Antidote

We held the latest of our UnLtd brand clinics at Mother this week. They’re always energized sessions – a couple of social enterprises really grabbed us.

One was the Hip Hop Shakespeare Company, set up by rapper Akala to work with disengaged young people, getting them excited about words and rhyming. Another was MOTIV, which works in schools to incentivize kids to turn up – like the Million project, but teaching the value of attendance at the same time as rewarding them.

Social enterprise keeps on booming. Micro-funding sites continue growing, such as Pledge Bank in the UK and Kickstarter in the US. Gordon Brown has been talking about this for a while now. Last week saw David Cameron sign up to No More Business As Usual, which has some interesting facts:

• Social enterprises contribute £24 billion to the economy.
• They’re twice as confident of future growth as traditional small and medium enterprises.
• Since the economic downturn began, 56% have increased their turnover.

But the real value is in the work they do – addressing social exclusion, fighting health inequalities, revitalizing local sports, inspiring kids to go to school. The optimism and imagination in some of these enterprises is exceptional. In our current economy of malaise, we should be paying attention.

I’ve been invited along to a Westminster “policy seminar” on this subject – the blurb reads “social entrepreneurs can be part of a new partnership between citizen and state and, given the right support, they have the potential to be a major force for social and economic good in this country”. Who’s going to say no to that…

Image from njohnson0920.