University of Bolton students celebrate cash awards from third phase of Bolton Ignition Fund

University of Bolton students are celebrating after successfully winning a share of £20,000 cash in the final round of bids to help them get their new business ideas up and running.

Counselling and Positive Psychology Master’s student Beata Bednarska was awarded £5,000 to support her Lego-based therapy business Bea Inclusive.

Beata said that the business was aimed at helping professionals who support children's communication, social skills and wellbeing.

It involves using bricks for collaborative, and structured play to help children learn and practise social skills and can be used in a variety of settings by professionals, including schools and settings with all children.

Beata said: “I am thrilled to share that Bea Inclusive has emerged as the first-prize winner from the Bolton Ignition Fund.

“It's incredible to see my dreams taking flight, thank you to the Bolton Ignition Fund board members for recognising the value of my work. Your belief in my mission to support children and young people in their self-awareness, social communication, and overall wellbeing means the world to me.”

Three students came joint second place in the Bolton Ignition Fund third round and were awarded £3,000.

They were Ruby Unsworth, a freelance artist, Issy Hilditch, founder of Oxvue Healthcare Ltd and Sumayyah Eldin, founder of The Creative Society Manchester.

Ruby, who will graduate this summer with a Master’s degree in Creative Practice, runs a business working as a freelance artist and workshop, which aims to use creativity to start a conversation with young people and communities.

It specialises in comics creation programmes which facilitate discussions around healthy and unhealthy relationships with young people, producing issue-based comics and illustrated awareness campaigns. The collaborative comics programme and Ruby’s comics were awarded the Hive Artist Studios CIC award in 2022.

Ruby said: “The Bolton Ignition Fund will allow the business to share its creative interventions with communities in Bolton. I am looking forward to working with the supportive environment that the Bolton Ignitions Fund offers with its mentoring programme and network of businesses.”

Issy, a second year Adult Nursing student, set up Oxvue Healthcare as a nursing agency that prioritises reliable nursing staff, providing holistic person-centred care.

She said that the BIF award would enable the agency to train jobseekers in Bolton to help care for people in the community, reducing the numbers of pressure ulcers, resulting in less hospital admissions and better quality of life.

Issy said: “As a nurse, patients always come first, and I am delighted to have this opportunity to expand Oxvue and help improve the lives of more people.”

Psychology Master’s student Sumayyah’s venture is a creative events/workshop business providing fun, unique and inclusive art and wellbeing workshops for adults and children, across Greater Manchester.

She said she was delighted to received the award and which will be used “to create after school wellbeing clubs at local primary schools, focusing on a unique mix of mindfulness, art, creativity, and wellbeing elements to improve mental wellbeing and coping strategies in primary aged children”.

Psychology, psychotherapy and counselling third year student Ross Dooley was awarded £1,500 for his company Atypicalcare, which provides alternative mental health support and encouragement for men struggling with depression and low self-worth. The award will be used to achieve ethical conditions, as well as legal registration and marketing.

Ross said: “I am very pleased to have been awarded some help and the money and can't wait to get started.”

Students who had already been successful in the first two phases, were also delighted to receive further support in phase three.

 They were: Alisha Doherty, Helen Rose and Maryam Ghorbani (Its Integrated Maternity); James Storey and Margaret Cromarty (Bolton Housing Care and Support); Eboni-Rose Williams (Digi Dental Technologies) and Carol Grech (Baby Blossoms).

Jane Stuart-Puttnam, Enterprise Co-ordinator at the University of Bolton, said: “As in the previous two rounds, we received more excellent applications for the fund in this final phase.

“Thanks to the panel who helped judge the awards – they were really impressed by the high calibre of bids and the hard work and effort of the applicants.

“We look forward to continuing to support all the successful applicants on their enterprise journeys.”