Member Article

Budding social entrepreneurs offered start up grants

Thinking of a career change for the New Year? The School for Social Entrepreneurs is calling out to motivated entrepreneurs with a desire to influence social change by offering them a funding grant, business mentorship and year-long training programme. The Programme, is sponsored by Lloyds Bank, with backing from the Big Lottery Fund and will provide budding entrepreneurs with a £4,000 start-up grant to help them set up their business.

Throughout February and March the school will host taster sessions across the country to showcase the programme and its opportunities.

More than 700 entrepreneurs have taken part in the programme since it started in 2012 and have gone on to develop their own unique and exciting enterprises that make significant benefits in their communities.

Naomi Marek is Founder and Chief Executive of Sky Badger, a web-based charity based near Cambridge that finds help and adventure for disabled children and their families through innovative online and IT-based solutions. Since graduating from the Start-Up programme and enrolling in the 2014/15 Scale-Up programme at the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) Sky Badger has gone from strength to strength, seeing it win the prestigious Guardian Charity Award in 2014.

She commented: “I was introduced to the School for Social Entrepreneurs programme having been inspired, along with three other mums, to build an online resource dedicated to giving families with specific needs access to information relevant to them. Both the grant and learning opportunities offered by the programme have helped not just my personal development, but have also helped me focus on evolving the business to one that has a truly positive impact on the families we work with. We wouldn’t be in the strong position we are in without my involvement in this programme at the School for Social Entrepreneurs.

“In the last two years, we’re reached over 300,000 families, created 1 full time job, 5 part time jobs, over 80 regular volunteers and increased our income by tenfold. The Start-Up Programme helped us build the foundations of Sky Badger. Now, thanks to the Scale-up programme, Sky Badger is learning to fly even higher!”

Taster sessions will be held across the country and include the following locations:

Aldershot / Basingstoke / Birmingham / Bristol / Cornwall / Dundee / Durham / Edinburgh / Gateshead / Glasgow / Leeds / Liverpool / London / Manchester / Middlesbrough / Plymouth / Southampton / Stirling / Sunderland

If you would like to attend a taster session, visit www.yourideastartshere.co.uk where you can find your nearest location and the relevant dates.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Cara J. Stewart .