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Building Better Opportunities
ABOUT
You have an idea about where you want your business to go? Need some help getting there? We are the experts at helping our customers take their businesses to the next stage.
STAND UP FOR SE
We lobby & advocate for Social Enterprise in all sectors. Working closely with national partners & local level infrastructure groups, we aim to support the sustainable development of Social Enterprise.
SERVICES
We provide a range of professional business & supportive services. From Business Advisors & Mentors to CPD & Professional Development. Including recognised training & qualifications through SFEDI & IOEE.
More details coming soon.
SBA Latest News
GDPR Compliance
Link to our GDPR Compliance statement
Building Better Opportunities
SBA is the VCSE lead on Support into Employment project being delivered in SEMLEP. We are supporting delivery partners in Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire. This project is funded by the European Social Fund and the National Lottery, through the Big Lottery Fund.
Director Sue Quinn shortlisted
Sue has been shortlisted for 2 awards in the Women Leaders MK awards in Community Impact and Business Services. The awards are on 12th October 2018
New article in IOEE Newsletter
We worked in partnership with Black Sheep Collective CIC delivering SFEDI qualifications with learners from MK Snap. The article demonstrates how learners with disabilities can gain qualifications.
https://issuu.com/sfedi/docs/september_think_enterprise_finished/12
Women in Social Enterprise event
19th July 5pm @Bar Bar BlackSheep Cafe. This is for any woman who is a CEO,Director or Trustee of a social enterprise. This is the start of Peer to Peer network for more info contact
Social Enterprise 'Down Under'
In February Sue went to Australia and visited social enterprises in Melbourne and Sydney. www.STREAT.com.au and
https://homie.com.au/ in Melbourne and
http://www.arcco.org.au/ in Sydney
Back home Sue hopes to implement some of the lessons learnt with social enterprises in Milton Keynes
Working in Hull
Over the past year Ed and Sue have been working with 2 organisations in North Bransholme in Hull. Based in a community centre SBA has been supporting the organisations with governance, funding and programming.
Natwest SE100 #WiseWomen
On Thursday 12th October Sue Quinn was recognised for her work in social enterprise by being listed as one of the inaugural WISE100. Over 250 nominations were received. The WISE100 recognises the invaluable contribution of 100 of the most inspiring women in social enterprise, impact investment and social innovation.
" It was a surprise, next year is our 10th anniversary and we've supported over 1000 people to start or develop their social businesses, along with launching the radio show it's been quite a week!"
Wise Women
It has been a busy summer, with the initial Women in Social Enterprise (WISE), programme coming to an end, with rave reviews from the participants.
Our next course starts on 6th November email for more details
Crowdfunding
SBA were delighted to host a crowdfunding workshop at Age UK MK, run by Prashan Paramanathan the founder and CEO of the crowdfunding platform Chuffed. www.chuffed.org.
The oversubscribed crowdfunding for social causes workshop gave attendees fantastic advice and an understanding of what it takes to run a successful pitch.
"Thank you, I have just learnt so much"
Watch out for future workshop dates!
October 2017
BBO
The BBO Support into Employment project continues successfully with an array of exciting projects run by our partners across MK.
Business Advice
We continue to work with a diverse range of social enterprises and charities, enabling several new CIC's to register, including a Pub in Surrey which becomes the 55th community pub in the UK, plus supporting several organisations to become CIO's.
SE Sector Latest News
A new report the HIDDEN REVOLUTION has just been released by Social Enterprise UK.
Highlights:
100,000 Social Enteprises
2 million employees
Worth 60bn of GDP
It's worth a read, let us know if you think it captures your experience. The Hidden Revolution
Ensuring Quality Social Enterprise Business Support
We are pleased to announce that SBA is currently training 3 new SFEDI accredited business advisors with a specialism in Social Enterprise. Two of the advisors are employed at Voluntary Impact Northamptonshire, part of our ongoing support for them.
Report from SEUK on Social Value Commissioning
The findings reveals that 1 in 7 (14%) councils are fully embracing social value, applying it frequently to contracts including those below the threshold (of €209,000) for services [2] – and the majority of these councils have a social value policy (58%). A further 1 in 5 (19%) councils are ‘adopters’ of the Act, applying it conservatively, but have a social value policy, framework or toolkit.
Report from Buzzacotts on Kids Company
Buzzacotts have published their report on Kids Company and is a valuable read for Trustees.
The Budget didn't deliver any outstanding highlights for Social Enterprise. Hidden in the speech was one element - Business Rates. Many social enterprises have had 'interesting' conversations with their local authorities and there has never been a coherent policy across the country. Hopefully the new legislation will deliver some leverage for social enterprise.