We’re supporting community businesses with learning and up to £10,000

We’re thrilled to welcome 100 community businesses* to the SSE family this month, who we’ll support to improve their local areas.

We’re kicking off the second phase of our Community Business Trade Up Programme, run in partnership with Power to Change, at our eight England-based schools. (Power to Change is an independent trust, whose funding is used to strengthen community businesses across England.)

Each person on the programme receives a six-month SSE learning programme to help them grow through trading and improve their leadership skills and impact, and a grant of up to £10,000.

Alastair Wilson, CEO of the School for Social Entrepreneurs, says: “We are thrilled to welcome these community business leaders onto the programme, where they’ll learn together how to create lasting social impact in their local areas. We are confident they all have the entrepreneurial qualities and motivation to increase their impact on their communities even further.”

The programme is supporting 130 community business leaders in total over two phases. The first phase of the programme ran from May to October 2017, supporting 30 community business leaders at SSE London (London) and SSE North West (Liverpool).

Here’s what some of the students from the first phase of the programme had to say about how it helps them transform their communities (though please ignore the application deadline, as this programme is now full!):

We’re excited that 80 of the students starting this month will be among the first in the world to receive Match Trading grants – a new type of funding created by the School for Social Entrepreneurs.

Match Trading helps social organisations to become more sustainable, by effectively doubling the money they earn from sales and trading. Find out more about Match Trading.

What is a community business?

Community businesses are the organisations that put their local area at the very heart of what they do: the restaurants, bakeries, sports clubs, energy companies and pubs that are run by and for local people (to mention just a few!). Many call themselves social enterprises too. This programme supports those who are wholly focused on improving their local area.

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