Social Enterprise Fact & Figures

Did you know that there are:
• 62,000+ social enterprises in the UK
• 5,500 social enterprises operate in  the West Midlands (with 1,300 operating in Birmingham & Solihull)
• Social enterprises generate £5.7b in traded income (6.7% of WM total) while financial services generate £4.5b/ 5.3%
• In the West Midlands alone, social enterprises employee 156,000 people (105,000 are full time roles)
• Social enterprises employee 6.6% of the regions workforce while construction employs 5% and the motor industry employs 2%
• Social enterprise in the region support 210,00 volunteering opportunities
• 1 in 7 social enterprises operate locally and 1 in 10 operate regionally

Social enterprises are technically defined as “businesses with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally re-invested for that purpose in the business or in the community, rather than being driven to maximise profit for shareholders and owners” . Social Enterprises compete in the market like any other business, but also:-
•  Trade for social and/or environmental purposes
•  Reinvest profit back into their business or community and
•  Adopt ownership structures based on participation rather than personal gain.

For more info visit Advantage West Midlands

Interview with Saheli Founders

Behind a listed and rather grand Victorian gents’ urinal in Balsall Heath, Birmingham, lies Saheli, a gym, also known as an ‘adventure hub’ that has the potential to help transform the lives of Asian and ethnic women in the West Midlands – if its winning formula can be replicated and scaled up. That is the challenge for 2010 and the two women most responsible for making it happen appear more than capable, having already carved out a unique niche in their home territory – and, in the process, delivered a small dose of plain speaking to David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party.

“He visited us and asked us why we provide women only sessions, why should he fund what he called a separatist organization like ours,’ says the redoubtable, Naseem Akhtar, 41, founder of Saheli (‘friend’ in Urdu), long time community activist, raised in Balsall Heath but originally from Pakistan. “I told him that if you want isolated women who don’t go out the front door to become active, healthy and engaged citizens, they have to start somewhere. And that somewhere is Saheli.’

To read more visit: http://launchpad.youngfoundation.org/fund/hia/our_stories/interview-saheli-0

Interview with Mark Peters – Start Again’s Founder and Director

Start Again is a social enterprise that helps young people with mental ill health to re-engage with life and set their own goals. At its heart is a simple idea: begin with the individual’s passion. For many that passion is sport. And sport is what Mark Peters knows well. Mark, in his early thirties, is a former professional footballer, now employed part-time as a community youth worker. He is also the charismatic driving force behind Start Again.

Over the past two years, Start Again, based in Birmingham, has helped more than one hundred young people, aged 13 to 25, many of them unaccompanied minors; coming out of care and drawn from black and ethnic minorities. Start Again helps individuals with mild to more serious mental health problems to make the challenging transition from adolescence to adulthood. It does so by delivering an innovative support system that uses football coaching as a hook that then allows trained volunteers to help the individual to set his own goals, develop social skills, acquire training and qualifications, and make strong and positive connections with others. Volunteers are often young themselves and come from a range of backgrounds including university students and the RAF – unusually in volunteering, many are male.

To read more visit http://launchpad.youngfoundation.org/fund/hia/our_stories/interview-entrepreneur-mark-peters

Lite Bite Seminars

To learn more about ‘Social Enterprise & Innovation in the NHS’, come along to a Lite Bite seminar:

Friday 4^th June 9:30 – 11:00am Birmingham

Thursday 10^th June 12:00 – 1:30pm Birmingham

To book a place or request me to visit your team or organisation please contact me!

Step by step process of setting up a social enterprise…

Im often asked what steps are involved in setting up a social enterpirse…. sadly my answer is how long is a peice of string? There are many different steps involved but I beleive that the most important step is to identify the social purpose or aim. To do this, it is helpful to think through the following three questions:

1. What is the social problem/ un-met need?
2. What is your solution?
3. How will running a social enterprise adress the need?

If you can answer the above questions you are ready to take the next steps. Starting a social enterprise can be stimulating, rewarding, challenging and scary. The journey to establishing a social enterprise is different for everyone, but key steps include:

• Identifying an entrepreneur  to lead the venture
• Naming the venture
• Seeking professional support and building contacts
• Building a team. Board members will help govern the venture and provide strategic support
• Considering an appropriate legal structure.
• Begin to develop the ventures business plan – exploration of the market, testing/ protyping, identifying customers/ service users, costsings, sources of income, operational plans etc.
• Sources of income may include a mix of non commercial income (grants, donations) and commercial income (sales, contracts, sponsorship). A strong social enterprise will aim to diversify its income base and increase the share of commercial revenue
• A strong social enterprise will identify sustainability plans that allow for development of new services/products to enter new markets
• Once the social enterprise is up and running, it is important to plan measurements of Social Return of Investment (SROI) and ensure an effective communication plan to disseminate the added value of the social enterprise