Enjoyed this graph to the left, as it summed up either a) why social entrepreneurs are often prone to action (it removes doubt!) and b) how those waiting for potential cuts might feel as that wait continues….and in the interests of not hesitating here any longer, on with the round-up:
– First up, speaking of cuts, the Future Jobs Fund was first to go, realistically being much to early to decide whether it was a success or a failure; Peter Holbrook (of Social Enterprise Coalition) and Allison Ogden-Newton (of Social Enterprise London) both came out in strong defence of FJF on their blogs.
– The Big Society debates continue on twitter + blogs + pubs. Best recent contributions? I enjoyed Nat Wei's seabed-coral reef – fish analogy, Andy Westwood's take + constructive critique from the left, and Adil Abrar's practitioner's perspective . I also found it useful to get an outsider's view of it all, so check out Canadian social entrepreneur Al Etmanski on what he makes of all this (a "fork in the road worth watching")
– Scale seems to have been a theme this week as well. Whether it's Nat Whittemore writing about the lack of ambition in social entrepreneurs (prompting some debate in the comments!), Martin Brookes of ew Philanthropy Capital arguing for scaling up evidence-based solutions, not scaling out individual involvement, or Sally Osberg (of Skoll Foundation) writing on how social entrepreneurs can punch above their weight
– There was a good piece in the Guardian about CICs being used as a vehicle for water power investment
– Also in the Guardian, a piece on Lambeth Council (which we now have to follow with "The John Lewis Council" :0) ) which attracted some interesting and very informed comments
– Karl Wilding over at NCVO gave the best view so far of how the cuts might affect this sector
– There was much delight (though I'm not completely sure why) that the words "social enterprise" came out of the Queen's mouth
– Grameen Bank is coming to Glasgow.
– Some interesting leadership moves as Social Enterprise Ambassadors Maria Donoghue-Mills and Matt Stevenson-Dodd both got new jobs at SCA and Street League respectively
– And on a final SSE note, there is now a list of all the SSE students / Fellows on Twitter (let me know if I've missed anyone….), and two SSE Liverpool students are up for Liverpool Woman of the Year. Please cast your votes for Claire Morgans or Pauline Pendleton, and congrats to both on the nominations.
I agree with the considered responses to the winding down of FJF. The result’s a score draw in the sense that there’s still lots of new job placements to be created under the existing agreements and that funding is still being provided.
There’s certainly lots of positives to take from FJF. A big one being that – certainly in the way the SEL have administered Future 500 in London – it’s a back to work scheme that’s both useful and accessible to relatively small organisations.
Assuming that evaluation show that these things are accompanied by FJF being at least equally useful to the young people on the scheme, it’s something that needs to be learnt from and replicated – if not necessarily on the same scale or focused on the same age group.