Time to get your small violins out because I don’t feel well. I think I’ve got man flu. A serious bout of man flu. Send emergency bottles of Lucozade, Lemsip, an ambulance on standby (in case it escalates) and chicken soup please, otherwise I’m going to start whining. And no-one wants that.
Here’s this week’s news…(sniffle).
- We’ve released full details of our Replication and Social Franchising course, which is currently available at the bargain price of £750 (on a first come, first served basis).
- Our Comms Officer Leonie and Upshot Productions have been putting together ‘Witness Sessions’, a series of videos featuring social entrepreneurs and their stories. The videos will be coming out soon but just to tease you, you can watch the trailer here, or some of the outtakes here. (Big thanks to our friends at RSA, who have funded the project).
- February 2015 marks two years since the Social Value Act became law, and to mark the occasion Social Enterprise UK are hosting the Social Value Summit. You can pick up an early bird ticket until December 19th.
- If like me you haven’t even started your Christmas shopping yet this charity Christmas present guide from the Guardian could come in handy. (I’ll still be standing in John Lewis on Christmas eve with an expression of panic on my face. It’s traditional).
- A really interesting (honestly) social investment deal as the Phone Co-op have invested £500k into the HCT group. The first example of one social organisation investing in another?
- SSE Fellow Jayne Hardy is offering a 7 day School of Facebook Fame to help you get the most from your organisation’s Facebook page. It looks super.
- An excellent essay from Filippo Addari of the Young Foundation, and David Land of University of Modena: ‘Social innovation and the challenge of democracy in Europe‘.
- Barclays and charity 3Space have joined forces to develop ‘Hatch‘, which will offer free space to social enterprises, entrepreneurs and community organisations. The first space is in Oxford, with three more coming in 2015.
- SSE Fellow Andy Ross and his organisation New Caledonian Woodlands have some great produce on offer if you are looking for something different to give someone this Christmas. (I’ve had their apple juice, it’s unbelievably good!)
- A pat on the back if you’ve completed our Social Entrepreneurs Training Survey. If you haven’t done so yet, make sure you do before December 24th or I’ll tell Santa on you.
- There are free tickets available for StartUp 2015, an event in London for early stage entrepreneurs on Saturday 17th January.
- Chivas are still on the hunt for social entrepreneurs to take part in The Venture – if you have a great start up idea, you could win a share of a $1m fund.
- BeyondMe are looking for 60 charity partners to receive funding and work placements from teams of young professionals.
- There are only three or four places left on January’s Writing Successful Bids course, so book quickly if you want to come along.
- This has got nothing to do with social enterprise but is quite good fun if you can tear yourself away from work for 5 minutes: Optical illusion
Have a good week, and look out for some sort of convoluted Christmas special next week (assuming I’ve made it through this).
