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The rise of social enterprise

The pandemic has inspired a new wave of social entrepreneurs developing business ideas to support their Covid-stricken communities. Here, Kevin Marquis, Social Enterprise Manager at the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC), explains how entrepreneurs are shaping communities and changing the world.

Since the outbreak of the virus, we’ve noticed a marked rise in demand for our business advice services. More and more people are realising that the social enterprise model offers the perfect way to run a business that is not only profitable but also has social purpose at its heart.

We’re receiving enquiries from individuals preparing to start-up new businesses aimed at making a difference to local people and places, as well as from existing enterprises with plans to expand everything from counselling services to food co-operatives.

As with all crises, the pandemic has brought out the best in a lot of people and has inspired them to take collective action to consider how they can best support others.

People are thinking more about their social objectives and their own accountability and responsibility to their communities. They’re turning to social enterprise as this is the best model to support those objectives.

Creative Minds – run by North Star Counselling CIC is a fantastic example of an ambitious social enterprise that is rising to the challenge of Covid-19 to help its community.

Working closely with our team, Creative Minds secured grant funding to help them reach more people reeling from the impact of the pandemic. The counselling team has adapted the way it works to provide free online and telephone counselling sessions and workshops, as well as a range of programmes specifically focused on suicide prevention, grief and the mental health of young people.

Bishopwearmouth Co-operative CIC in Sunderland provides day care, training and employment opportunities for some of our most vulnerable adults. Previously a City Council service that has externalised, it is a business that uses horticulture to provide day care services, training and employment for those with learning difficulties. The fully commercial, retail garden centre has significantly increased turnover, profitability and opened up many new opportunities for the business.

Building on the success of the garden centre, they raised £200k from social investors to acquire the adjacent cemetery house to convert it to a café / restaurant to serve the Garden Centre. This will further increase retail sales and delivery on their social objectives – expanding the range of services, training and employment opportunities for their care customers.

The evidence suggests that social enterprises will play an increasingly important role in our economic recovery. At the latest count, by Social Enterprise UK’s State of the Sector report* in 2019, there were 100,000 social enterprises contributing £60bn to UK GDP. Despite the challenging economic climate of 2020, a total of 183 CICs were incorporated to the start of November 2020. This accounts for 19% of all CICs in the region.

We are preparing the way for even greater numbers coming forward for support -from both new social entrepreneurs and traditional businesses looking to explore this business model and we’re expecting to see many new and exciting social innovations in 2021.

*Social Enterprise UK’s State of the Sector report can be found at https://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Capitalism-in-Crisis.pdf

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by North East BIC .