the community to promote sustainable development and entrepreneurship. We delivered the first ever Environmental Social Entrepreneurship programme as part of the organisation's School for Social Entrepreneurs programme and currently provide support to their Scale-up and Trade-up programmes on an annual basis.