Obviously there is some fairly big news this morning but I’m going to leave it for now. I don’t trust myself. All I’d suggest is that if you are going to go out this weekend and do something like, I don’t know, attend a political rally or fly on an airplane in close proximity to others you really should wear a mask.
Away from all that, it feels like I’ve entered a second phase in the working from home cycle. The first phase (March – October) was fairly healthy. I did my hour long walks every day. I cooked. I even did some yoga. This week, however, things have changed. All bets are off. Yesterday I ate a packet of Biscoff biscuits and about three Cadbury’s mini rolls. I think it must be the weather – I’m looking out the window now and wondering if I can brave a run to the shops to pick up some Haribo.
I’ll be back next week about three stone heavier. Enjoy the news – it’s a good week if you’re a fan of social enterprise support programmes.
Community Business Trade Up. Applications are now open for The Community Business Trade Up programme. It includes a FREE learning programme and a Trade Back grant of up to £10,000. You’ll gain the headspace and skills to recover and rebuild your income from trading, have more impact, resilience and become sustainable
Sign up for a webinar to find out more about this transformative programme, and see if it’s right for you at 10.30am on Thursday 15th October. The programme, run by School for Social Entrepreneurs with partners Power to Change is prioritising applications from communities hit hardest by Covid-19, including BAME-supporting organisations. Community businesses that are BAME-led, BAME-supporting and/or located in and giving support to very deprived or disadvantaged local communities are strongly encouraged to apply. More info and apply here.
Muy bien. Spanish fashion and fragrance company, Puig together with Ashoka are recruiting for entrepreneurs aged 18-30 whose business has a social or environmental purpose to be part of a mentoring and business support programme, with a 3,000 Euro stipend. It can be at ideas stage, as long as there is proof of concept. There’s no website, but an application form a bit more info can be found here.
Clore 2021 courses. Clore are now accepting applications for their 2021 Fellowship and their next Emerging Leaders and Leadership Pulse courses. To be honest, there is far too much information to put succinctly within a newsletter so my best advice to you if you are a leader working within the cultural sector is to check out everything that you need to know here.
Allia Impact Accelerator. Applications for Allia’s Impact Accelerator are now open until Oct. 11th! The Impact Accelerator is dedicated to taking impact driven ventures to the next level, in order to address long standing economic and social issues that have been exacerbated by COVID-19. A six month program packed with workshops, mentors, and industry experts culminating in a pitch day focused specifically on investors with impact driven missions. Find out more here.
Free office space in Liverpool. Remember offices? Those places where you went and had meetings with actual real life people, rather than just staring at their heads on a screen while shouting ‘I think you’re on mute’? We’ll be back there one day. And if you’re in Liverpool, Amey have some space at their offices (at The Matchworks in Speke Road, Garston) which they would like to offer to a social enterprise or charity to use as office space. They have available space to accommodate individual social enterprises of up to 40 people. The space will be available until early 2024 and will become available in the next few months. There would be no cost re rent water or electricity and they may be able to offer office furniture. Email [email protected] for further info.
Social Enterprise Futures. When I was in the SSE office, way back in 2012 or whenever it was when we were allowed to do it, I used to occasionally meet with some of the illustrious team at Social Enterprise UK for meetings in Brigade, the bar / restaurant in our building. “Sounds like an excuse to drink on the company dime, Dave”, I can hear you mutter. You’d be wrong. They were great meetings and we came up with some great ideas. We didn’t write any of them down and we couldn’t remember them the next day but they were great ideas all the same. And it seems the SEUK team have had another – Social Enterprise Futures 2020. Starting on November 25th, it’s an online summit across 2 days that brings the UK Social Enterprise movement together to celebrate the sector and address future needs for growth. Check it out here.
Some SSE news. Here at SSE, we have been reflecting on our past two decades, as we explore the impact we want to create in the future. We’re pleased to share some news about how we’re strengthening our long-term future. We are moving towards a more responsive and collaborative structure. It’s probably not such a big deal outside SSE, but we’re excited here! Read more here.
Programme director vacancy. SSE student Max Girardeau is looking for a programme director to join his organisation The Visionaries. Based in London, The Visionaries support holistic school development and participatory community building through transformative rites of passage experiences, wellbeing training and nature connection for schools. They help students, teachers and parents to have healthy and trusting relationships in school, develop emotional resilience, nurture positive self-worth and create a culture of ecological leadership in school. The role pays £26k and the deadline to apply is 7th October. Details here.
Ideas Cafe. The Happy Start Up School (founded by SSE Fellow Carlos Saba) are running a series of Ideas Cafes for ‘the new breed of entrepreneur that believes there’s more to life (and business) than making money’. The next event takes place on November 20th – it’s currently scheduled to take place in Brighton but the last few have run online so keep an eye on it. You can find out more here.
