SocialFuture: Time For People Powered Solutions
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Wednesday 28th July 2010 saw UnLtd and the Big Society Network come together to host the first open-space event on Big Society.
The event provided a platform for social entrepreneurs and support agencies to discuss how Big Society will make a difference in both the short and long term. It was all about clarifying the key points that could impact on social entrepreneurs and support agencies:
- Who is responsible?
- The benefits
- Challenges / barriers
If you have an idea on how Big Society could be communicated or used to its potential or to leave a comment about the event, then please click
here
Read the verbatim notes from the meeting
here.
Introduction
Social and community entrepreneurship in the UK is vibrant and growing. Nearly a quarter of a million people are trying to start a social venture and 1 in 30 of the working population are engaged in social entrepreneurial activity
(Global Entrepreneurship Monitor). There are strong models for supporting them to get started and scale up – yet only 1% of people wanting to start a social venture currently receive formal support.
Social entrepreneurs are not a creation of any government or political group: they are motivated by their own passions to improve the world in which they live. But politicians can make their work much easier or much harder. So at a critical point in UK politics, it is vital that our elected leaders understand the scale and nature of social entrepreneurs and how best to support them.
Background
UnLtd has been operating for 8 years now and has supported thousands of people to start up new social ventures of all kinds, and has helped hundreds to scale up to achieve major impact. We believe this is now an approach of proven value, with the people we support creating social capital, innovation, social and economic impact, as well as learning skills and building their own confidence to act as social leaders.
At a time of great economic and social pressures in the UK, we need social entrepreneurs more than ever. So how can an incoming Government best enable and support them? How can we best design the support services from start up through to social investment stages? And how can we engage communities, business and other agencies in supporting the people who want to improve the world in which they live?
SocialFuture is the programme UnLtd has developed to help answer these questions. It is a unique project driven by social entrepreneurs, support agencies and Government advisors.
The programme has involved:
- A major survey of the social entrepreneurs UnLtd has supported, combining this with our other data to produce a summary report: Social Entrepreneurs: The Facts.
- Collaboration with colleagues in the Social Entrepreneurship Policy Group to produce a joint manifesto: Leading Social Change.
- Two seminars involving social entrepreneurs and supporters with politicians and policy advisers, one with each of Labour and Conservative parties. Reports of these SocialFuture seminars are available here.
Seminar Synopsis
Background: Time for people powered solutions
Policy Seminar: Conservative Party
Policy Seminar: Labour Party
Key Findings: Summary
- A major policy report by Respublica: The Venture Society, setting out the evidence for social entrepreneurship and seven radical ideas for scaling up the support available and engaging local backing. This is an independent report, commissioned by UnLtd. Respublica will be continuing these theme of work with a look at how to make it easier for social entrepreneurs to demonstrate the value and impact of their ventures.
UnLtd worked with the Big Society Network on a ‘town hall roadshow’ with social entrepreneurs on 28 July 2010. Read the verbatim notes from the event
here.
The Venture Society
UnLtd's View on The Venture Society
Venture Society vital in tackling challenges facing UK
- Social entrepreneurs and support agencies worked on designing their ideal support structure for an active community in a disadvantaged neighbourhood. The design workshop was part of the SHINE UnConference on 15th May and you can see video reports HERE.
In the next steps on
SocialFuture, UnLtd will be talking with social entrepreneurs to see which of the new ideas on support structures look most valuable to them: give us your ideas
HERE.. We will also be working with colleague support agencies to pilot and test out the most promising: we invite all agencies involved in helping community and social entrepreneurs to work in the common cause of making sure that their talent and commitment can fulfil its potential.
If you would like to stay involved in
SocialFuture, let us know on
socialfuture@unltd.org.uk and follow Twitter hashtag #socialfuture
