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Citizen Coaching is recruiting

June 16, 2021

Citizen Coaching is a social enterprise that enables adults and young people to lead better lives through access to timely, affordable and jargon free counselling, anger management and personal development coaching delivered by a friendly professional team. It currently has two f

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Human Library Birmingham offers free mentoring for SE leaders & founders in WM

March 30, 2021

iSE, which manages the Human Lending Library initiative for Birmingham has just announced the following: Free mentoring offer for SE leaders and founders in the WM from the Human Lending Library Birmingham The Human Lending Library provides access to high-value mentoring for social en

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HUB109 announces ‘Future High Street’ platform — an open call for opinion, ideas and collaboration

March 29, 2021

We’ve written about Erdington’s HUB109 a couple of times on this blog (here and here). HUB109 is Erdington’s managed workspace and business incubator. Founder Sean Alimajstorovic has just announced that HUB109 CIC is launching something called Future High Street. Its

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iSE is seeking a new chief executive

February 24, 2021

I’m not going to embarrass either myself or Sarah Crawley by repeating everything I said in this post when last her departure from iSE was announced. She didn’t leave. Her plans coincided with the outbreak of the Covid pandemic and lockdown and she delayed her departure at

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New BVSC report reveals detailed picture of the impact of the Covid crisis on Birmingham’s VCS — and the sector’s contribution

November 26, 2020

A new report just published by BVSC reveals a fascinating and detailed picture of the impact of the Covid crisis on Birmingham’s voluntary and community sector. Birmingham Voluntary Service Council: State of the Sector 2020: Digest of Headlines brings together key findings from

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Government sets important new trend in social value

November 24, 2020

After a period during which things have been very quiet on the social value front, the government has recently (Sept 2020) issued new procurement guidelines which explicitly link social value in public procurement contracts to the Covid recovery effort. At first glance this may seem a

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iSE’s WiSE Wednesday webinars return on 16th September

September 03, 2020

On Wednesday 16th September 2020 iSE’s WiSE Wednesday webinar series returns following an August summer break. The discussion topic, including open Q&A, will be Digital Transformation — in a low tech environment with Pauline Roch

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BECo — the social enterprise that wants employers to steal its staff

September 01, 2020

Divine chocolate. Belu water. The Big Issue. A comparatively small number of social enterprises are operating at the scale of national manufacturers. And note that I do call them manufacturers and not ‘brands’ — I mean companies that make things, not brands that purs

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Pressure for a fairer, greener, juster recovery increases

June 29, 2020

Pressure is growing for an economic and social recovery that is fairer, more just, and greener. A recent YouGov poll reported in The Guardian indicates that just 6% of the public want to return to an unchanged ‘pre-pandemic’ economy. A recent letter to the government

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Build back better — Bill Grimsey report on the future of town and city centres post-Covid-19

June 23, 2020

Bill Grimsey has spent a lifetime at the top of retailing in the UK, Hong Kong and South Africa, during which time he regarded it as his mission ‘to clone every town in the UK with the same brands’. And he did, and in the process, as he readily acknowledges, he put paid to

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How one social enterprise is planning to be part of the post-virus recovery

April 28, 2020

Martin Hogg, founder and chief executive of Citizen Coaching, the counselling social enterprise, has tried various approaches over recent years to grow and scale-up the business. ‘We’ve always reinvested in the business,’ he says, ‘but this alone was never enou

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HoE Community Foundation — Coronavirus Resilience Fund now stands at over a quarter-of-a-million

April 09, 2020

On the 8th April the Chancellor announced an emergency funding package of £750 million for frontline charities across the UK, including hospices, those supporting domestic abuse victims, and smaller charities. The emphasis is very much on those organisations working at the frontline w

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NCVO — supporting the sector during coronavirus crisis

March 19, 2020

NCVO’s chief executive Karl Wilding has just issued an interesting statement on the organisation’s blog regarding his plans for a “whatever it takes” approach to supporting the VCSE sector through the current coronavirus crisis. The organisation has taken down

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iSE announces cancellation of City Drive 2020 events

March 16, 2020

Under iSE’s leadership and facilitation, City Drive has always been a collaborative event. Many social enterprises support it with activities and events, many contribute to its planning, and a substantial number of City Drive supporters help with generous sponsorship. After disc

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Coronavirus crisis — Claire Dove, VCSE Crown Representative, seeks VCSE views on sector support needs and responses

March 12, 2020

You may not know that Sarah Crawley now sits on the group convened by Claire Dove, the government’s VCSE Crown Representative. Claire’s role is to act as an intermediary between government and the voluntary, community & social enterprise sector, with a specific remit t

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Comments now working

February 25, 2020

This post is a sticky. For the time being, newer posts appear beneath it. If you have been trying to comment on the blog — perhaps especially this post — but have been unable to, our apologies. There has been a problem with the comments facility but our good friends at Cit

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Sarah Crawley to leave iSE

February 24, 2020

Sarah Crawley has announced that she will be leaving iSE at the end of June 2020. Sarah and I have worked together for over seventeen years and for a good part of that time she has served as chair of BSSEC and one of its Directors. This, thankfully, will continue and I look forward to

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The School for Social Entrepreneurs is recruiting…

December 11, 2019

The School for Social Entrepreneurs is seeking to recruit: Development Officer x 2 Reporting to: Development Manager Location: Flexible 0.8 FTE, with some flexibility. SSE is looking for two Development Officers, and would consider candidates looking for part-time (0.6 FTE+) or full-t

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Social Enterprise World Forum — day four

October 24, 2019

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: 23rd – 25th October 2019 It’s day four for iSE’s chief exec Sarah Crawley and Citizen Coaching’s Martin Hogg who are both at the Social Enterprise World Forum. Sarah has sent us another fascinating update… * * * *

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City Drive 2019 — social enterprise conference: 8th April

March 11, 2019

→ UPDATE: The full City Drive programme is now available. City Drive 2019 kicks off in grand style this year with a Social Enterprise Conference. The conference theme is exploring new business ideas that maximise social impact. Details WHEN: 8th April 2019, 9.00am registration,

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BIRMINGHAM & SOLIHULL SOCIAL ECONOMY CONSORTIUM C.I.C., trading as BSSEC. A community interest company registered in England and Wales with company no. 07992674. Registered office: c/o Anthony Collins Solicitors LLP, 134 Edmund Street, Birmingham B3 2ES | All rights reserved | Copyright 2013-BSSEC | Created by Citizen Click