Downing Street, Future Jobs and the realities of delivery

Posted on by

SSE did something unusual this morning: attended a 7.30am breakfast meeting. Not renowned as early risers, Alastair and myself nevertheless made the exception to go to 10 Downing Street. The Prime Minister, along with James Purnell, Hazel Blears, Liam Byrne and John Healey, was launching the Future Jobs Fund and, specifically, discussing how the third sector / social enterprise could contribute to it.

The Fund is, as people keep saying about the recession more generally, both an opportunity and a challenge for the sector. On the one hand, what an opportunity: if 10% of the £1bn fund can be pushed through social enterprises and charities on the ground, that could be potentially transformatory. On the other, it also requires, say, delivery of 10% of the outcomes (150,000 jobs, of which 100,000 for 18-24 year old, and of which 50,000 in the most disadvantaged areas) against fairly short-ish timelines. In the words of the mighty Adam Ant, very much time to stand and deliver.

Much of the talk round the table this morning was also about how it can be ensured that this opportunity is accessible to smaller players and, from an SSE point of view, to allow for the innovation  / risk / time that start-up job creation brings (aka new social entrepreneurs from these kinds of backgrounds / areas / age groups). We'll certainly be following up on this with other organisational partners.

Great to see the breakfast prepared and served by Hoxton Apprentice trainees (congrats to them, and especially Leon who's a fantastic advocate for their work). Also good to see so many social enterprise ambassadors (Peter Holbrook, Dai Powell, Karen Lowthrop, Claudine Reid, Penny Newman, John Bird and SSE Fellow Tokunbo Ajasa-Oluwa) round the table: it was a good mix, I think, of such credible, experienced practitioners with second tier orgs such as ourselves, Social Firms, Social Enterprise Coalition, DTA etc

What is particularly encouraging is to see government departments working together in this way: DCLG, DWP and Cabinet Office, acknowledging that social enterprise and entrepreneurship is delivering outcomes across their departments, and seeking to make a breakthrough push of acceptance, awareness and resourcing.

Friday round-up: enterprise, endowments and expansion

Posted on by

Quick social enterprise and social entrepreneurship round-up to end the week:

– Most interesting conversation of the week is over on Social Edge with the provocatively-titled debate 'Are the Only Innovations in Social Entrepreneurship Anglo-Saxon?'; kudos to Rod for kicking it off, and to others for some great comments

– On the eve of the OTS-DBERR, Byrne-Mandelson summit,, which I'll report on next week, a different taskforce recommends social enterprise staying where it is (and not returning to DBERR, or DTI as was); on balance, I think we'd agree with that….

– Other big news circulating is the Future Jobs Fund, and the intention to include charities and social enterprises amongst the deliverers; an example of the opportunities in this recession?

– Enjoyed 10 lessons from a failed start-up (if slightly techie)

– A new kind of capitalism (Bill Gates / social entrepreneurship?) on BBC Business

– Umair Haque on the best business model in the world (short summary: "create something awesome"), which also introduces the neat powerpoint-busting presentation tool, Prezi.com

– I have to mention the Shine Unconference again: sessions are looking blindingly good: everyone from Bridges Ventures to Mother branding agency to What If to ourselves/UnLtd to policymakers to David Wilcox on collaboration to pitches for funding and much more….if you're anywhere near-ish to London next Friday/Saturday, you should get a ticket before they all go!

– More self-promotion: SSE plans global expansion article in Social Enterprise Mag, covering all the recent developments here at SSE towers…

– Craig Dearden-Phillips remains one of the most honest and articluate bloggers and writers out there; here's his recent take on the Art of Communication

– Two bits of news from the Office of the Third Sector of relevance: the targeted support fund (previously announced in the recession action plan) is open for business; arguably even more interesting is the local council created endowment fund in Essex

– I hesitate to do this but here's a link to How to Twitter for Social Entrepreneurship; I'll follow that up with a link to Rob Greenland's Three Things I Wish I'd Known post which includes "Sometimes the most entrepreneurial thing you can do is stop doing something"…..

– Finally, I read somewhere this week: "A social entrepreneur can see the world in a grain of sand, heaven in a wild flower and hold infinity in the palm of his hand for eternity"; to which a few things occur to me: 1) hopefully a social entrepreneur can do stuff as well; 2) perhaps it might be 'her' hand as well? and 3) most social entrepreneurs at this point on a Friday are more interested in holding a glass of wine/beer in the palm of their hand (for as long as it lasts…).

Welcome to all the blog's new readers, especially those new SSE-ers in Sydney!

UnLtdWorld 2: the birthday and launch

Posted on by

Nick and Mark K Tuesday night was the UnLtdWorld 1st birthday / re-launch over at Lovells' nice buildings in Holborn. Congrats to Alberto and the team, especially Nicola, who organised the event. I haven't had much chance to check out the new incarnation of the site, but I certainly prefer the design. As ever, it will be up to the individual social entrepreneur to see if it works + repays time for them…but definitely seems more practically focused and oriented towards action, which should be a good thing.

The party was fun, with some pleasant surprises. I bumped into SSE Fellow Alison Skeat, who was full of purpose and confidence about her new project, Dirty Hands (great name!: see more in this pdf), which is regenerating a piece of land in Newham in order to grow food, and nvolving the local community in doing so. Great to hear how she was being incredibly resourceful in persuading companies and councillors alike to contribute to the project.

I also met up with Fife SSE Fellow Mark Kelly, who won a Special Recognition Award at the event (hence that orange lego brick thing under his arm in the photo) for his contribution to UnLtdWorld's development. Mark was on great form, and was very kind about the impact that Fife SSE had had on setting him off in a different direction. His is a great story, and it feels like he's only at the very start of what he might achieve. Was good to see him getting the recognition he deserves.

Congrats to all….

Shine unconference: buy tickets here!

Posted on by

The Shine Unconference is going to be amazing this year, with lots of great sessions already racking up: pitch for £1000; get free branding; have 1:1s on measurement and business planning…and network with lots of other social entrepreneurs. And all for a recession-busting £35..at Kings Place in London on May 15th and 16th. See the link above for more…or just..BUY TICKETS HERE!

Fellowship and diversity

Posted on by

Four of us from SSE were at a PwC employee volunteering event last night, as we are one of the charities they work with: it was great to see some of those who've mentored students last year, and to meet more potential mentors for the two programmes of students just starting. The Community Affairs team had also invited one of our newest London Fellows, Jen Ruppert, to bring a selection of her recycled / unique jewellery from her Revamp Fashion collective…and she appeared to be doing a roaring trade.

An unexpected highlight was an SSE Fellow being on the stand next to us. Koko Bassey, who was on our  programme in 2006-7, is now working for Tomorrow's People…alongside continuing to make her own natural cosmetics on the side (the project she brought to SSE). Great to see Koko, who is a wonderful ball of positive energy, and to hear about the work she's doing…and to see her and Jen chat about their experiences at SSE and get to know each other.

Also yesterday, there was an interview in the Guardian with another SSE Fellow Roger Wilson-Hinds, the founder of Screenreader, which provides free speech-reading software for visually impaired people across the world. Roger is an inspiration, and it's wonderful to see his organisation, and its impact, go from strength to strength.

Three more different people and three more different projects it would be difficult to imagine; but that diversity, and making connections between such paassionate entrepreneurial people, is what the SSE (and SSE Fellowship) is all about. Such a good day.