The multi-award winning Harri set up an enterprise in 2015 to provide a safety net for young people dropping out of the care system as soon as they reached adulthood in what is frequently referred to as “the cliff edge of care”.
After qualifying as a social worker, this social entrepreneur founded FABRIC, to provide safe homes for vulnerable young people in Wales. Since 2015 she has raised more than £1m to fund the social enterprise, based in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot. FABRIC provides loving homes with trauma informed support to care leavers, homeless young people or unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, helping them in their transition towards independent living.
To quote Professor Dylan Jones Evans of the National Start Up Awards “Harri Helvon-Hardy is a true force of nature in the social enterprise sector. She has created …an amazing venture that has had a profound effect on the lives of young people she has supported.”
Harri and FABRIC have won many awards, including being listed in the NatWest/Pioneers Top 100 Social Enterprises in the UK 2022; Social Leader of the Year in the Welsh Woman’s Awards 2019; Wales Online’s 35 under 35 Business Women of the Year 2018; and Regional Start Up of the Year in the Wales Start Up Awards 2017.