Comments for Social Economy

Comment on Former Children’s Services Worker Opens Social Enterprise by Margaret Meredith

Margaret Meredith — Tue, 21 May 2013 09:24:23 +0000

Many thanks, Gill and congratulations on the award and on the way ‘Labelled’ is going from strength to strength. It’s inspirational. It would be great to do a case study on you and on Patchwork People in the future, maybe for our newsletter and the website.

Comment on Former Children’s Services Worker Opens Social Enterprise by Gill Walker

Gill Walker — Mon, 20 May 2013 11:46:30 +0000

Hello everyone – thanks so much for your kind comments. Our social enterprise is going from strength. Our Labelled shop has now been open 20 months, this offers young people experience in a real business environment. We support young people furthest from the job market in this high street base – we also continue to trade at events and markets across the North East. (with our trusty trestle table!) We have also been recognised by C4EO (Centre for Excellence and Outcomes) as validated local practice. Over the last 6 months we have developed a fully costed ‘replication’ plan as we have others interested in our Labelled model. Last week’s success in the Big Venture Challenge will support us in attracting investment, with the potential for match funding, to enable us to launch our Labelled social franchise. In our first 2 years of trading we have reduced our grant dependency from 70% to 20 % whilst doubling our turnover. We continue to grow and learn – and love every minute of it !

Comment on Former Children’s Services Worker Opens Social Enterprise by Mike Calvert

Mike Calvert — Mon, 20 May 2013 10:05:08 +0000

I’ve just been back to their website this morning and see that they were given a prestigious award last week in London. Go to http://www.patchworkpeople.org.uk/ to read more.

Well done, Gill and Marj (and the trestle table)!

Comment on Former Children’s Services Worker Opens Social Enterprise by Margaret Meredith

Margaret Meredith — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:56:29 +0000

Great. Thanks, Graham. I have just seen this is available as a Kindle Edition on Amazon: ‘Me, Marj and the Tressle Table: Conquering Social Enterprise.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marj-Trestle-Table-Enterprise-ebook/dp/B005PP8XBI/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368607912&sr=1-3&keywords=gill+walker#_

Comment on Former Children’s Services Worker Opens Social Enterprise by Graham Bright

Graham Bright — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:18:11 +0000

These ladies have written a great little book about their experience of seeting up a Social Enterprise – a good little read which signposts pitfalls and how to overcome them. What they are accomplishing is a triumph.

Comment on Kenyan university offers Higher Diploma in Social Entrepreneurship by Margaret Meredith

Margaret Meredith — Tue, 14 May 2013 14:48:32 +0000

Many thanks, Mike. I really appreciate you drawing people’s attention to the project.
I would be very interested in meeting your Slovenian colleague when she comes to York. I am convinced that there are many people in higher education and beyond who are looking for ideas about how to manage our economic affairs which are more intrinsically sustainable and fair than the current dominant model. The wonderful thing about this project is that we can see this trend in many regions of the world. The project and the blog are partly about ‘joining the dots’, allowing us to learn from each other and make the knowledge and experience of those in the social economy better represented in higher education. If your colleagues and contacts would like to contribute an article to the blog or sign up as friends of the project, that would be great!
Margaret

Comment on Kenyan university offers Higher Diploma in Social Entrepreneurship by Mike Calvert

Mike Calvert — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:32:55 +0000

I recommend readers to follow the work of Gill Walker who has embraced social enterprise in the North East of England. I hope to introduce her to the work that is being done in York.

http://www.darlingtoninterface.co.uk/articles/669/patchwork-people

Also, in a week’s time, I am attending a free conference in Copenhagen that addresses anti-neo-liberal policies and I am sure they will be interested in your work. The conference website is at concrit.com (not concrete as Google insists on finding). I will suggest the organisation is represented at the next conference in 2014 wherever that is held.

It is interesting that I am in discussions this week with academics from Slovenia and one of them mentioned specifically yesterday the need to have models in place when neo-liberal approaches to education are finally seen to not work. She will be coming to York in July.

Comment on Social economy – why do you get involved? by Margaret Meredith

Margaret Meredith — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 22:08:07 +0000

Thanks Leonard and congratulations on all your work with Ecofinder Kenya. The work you are doing is urgent and impressive. The sense of motivation of people who are touched to address the pressing problems they see around them comes through very strongly in the ‘profile’ on the web site.

Comment on Social economy – why do you get involved? by Leonard Akwany

Leonard Akwany — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:50:57 +0000

I am the founder of Ecofinder Kenya (www.ecofinderkenya.org) and our motto is environmental entrepreneurship for sustainable communities. Likewise Erasmus Mundus Scholarship beneficiary where I did Msc in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management (MESPOM) (2006-2008). I work with many entrepreneurs and volunteers involved in various aspect of social economy. There are several motivations; working towards solving community problems such as safe and healthy source of energy, fighting for a cause as affected member of society for instance when your child, brother, sister or relative die from polluted water and you intervene to provide solution to avoid repeat, gaining experience for meaningful job in the future especially common with volunteers, earning a living or promoting innovation among others.

Comment on Social economy – the challenge for Higher Education by miguel

miguel — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:12:13 +0000

Well Done. Very interesting informations, very useful.
I´ll translate to Port. to use it in our Port. blog.