Social Media CIC has been awarded a grant under the Illuminate programme of Social Enterprise West Midlands for a project to promote social enterprise in the area.

The main partners are Social Enterprise North Staffordshire (SENS) (the social enterprise network for the area), VAST (support for social enterprises) and Bizfizz (local business support). Any social enterprise or community organisation who would like to be involved is invited to come to the first planning meeting on March 26 – please leave your email address for more details.

The project will take the form of a 12-part campaign in Local Edition, with all the material being made freely available for dissemination online and in other publications. This meeting will be to discuss the content of the campaign and a workshop to be arranged while it is in progress which will bring together people interested in social enterprise. Collaboration on the campaign will then be via an email list, small meetings/interviews and other network meetings, with a final networking meeting to be arranged to round off the campaign and discuss possible avenues for further projects and collaboration.

The objectives of the project are to:
- inspire new social enterprise start-ups and encourage the development of existing social enterprise in the area
- increase interest in the social enterprise business model amongst communities of the area and ensure that this sector plays an important role in new business and job creation in the area
- increase awareness and membership of the Social Enterprise North Staffordshire network so that it can better achieve its aims in the area and work with policy makers and decision makers
- support the aims of the city council to support social enterprise in the area by raising awareness of the types of work the council need to procure in order that this work can be sourced locally and the work done by local people.
- raise the profile of social enterprise amongst readers and supporters of Local Edition, so that they can better appreciate the newspaper’s – and other social enterprise’s – purposes and its status as a not-for-profit newspaper seeking to make a difference in the community.

The project is in a very open stage at the moment so please bring along or send any ideas for themes that should be included in the campaign as well as any contacts you know for social enterprises in the area.

If you can’t get to the meeting but would like to be involved in the project in any way, please also let me know and I will add you to the email list for the project.