Dartington

The School for Social Entrepreneurs was founded in 1997 by Michael Young, (Lord Dartington) and so it made perfect sense that there was a team to continue the social enterprise initiative here. Since 2009 SSE Dartington has produced tailor-made courses to provide an complete package for the new social entrepreneur.

Support for social entrepreneurs across the South West

SSE Dartington is a beautiful partnership between the School for Social Entrepreneurs – which helps 1,000 people a year develop the skills, strengths and networks they need to tackle society’s biggest problems – and Dartington Trust, an ambitious experiment for rural generation based in Devon. They share the belief that we can build a more caring, creative, equal world where people live a fuller life.

At SSE Dartington we have been running programmes to help individuals and businesses to increase their skills, knowledge, strengths and networks for a decade. Find out more

We work with partners and funders from across the UK, some of the programmes we are currently running are below.

Devon Social Entrepreneurs Start Up Programme

It’s a challenging time for the Devon community. We’re looking for Devon residents who are unemployed, on benefits or have been struggling to find enough work and want to set up a project that will create social or environmental change, with community at its heart. We’re offering practical learning to help turn your idea into a real-life project or social enterprise (a business that trades for a social purpose).  It’s free and it’s all online.

Find out more

South Bristol Enterprise Support (SBES)

The South Bristol Enterprise Support (SBES) is a partnership that includes the School for Social Entrepreneurs, Knowle West Media Centre, Princes Trust and YTKO Ltd. It will provide training, support, grants and bursaries for new and existing businesses in South Bristol. The project is led by Bristol City Council, and supported by the European Regional Development Fund and West of England Combined Authority.

Find out more

Lloyds Bank Business Start-Up

You’re committed to helping people in need or improving the environment. And you’re in the early stages of setting up a social enterprise, charity or impact project to make it happen. Now you’d like some support to get things up-and-running. Join the Lloyds Bank Start-Up programme! Register your interest below

Register interest

Lloyds Bank Business Trade-Up

You’ve already set up your social enterprise. Now you want to bring in more income from trading, to make your organisation more sustainable and create more impact. You just need a bit of support to figure out how. Join the Lloyds Bank Trade-Up programme with us! Register your interest below

Register interest

Accelerating Women’s Enterprise Programme

Accelerating Womens Enterprise (AWE) is a new collaborative project to help women working in various regions either side of the English Channel to increase their personal skills and develop their skills and knowledge. Deadline 1st March for the next programme but there is an ongoing recruitment across the southwest.

Find out more

Rise Trade-Up programme

This Trading Development Programme combines match trading grants with a learning programme to assist the advancement of social enterprise in Plymouth. Match Trading grants help socially-driven organisations build more sustainable futures: they incentivise social entrepreneurs to grow by focusing on sales and trading, by matching increases in trading income with grant funding. This programme is run together with the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) Dartington, with support from Plymouth City Council Social Enterprise Investment Fund.

Programme recruited – find out more

Local Access Partnership

Find out more about our exciting new partnership with Access – The Foundations For Social Investment which will bring a share of a £33 million investment programme aimed at tackling inequality through boosting the social economy. Read more here Press Release