About Us

This manifesto has been authored by, and has its origins in the work of, the Social Entrepreneurship Policy Group (SEPG). SEPG was established by the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE), with its first meeting in March 2006. The members of the group are Ashoka, Changemakers, Community Action Network (CAN), SSE, Training for Life, and UnLtd.

These organisations came together having identified shared common ground and objectives in social entrepreneurship, namely:

· Individuals leading social change: rooted in the personal and particular
· Generating robust, responsive solutions
· Combining resourcefulness, opportunity and innovation in practical action
· Developing business skills and ‘skills for life’ through practical learning
· Supporting and engaging new, diverse leaders
· Community-engaged, community-shaped organisations
· Outcomes, not process; practitioners, not structures

The group then formed with a view to more fully representing the needs, interests and solutions of social entrepreneurs, to advocating in partnership on behalf of those individuals, and to work closely as practitioner organisations to support such individuals.

Though the group strongly endorses the work done in placing social enterprise at the heart of government activity, in embedding models and creating markets, it believes that there needed to be a stronger focus on engaging, developing and supporting those individuals who will establish, run and populate those models and markets.

The commercial business world knows that it is people acting as entrepreneurs who create new enterprises and new value, and investment follows the people and teams who can deliver. As a society we need to see the same focus on people as leaders to address our social and environmental future. The UK, as the world-leader in grassroots social entrepreneurship, is the place to achieve this. 

More details of each organisation's work and activity follows below.

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP ACTIVITY / CONSTITUENCY

 Ashoka - As the “global association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs”, Ashoka has elected over 2,000 leading social entrepreneurs as Ashoka Fellows, providing them with living stipends, professional support, and access to a global network of peers in more than 70 countries. Ashoka UK is a hub for European activity and appoints the Fellows in the UK. 
- www.ashoka.org/unitedkingdom 

 Community Action Network (CAN) – Founded in 1998, CAN has a UK-wide membership and has been involved in many different areas of activity, including setting up Social Enterprise Magazine and organisations including Prime Timers and Cantilever. It currently focuses primarily on co-location for social enterprises (via its Mezzanine model) and focused ‘breakthrough’ investment. It currently supports 120 organisations with 765 individuals, and is a 95,000 square ft community of interest in which 58% are collaborating or sharing costs.
- www.can-online.org.uk

 Changemakers – Founded in 1994, Changemakers has delivered education programmes in over 100 schools across the UK to help foster the next generation of social entrepreneurs, including a social entrepreneurship programme now being rolled out across 400 schools in Yorkshire and Humber. Changemakers also ran the Big Boost (in partnership with Scarman Trust, Prince’s Trust and UnLtd) which distributed over £8m to young social entrepreneurs, and is now working with UnLtd to deliver the Big Challenge social entrepreneurship competition.
- www.changemakers.org.uk

 School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) – Since its inception in 1997, over 550+ SSE Fellows have completed programmes across the 11 schools in the SSE Network, set to rise by a further 200+ in the coming year. Of these, over 33% are from BME communities, and there is an equal gender split. SSE replicates its methodology across the UK, operating as a social franchise. Independent evaluations show that each SSE Fellow creates, on average, 3 jobs and 7 volunteering positions, whilst 60% report an increased turnover having attended the programme (on average, a fivefold increase). Over half report that more than 50% of their income comes from trading activity. 85% of Fellows’ organisations established on the SSE programme are still in existence, stretching right back to the original 1998 cohort (who have a survival rate nearly double that of conventional business).
- www.sse.org.uk

 Training for Life – Since 1995, Training for Life has supported over 14,000 long-term unemployed people into employment or further education; created over 300 apprenticeships in social enterprises and created 150 new jobs as a business in themselves. Training for Life is committed to teaching people trapped in unemployment how to engage with society, compete and thrive in the workplace. They combine entrepreneurial initiatives, social enterprise endeavour and philanthropic investment to create a compelling social investment business case that helps to address some of the issues that blight neighbourhoods and local communities.

Training for Life’s centres are:
- Sustainable. They are enterprising community buildings that are independent of government grants. Since 2004, they have developed capital assets that have a book value of in excess of £5m.
- Profitable. Social enterprises like the Michelin-recommended Hoxton Apprentice restaurant that are financially independent and profit-driven businesses.
- Transformational. Training and apprenticeships offered in social enterprises that are financed through government contracts and philanthropic support.
- Scalable. The business and learning models have the potential for replication rapidly through franchise. Also, their delivery model has been the blueprint for several other social enterprise restaurants such as Acorn House, Waterside and Pryor’s Bank Café.
- www.trainingforlife-city.org

 UnLtd – UnLtd, the Foundation for Social Entrepreneurs, supports people with vision, drive, commitment and passion who want to change the world for the better. UnLtd does this by providing a complete package of funding and support, to help 1000 individuals each year to make their ideas a reality. Over 16,000 social entrepreneurs have received UnLtd grants and support since it became operational in 2003; 40% of these awards are made in the 20% most deprived areas, and 33% of Awardees are from BME communities, with an even gender ratio. UnLtd’s investment readiness service helped social entrepreneurs secure £880,000 in just one month. 63% of awards result in new organisations being formed, whilst over 50% secure additional funding for their project after an UnLtd award. Almost half of Award-winners' projects involved delivering a service, whilst 70% of Awardees trained others.
- www.unltd.org.uk