WeCreate, YouApplaud

Posted on August 13, 2009 by sse

Recently checked in with one of our fellows in Birmingham, Richard Leighton, who runs We Create*, a Social Enterprise that offers young individuals the opportunity to gain access to qualifications and commercial experience in Fashion Design.

We Create* runs The Oasis, an alternative fashion shop in Birmingham that retails fashion labels designed by local young designers – some of these products are also available online. In addition, the shop also retails designs developed by participants on We Create*'s pilot courses.

Chuffed to see that Richard is doing so well. In the coming time he's looking to expand on the many alternatives We Create* offer, like a free fashion-based business help and support service, a 12-week fashion design and its commercial development course, and projects in partnership with organisations like the Youth
Offending Service (YOS), HMS Prison Service, Social Enterprises, and so on.

We're excited about the many things We Create* has started up and expect to hear more from Richard in the coming months.

Go for it!

Posted on August 12, 2009 by sse

During a recent search in our fellowship database, I came across the profile of our founder, Michael Young, the Lord of Dartington. In his profile we have included a quote from one of his speeches given at SSE around the turn of the millennium, which I think is worth sharing. In a dire financial environment like today, this might be food for thought.

Michael Young:

There is a great 'wall' coming up in a few weeks time
and only a few messages will get over the wall, or a few whispers through the
chinks. So, looked at in this way, my function here is to whisper a few things
to you, from one century to another. You are going to spend a longer time in
the next century than I am, but I think no-one here has spent as much time in
this century as I have.

So, I had to decide, overnight, what I was going to say to you, as an old
man of the twentieth century, to you people of the twenty first century. And I
think what I would say is 'Go for it.'

It is perhaps a metaphor of a ship leaving the dock. It's the ship of the
next century and there I am on the dockside, waving a message, shouting out 'Go
for it! Don't be put off! Be persistent, persistent, persistent!'

Anyway, that is my message to you of the next century, from me in this
century. And I don't think the next century will be any different. The
resistance to new ideas will be much the same – and the means to overcoming it
will be the same. You will need all the guile you can muster and all the
persistence. Don't dismiss all your good ideas if they don't seem good ideas to
your friends and other people. Believe in yourself. Go for it. That's what I'm
shouting from the dockside.

Thor Steinhovden currently interns with the School for Social
Entrepreneurs in Bethnal Green, London. He recently finished a BA in
Political Science and History at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. This
fall he will embark on a MSc in Comparative Politics (Nationalism and
Ethnicity) at the London School of Economics.

How do interns fit into the social enterprise movement?

Posted on August 6, 2009 by sse

In the welfare-state utopia that is Scandinavia, there is a saying that goes, "give the youngsters a computer before football gets to them," alluding to the ever-dominant role the sport plays in Scandinavian society. In the world of social enterprise, perhaps it is time we adopt a similar approach: "give young people a purposeful career before the corporates get to them." Step one? Adopt an intern.

As a twenty-year old college student I was lost in what to do with my life. Like many of my peers I was young, idealistic beyond belief and equipped with a hard work-ethic. However, what I lacked were hard skills, proper levels of pragmatism, and a realistic view on how to 'change the world'. Then I got the opportunity to intern for a month with a social entrepreneurship organisation, which took me in, nurtured my confidence and taught me about how social enterprise practitioners apply idealism. A year and a half later this experience has put me on track for a career that mixes purpose with professionalism, work with an outside life, and idealism with pragmatism. While there are many similar stories out there, there is still a large gap between the many young interns who stand ready to join small social enterprises, and those who actually gain the opportunity to work. Why? Here are a few hypothetical claims…

– Small social enterprises or NGOs often lack the funding to bring in an intern, even for part-time. As far as I know, outside funding alternatives specifically aimed at bringing in interns are few and far between.

– Prospective interns often have no idea where to begin their job search. Finding a small social enterprise is hard enough, finding one that can afford them and is willing to go through the process of hiring an intern is virtually impossible.

– Small social enterprises are not proactive enough in searching for interns. Many organisations want trained employees, and fail to see value of fresh perspectives and the hard work-ethic interns often bring to the table.

– Prospective interns prefer big organisations or well-known employers. In looking an internship with a name-brand business, they often do not see that with a small NGO they will receive greater responsibility, more advanced tasks, and ultimately, greater skills.

– Students are often limited for time in that they can only do internships that last for one to four months. A lot of organisations prefer longer contracts to make it a more useful learning experience for intern, but also because it gives the intern a greater opportunity to make a positive impact on the NGO.

Surely other factors play a role as well, but these stand out to me as particularly limiting.

Why is it important to defy these factors and make a conscious effort to recruit more interns? As is widely accepted, not everyone could, or should, be a social entrepreneur. However, there are plenty of young men and women who still want to partake in social enterprise, and who want to make a positive impact on their society. In this sense, second-tier organisations might be a perfect fit. NGOs often prioritize the day-to-day tasks over long-term projects that involve research, updating of databases, technological innovation – they just fall by the waste side. Ironically these features are essential in moving the sector forward, through strong networks, new initiatives, a deeper understanding of complex issues, and organisational growth.

If you work for a small social enterprise and you are looking for an intern, what do you do? SSE was lucky enough to be approached by an American college, looking to set up a sustainable internship relationship. This coming January, SSE will welcome its third intern from St. Olaf College. Looking for such a partner might be a good first step – loads of schools are filled with competent young men and women, ready to enter the sector and contribute to its growth and development. While it might be time-consuming and not directly beneficial for your organisation to adopt an intern, it might be essential for the social enterprise movement. Youth is an essential ingredient to a successful sector in the future.

Should third sector leaders be non-executive directors?

Posted on July 21, 2009 by sse

It's crazy time here at SSE….having recruited two new staff in three new regional SSEs, we're now mid-recruitment of three posts at SSE-UK here in East London. And we have been rewarded with our largest pile of CVs ever……

Whilst thinking about recruitment, I thought I'd draw attention to a different area of recruitment that has a broad relevance to the third sector. As many have pointed out, the failure of our financial institutions is also a failure of corporate governance which is, in turn, a failure of non-executive directors (NEDs). David Walker's recent report on corporate governance acknowledges this, and suggests doubling the number of days that NEDs contribute to a company per year.

This does seem an inadequate response, though. As The World of GingerbreadGirl points out:

"if you use the same people you will have the same answers, the same
approaches, and the same problems – whether or not you cut their pay,
double their pay, cut their days, or double them. If you always do what
you have always done, you will always get what you always got."

She suggests that every board should have to have one NED that has never been an NED before…in order to cut down on the cronyism, (old boy) networks and lack of variety that has affected the ability of non-execs to perform their role over the last few years. Matthew Cain follows on from this with some sensible questions that should form a basic check on whether a person can be an NED who will bring value to the corporate governance process. And points out that NEDs aren't a panacea to this problem, which is surely right.

But that doesn't mean it shouldn't be addressed.

So how does this relate to "our" world? Well, firstly because the same applies to charitable boards: as Eleanor at NPC points out in her post (with the does-what-it-says-on-the-tin title of Networks aren't the answer for boards: get some fresh blood for a change),

"Trustee boards in the charity sector in the UK face remarkably similar
problems. Most (around 80%) recruit new board members from their
networks. 'Word of mouth' is great for getting people who you know and
trust, but it means that you are looking in a very small pool of people"

This is surely true. We work hard with SSE students (and Fellows) to think hard about different types of governance structure, and about the make-up of their boards (if they have them). And that challenge of being aligned to the mission, but not too close to it; of being trusted, but not uncritical; of being a good mix of skills, but also a good team… etc

Secondly, and to return to GingerbreadGirls' original point about widening the pool of talent, surely there are people from the charity and social enterprise sectors who would add credibility, acuity, insight and experience to some corporate boards? This is something we've been looking at on the Social Enterprise Ambassadors programme and was called for at an event the other evening by leading charity lawyer Stephen Lloyd, who was reported as saying:

"that at least one non-executive director of all quoted
companies should have extensive experience of the social/voluntary
sector to add a new perspective to board discussions"

Again, getting leading charity or social enterprise directors as non-exec directors is by no means a panacea, but it would surely bring a fresh pair of (credible) eyes to the table, combined with experience of running a significant organisation. And would also foster better understanding in both sectors about the differing demands and natures of each.

[Writing this post as part of Bloggers' Circle, an initiative to share posts cross-blog and get interesting posts more widely-read.]

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