Another Thursday edition of Have I Got Social Enterprise News For You. I’m not losing track of what day it is (actually I am slightly) and it’s nothing to do with timing it to arrive while you’re clapping, it’s just easier around my current work pattern.
Very little to report from me this week, although perhaps that’s to be expected when every day is the same as the last one. It’s not all bad though – the forthcoming bank holiday weekend means that our bins will be collected next Thursday, not next Wednesday. Variety is the spice of life, after all.
Enjoy the news…
The Government’s new Coronavirus Community Support Fund will open for applications at 10am tomorrow morning (Friday). £200m will be available to small and medium organisations in England, with two objectives: to increase community support to vulnerable people and to reduce temporary closures of essential charities and social enterprises. Everything will go live tomorrow, but for now you can read a statement from The National Lottery Community Fund here.
Also open to applications is the Resourcing Racial Justice Fund, providing financial support to individuals and organisations that are working to redress the impact of COVID-19 and beyond on those who identify as People of Colour (POC). Grants of between £5k – £30k are available to individuals and organisations, apply by 15th June.
I mentioned last week that Power to Change were conducting a Community Business Market survey at the moment but helpfully I forgot to include a link to it. The survey will help Power to Change know more about the community business market and how it can best help community businesses through the difficulties created by the Covid-19 virus. The survey is here and will take about 15 minutes.
Social enterprise newspaper publisher Social Spider CIC has worked with local volunteers to reinvent its distribution model to continue to provide vital news and information to local communities during Covid-19. It is continuing to distribute 10,000 copies each of their newspapers: Waltham Forest Echo, Tottenham Community Press and Enfield Dispatch each month. Any social enterprises that would like to advertise in the papers can get a 50% discount in the June issues which go to print next week – contact [email protected] for more details.
A nice offer for readers of this newsletter – SSE Fellow Jonathan Smith is launching a new online & zoom business coaching service for social entrepreneurs and is looking for six people to beta test it for free. The course and community is designed to help you to get “unstuck” so you can move your social enterprise forward again. The course will cost £847 in a few weeks time, so six of you can snap up a great offer here.
Our online workshops at SSE have proved to be so popular that we’ve scheduled in additional dates for some of the most popular, including Sources of Funding, Measuring Social Impact and Crowdfunding. Courses are selling out fast and in advance so if there is a workshop that you’d like to attend I recommend booking early. You can find a full list here.
We’re looking for a new background to look at during Zoom meetings so we’re recruiting a Head of Learning and Innovation (£46k-£49k). The successful candidate will ‘cultivate and develop SSE’s learning offer, putting innovation and creativity at the forefront’. The role can be based anywhere in the UK, perhaps not surprisingly during current circumstances. Apply by 7th June.
The fourth part in our blog series looking at how SSE students and fellows are adapting to the Covid-19 crisis is now live on our website. This week’s focuses largely on mental health, you can read it here.
Finally, SSE Fellow Jem Stein’s social enterprise Bike Project will be hosting a lockdown virtual pub quiz with comedian Robin Ince this Saturday at 7.30pm. Tickets are available on a donate what you can basis but for £20 you can get a VIP ticket which comes with a whole load of goodies. Details here.
