News / Karibuni closes as COPE swallows cuts
THE LERWICK town centre café and takeaway Karibuni run by social enterprise COPE with disabled participants is to close with the loss of at least two staff.
The move is the result of a 10 per cent cut in funding from Shetland Islands Council to the organisation that has created seven social businesses since it was set up in 1998 to help provide employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
Karibuni, on Harrison Square, is run by a staff of three support workers and two disabled participants, with a further two participants receiving work experience, serving around 100 regular customers every day.
COPE manager Ingrid Webb said two of the three support workers had been told they would be losing their jobs, while the future of the third post remains uncertain.
The four participants have all been found other placements within the organisation.
Webb said that other staff, participants and their families are being contacted to discuss the future as the organisation tries to restructure itself to cope with the loss of £122,600 a year.
Two weeks ago she told councillors that one more subsidiary business may have to close and a total of five of its 49 staff might lose their jobs.
However this was likely to mean some of COPE’s 50 participants would have to find alternative placements.
COPE has been working closely with the council’s community care department to accommodate clients in the Lerwick independent living service or at the Eric Gray Centre providing day care for adults with disabilities.
Speaking on Wednesday, Webb said COPE had scrutinised all its businesses to make sure the savings had the least possible impact on participants.
“We are part way through the process of restructuring the business in order to find the savings that we need to find and part of that restructuring means that we will not be able to run Karibuni into the future at this stage,” she said.
“However we do own the building at Karibuni so we hope we can keep hold of that property and in the future will be able to run services from there again.
“At this stage we have not been able to secure the necessary additional funding from outside sources, but we will be working hard this year to do that.”
As well as Karibuni, COPE runs a soap company, an outside catering business, a pet supplies shop, a tree and shrub nursery, the Shetland Scrapstore recycling centre, and the Weisdale Centre that recycles garden tools.
The organisation has an annual turnover of £1.2 million, half of which it generates itself.
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