Category Archives: Social Entrepreneurs

Double devolution and social entrepreneurs

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Yesterday, I attended a Transforming Neighbourhoods seminar here at the Young Foundation, hosted by the Lead Policy Advisor, Paul Hilder. It was a stimulating presentation and discussion around their three strands of work in this area, namely:

– influencing
– research
– local learning/policy

It was interesting to get some flesh round the bones of the phrase "double devolution" which is being banded around with increasing abandon, it seems. Specifically, what a reformed first tier (of neighbourhood forums, community councils etc) would look like and how this would change the landscape for grassroots social entrepreneurs and community activists. Some key points (for me) were:

– 73% of people support changes that would give local neighbourhoods greater control over some services and budgets (the "some" is probably the most important word there)

– the comparison with other countries: how exceptionally large Uk (and especially English) local government is compared to France, India, Brazil, China etc.

– that such representative neighbourhood bodies will have to be demand-led (i.e. gaining powers to act, to influence, to hold to account and to take control ONLY where citizens want them)

– that an element of the local authority budget should be given to the neighbourhood, but not too much (!) [various worries about extremism and the like]

– that the biggest barrier to all of their suggested moves (many of which may appear in the government white paper, and more on which you can find on their page from the link above) may be culture change within local government

I don’t think I’ve fully digested all of what it might mean (for our students/Fellows/ourselves), but certainly prompted a few thoughts.

And following on from that was Michael Lyons’ piece in the Guardian today which looks at the relationship between local government and the third sector. He has some criticism for social entrepreneurs/social enterprises ("overhyped, raising unrealistic expectations abuot what they can deliver") and the local authority officials ("stuffy, rule-bound"), even if he acknowledges that some of this is crude stereotyping. There’s not a small amount of truth in this as well, though.

Lyons’ primary challenge to the voluntary sector is to "show clearly the value they create" and develop "new measures of value…to give a strong basis for making investment decisions". The associated challenge to the local authorities are to make service commissioning less output and target driven to allow this value to be demonstrated. He then calls for the two sides to "meld" and "cast aside [their] preconceptions" of the other to form a dynamic alliance.

Stirring stuff, and more food for thought. Strongly agree with the need for the 3rd sector to show the value of its values, as it were, and for local government to attract energy and diversity into it. Ultimately, this vision will live or die by the necessary culture change referred to above, and to whether power and, yes, money is truly devolved to these lower echelons. Will the changes come slowly as double evolution or swiftly as double revolution? As Paul Hilder ended his seminar yesterday: "We’ll see".

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Worlds Touch: bridging the technological divide

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As part of the Non-profit blog exchange I get to visit and blog about another non-profit blog. I’ve had the pleasure, therefore, of entering the world of World’s Touch, an organisation which does the following:

Worlds Touch
is a nonprofit organization partnering with successful
charities in developing countries to provide information and communications
technology (ICT).

  • We provide information systems for international grassroots organizations working to end poverty.
  • We design and build web sites for community groups.
  • We train and support non-profit management.
  • We bring cultural sensitivity to every project.

The Executive Director, Trish Perkins, is writing their blog, and is currently (as befits her nom de plume replicas relojes baratos) going round Nepal (and India), whilst simultaneously working on IT and web projects….it’s impressive stuff, and you are plunged headlong into the narrative and the world which Trish is moving through and experiencing. After all, what is a blog for if not being able to communicate the “personality” of the organisation, giving an insider feel to what you do, how you act and how you work. Here’s a taster from a recent post, detailing a singing game…:

“The party got going after that, and it was just a really uproarious
and fun party at that. Sudeep played a bunch of oldies but goodies in
English on the piano and people sang at the tops of their
lungs…Country Roads, She’ll Be Comin Round the Mountain and others.
In between, the disc jockey played Hindi, Nepali and English songs for
dancing. At one point, we played this game I loved during the Anne’s
evening a few weeks back. One team starts with a song and then, when
they stop, the next team has to start a song with the last syllable of
the previous team’s song. And they all know so many songs, they can
just jump up and belt them out.

“This time, they divided the boys against the girls, and it was
hilarious. My dentist was the moderator, but he kept making up rules in
the middle and then changing them when he felt like it. It was really
quite funny. Jit’s wife, who has been a film actress and a model, was
Ms. Johnny-on-the-Spot when it came to different songs. Diwaker went
around filming with his video camera when he wasn’t playing the guitar
or dancing or being Mr. Entertainment.

“And we danced and danced. When none of the women would take to the
floor, the guys would get out there and just dance themselves. And
unless I was prostrate from the last twelve dances, I’d be out there
with them. I could say that I don’t know WHEN I’ve had such a good
time, but actually I can. It was about three weeks ago at the Anne’s
evening. And before that? Well, I remember one party when I was in
college…”

Great stuff. Who wouldn’t want to be there? Makes a change from my badly punning titles and cynical asides. I think I’m going to have to get more narrative in my approach, because it’s really engaging.

It’s also interesting to think of social entrepreneurship (as SSE considers it) and the impact of individuals when they catalyse movements and make contacts, building teams to help things happen and change to occur. This happens in the villages of Nepal and India, just as in the estates of East London or Liverpool.

I also found myself reflecting on the virtues of virtual volunteering (web design, ICT help and so on) and face-to-face interaction. Does Patricia have more impact on her travels, interacting and teaching and influencing, or in front of her screen back in the US? New technology throws up countless opportunities for connections and help that weren’t there before, but the power of Trish’s blog may be that some things are better done face-to-face. I wish her well from afar.

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School for Social Entrepreneurs launches new school in Liverpool

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Exciting news: The Liverpool SSE has been launched, with the support of Liverpool City Council and Business Liverpool. We’re hopeful this will be done with nationally-renowned Blackburne House as the lead agency. It’s an exciting intiative, and we hope to complement existing provision and build on the great work already being done in a traditionally entrepreneurial area. The support from Councillor Flo Clucas has been instrumental in making it happen, something she has wanted to achieve since she met Michael Young back in 1998.

You can read a little more here in the Liverpool Echo:

“Nick Temple, Network Director for
London-based SSE, said since the project started eight years ago 85% of
the ventures created are still trading, which is double conventional
business rates.

We
know 91% of our fellows create jobs; on average 35 jobs to every 10
fellows and 70 voluntary positions. More than 60% report a 6% increase
in turnover and on top of that, they are delivering services to
beneficiaries in their communities. Sustainability is very strong.

The
SSE combines business and commerce with a strong social mission across
health, transport, environment, education and child care.

He
said Liverpool was chosen as the first north west SSE because of its
strong entrepreneurial pedigree, adding: “We are looking to add to or
complement what is already being done here.”

Just to correct a couple of those statistics (I’m impressed how many the journalist got down given the length/swiftness/garbledness of our conversation):

–  It is true that 85% of organisations established during the SSE programme are still in existence; it is only true to say that this is roughly double conventional business survival rates for our older cohorts (82% for our 1998 cohort, as opposed to 43% for conventional business, for example); on average, across all years, we beat conventioanl survival rates by at least 15%.

– Actually, 60% report an increase in turnover; on average this is a six-fold increase, rather than a six per cent one…which is slightly different…and much better.

All these figures our from our recent evaluation by the replicas relojes españa, of which more soon….anyway, all in all we’re delighted to be expanding the network in the north-west, and look forward to some great success stories up in Liverpool in the years to come.

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Overdue round-up of social entrepreneur news

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It’s been a busy time recently, so here’s a round-up of some items of interest as a means of catch-up.

– Rocket Science are undertaking a review of regional business support for the Social Enterprise Unit, now snugly ensconced in the Office of the Third Sector. See RS’ news section for more

– Social Enterprise Coalition have published a pamphlet by Patricia Hewitt with her vision of social enterprise within healthcare…see SEC’s website

– A new Scottish-centred social enterprise magazine, Good Company, has been launched

– Google Foundation has an unusual structure which could suit investment in social entrepreneurs; see here as well for more comment

– The Rural Social Enterprise Conference takes place in November 22nd and 23rd…in Somerset

– 10 steps to avoid the start-up graveyard (which is an interesting concept in itself….)

– Interesting post by Todd Hannula at Social Catalyst on scaling; will follow up on this subject soon

– Alliance piece by Rod Schwarz entitled "Profit taboo in social enterprise country?"

– Ed Miliband clarifies the position on the third sector and public service delivery (summary: the idea of charities and social enterprises being major public service providers has been overplayed)

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Is Charles Clarke a social entrepreneur?

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Diving headfirst, if a little tardily, into the machinations of the Labour leadership, it was interesting to note that Charles Clarke, in between sideswipes, had said that the difference between Blairites and Brownites was the difference between ‘social entrepreneurs’ and ‘Fabians’. According to Demos, this is his way of saying that "The [Brownites] still believe the central state is the best way of securing
equity and improving lives. The [Blairites] think that local freedom and
engagement are the better route."

As well as raising the question of whether Tony Blair is a social entrepreneur, this also seems a bit too simplistic or binary. Gordon Brown’s proclamations + support for various organisations (including ourselves) doesn’t back up this view of him as an old-fashioned centrist. There is also an argument (which Demos make) that New Labour is more interested in new ways of delivering services, rather than full-on devolution/"true" social entrepreneurship.

More interestingly, it does raise the question of whether a government minister can ever be a social entrepreneur. Social entrepreneurs do cut across sectors, so they can work in the public sector. Politicians do challenge and change the status quo at times (particularly when newly in power) but do they take risks or have enough ownership of initiatives to warrant the name? Do they have the personal attachment to the mission? Who knows, but it’s an interesting development in the use of the term, whether you agree with it or not.

For a more ‘traditional’ vision (or version) of a social entrepreneur, you can download Ashoka-famed Bill Drayton’s "Everyone a Changemaker: the ultimate vision of social entrepreneurship" here.

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