We have teamed up with Derby County Community Trust (DCCT) to help break down barriers facing young people keen to further their education and training.

As part of DCCT’s Partners Programme we chose to specifically align the organisation’s Education Hardship Fund as part of their commitment to support young people into the workplace.

DCCT established the Education Hardship Fund to support young people who may have a financial barrier to accessing the charity’s wide range of educational courses and supports their travel, kit costs and living expenses.

In the coming academic year, more than 700 young people will be part of the education programme which ranges from football and education to sport-related degrees.

As a Derby-based marketing agency, we have long been in awe of the incredible work that DCCT does across Derbyshire and the positive impact that this has on the lives of so many people in our local communities.

Their work closely aligns with our ethos of putting something back into the communities where we all live, work and enjoy.

Education and employability skills are particularly relevant to our fast-moving digital marketing sector which relies on the enthusiasm, positive attitude and flexibility of young people who are the future of this industry.

We were therefore keen to specifically support DCCT’s commitment to ensuring a level playing field and I hope that our support for the Hardship Fund will make a real difference to young people’s lives.

DCCT Business Development Manager Pete Collins writes: “We are delighted that Gravity Digital has joined our Trust Partners Programme alongside so many other notable local businesses.

“The Education Hardship Fund is crucial to support young people who might otherwise struggle to continue their education and training due to financial constraints.

“We have had many notable successes over the years including Gemma Barrowcliff who is now an administrator in the education and employability department having graduated from our Kickstart Employability scheme.

“She is a shining example of the power of education, and, with the support of Gravity Digital and other Derby businesses, many more young people will be able to achieve their potential and get the first step on the career ladder.”

Header picture shows, from left: Andy Smith, Gravity Digital; DCCT’s Pete Collins and Gemma Barrowcliff and Sharon Stevens-Cash

Pictured above is some of the Gravity team and clients at the DCCT Fundraising Ball in June 2023

At Gravity, we care deeply about the planet and creating a business that gives back to nature. That’s why we’re thrilled to share that we’re partnering with One Tree Planted and have made a commitment to plant a tree for every invoice we send out to our customers.

During 2022, we are aiming to plant over 500 new trees around the world, including in Western Jutland, as part of an international effort to grow the forest cover in Denmark to 25%, and Australia, to recover forests affected by recent bushfires and help restore native habitats vital for their amazing wildlife.

Planting trees is one of the best ways to combat the damaging effects of climate change. Trees help clean the air we breathe, filter the water we drink, and provide habitat to over 80 percent of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. Trees also provide tremendous social impacts by providing jobs to over 1.6 billion people, empowering women in underdeveloped nations, and supporting communities devastated by environmental damage.

One Tree Planted – Tree planting project in the UK

England used to have glorious forest coverage, but changes in land use have caused extensive deforestation. In addition to being critical to protecting the climate, forests also build community.

This reforestation project will be a highly engaging, community-led initiative to create educational opportunities, volunteer planting events, and public spaces so that everyone, including the most marginalized communities, can enjoy England’s native flora and fauna. Find Out More

One Tree Planted is a charity on a mission to make it simple for anyone to help the environment by planting trees. Their projects span the globe and are done in partnership with local communities and knowledgeable experts to create an impact for nature, people, and wildlife. Reforestation helps to rebuild forests after fires and floods, provide jobs for social impact, and restore biodiversity. Many projects have overlapping objectives, creating a combination of benefits that contribute to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

To learn more visit onetreeplanted.org

Here at Gravity Digital we are over the moon to announce we have been named as one of three finalists in the ‘Creative Industries Business of The Year 2018’ category.

The annual Derby Telegraph Business Awards celebrate success, recognise achievement and highlight the innovative people throughout Derbyshire.

The Creative Industries is arguably the biggest growing sector in the UK and we know we are surrounded by so many talented innovative businesses right here in Derbyshire. In fact, we have been lucky enough to work with many of them including filmmakers, photographers and graphic designers over the years and will continue to well into the future. As a small creative agency ourselves, we are always keen to promote and support the diversity of companies that operate in the creative sector, often meeting, mentoring and collaborating on projects.

Our very own Sharon Stevens-Cash, sums up how we feel: “We are lucky to have such a strong team at Gravity Digital and so many clients that are happy to endorse the work that we do.

“We believe that our commitment to evaluating and proving the results we achieve for our clients plays a large part in why we have been recognised and we are very grateful to all of our clients that have testified on our behalf – and of course to all of the judges at the Derby Telegraph Business Awards too!

“We’re really looking forward to finding out if we’ve secured the top spot at the Awards Ceremony in June – we’ll let you know.”

To find out more about the Derby Telegraph Business Awards log onto: http://derbytelegraphbusinessawards.co.uk/

At Gravity we are a small firm with two offices, one rural and one urban. The disparity between them on essential business services is really striking and so we are pleased to have been invited to share our experiences with the Government at a round table discussion at Number 10 Downing Street, planned for the 27 September 2018. But we know we are not alone in wanting to raise key issues that affect the operational performance of our rural business, so we would like to be your mouthpiece too.

Our Downing Street round table invite arrived because we are a member of the Rural Business Group, thanks to our success in 2017 when we were named Best Rural Creative or Media Business at the Amazon-sponsored and DEFRA-supported, Rural Business Awards.

At the round table, we are going to raise three core issues that we think are key to building sustainable rural business communities – and we want you, our rural business colleagues, to let us know if there are issues affecting your business that are currently not on our list to raise, or if you have some solutions to these challenges that you’d like us to propose on your behalf.

We want to make the most of having Downing Street’s ear – in the form of by Niamh Mulholland, Business Relations Manager – so either let us know what is having a negative impact on your rural business, or what solutions you have for any of the issues affecting the countryside business community and we will raise them on your behalf, if you’d like us to.

We have already asked our rurally-based clients for their feedback and we would like to provide as many perspectives as possible. We can’t get you into the meeting, but we want to give every rural business the opportunity to be represented, if you’d like to share your concerns with us?

What we will be raising at 10 Downing Street:

Connectivity: We know this is such an obvious problem that we shouldn’t have to outline it, but its impact on our Bakewell office, and therefore our overall business, is significant. As many of you will know, the 2016 Ofcom broadband survey showed that internet speeds in rural areas were substantially slower than those in towns and cities, with most rural locations having speeds of 10MB or under, and that’s just not good enough for our business community – the 1/2m+ rural businesses that suffer as a consequence. Our Bakewell office has just had an ‘upgrade’ but it’s nowhere near as fast as our Derby site. Of course, the Government will counter with its pledges in the Broadband Delivery UK scheme, or perhaps the Local Full Fibre Networks programme, which has a pot of £95m that local authorities can bid for to support the rollout of full fibre connectivity across the UK. However, in reality, none of these initiatives are all encompassing or give enough focus to the rural marketplace, and they are certainly not either consistent or quick enough.

Transport links: Urban firms complain about potholes on their route to work, train delays and limited cycle lanes but, in contrast, our bus services continue to get cut, finding a rural train station is rare and the condition of our rural roads seem to be a worryingly low priority. This means staff struggle to reach us, having an impact on the skilled people that we can find to staff our businesses, cycling to work is a risky journey, HGV deliveries are often tricky with weight restrictions and poorly maintained roads and customers that choose to visit us will enjoy the scenery but not the poor signage.

Crime: A 2017 NFU Mutual Report noted that rural crime in 2016 cost Britain £39.2million and we are all well aware of the ongoing rise in rural crime with thousands of rural businesses being affected across the UK. The well organised gangs that now operate to specifically target rural businesses are commonplace and we want to see more action taken to both prevent crime and catch the perpetrators. As a service firm, some may believe we have less to lose than some, however, we are not immune. Some colleagues, a professional services SME in Staffordshire, were devastated by a break-in last year when every one of their computers was stolen, losing files that represented months and months of hard work; and I know that our clients in the countryside with livestock or machinery, live with the constant dread that today will be the morning they wake up and their livelihood will be on the line.

We have our own ideas about how we would like to see each of these issues addressed and if any rural business reading this would like us to raise any additional issues, or additional perspectives on these issues, on their behalf, please get in touch. We realise that there are only so many businesses that can fit round the table, however, we’d like to give all rural businesses the opportunity to metaphorically share our seat.

The round table will focus on the challenges that we are currently facing as rural businesses and explore thoughts and ideas about how we can address these challenges in order to have a real, sustainable impact on our rural communities – enabling us all to not only survive but to thrive. As I’ve mentioned, we were invited by the Rural Business Group and the Co-Founder of the Rural Business Awards and the Rural Business Group, Anna Price, says:

“Our view is that successful rural communities are underpinned by successful rural enterprise in all its forms. We are delighted to be able to share some of our success with other hard working rural businesses and give them the opportunity to be heard at the heart of Westminster. We look forward to a constructive and rewarding day.”