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Beyond CSR: How social entrepreneurship is helping global organisations to create local impact
Beyond CSR: How social entrepreneurship is helping global organisations to create local impact
Written by
UnLtd employee
UnLtd position
Beyond CSR: How social entrepreneurship is helping global organisations to create local impact
Written by
UnLtd employee
UnLtd position
This is the second in a series of blogs from UnLtd’s Corporate Engagement Manager Julie Nicholson, exploring how corporate partners can go beyond traditional CSR to create direct social impact. In this blog she explores how global organisations can create social impact at a local level by building a culture of social entrepreneurship. No matter the place, there are people living there willing to act to make it better. That’s the core of UnLtd’s approach to place, which sees us supporting passionate and committed people with ideas to solve a problem in their locality. People like Rachella, who started a community market to improve her local economy, Nahil, who founded a football club run by and for young people, and Gerry, who runs a community festival to make Whitley Bay even better. We call these people social entrepreneurs. They bring their own unique take on issues, solutions and ways of improving the places they love. UnLtd’s model of working with social entrepreneurs recognises that all places have assets and that social entrepreneurs are well placed to mobilise these assets to improve residents’ lives. These place based social entrepreneurs are passionate about change in their neighbourhoods and communities. They reflect those places, coming from diverse backgrounds spanning different ages, ethnicities, class, gender and abilities. For the last three years, UnLtd has worked in partnership with the Big Local to support 150 communities, finding and supporting social entrepreneurs through our Star People programme with powerful results. Social entrepreneurs are often not the only ones with a desire to improve a place. In our experience, global businesses are increasingly seeking to positively impact communities in the areas where they’re situated. One way of powerfully harnessing this will to give back to a local community is for corporates to work with social entrepreneurs on the ground – bringing together corporate resources and expertise with local knowledge and understanding of the problem, and joint energy to create solutions. For example, in the last 12 months UnLtd have partnered with global finance firm UBS to find and support young unemployed people (aged 18 – 30) in the London Borough of Hackney with ideas to improve their borough. UnLtd and UBS have co-created a 23-month programme which offers a package of funding, project and personal support and networking opportunities to enable unemployed young people to start up and grow a social venture while developing their own skills and abilities. Sarah Craner, Director, Corporate Responsibility & Community Affairs explains; “At UBS we recognise that our company’s success depends on the health and prosperity of our local communities. By supporting Hackney Connect we have been able to combine our long-term focus on the neighbouring London Borough of Hackney, with our established and growing programme of supporting social entrepreneurship. We know that careful funding can go a long way towards achieving impact, but by focusing at a local level, we are also able to utilise the skills and expertise of our employees through volunteering opportunities to work closely with aspiring Hackney social entrepreneurs.†Projects funded so far by UBS include Isabel Farchy, who works with students from less advantaged backgrounds in schools and colleges across London to find the next generation of creative talent, matching them with mentors working in jobs within the creative, cultural and tech sectors – with mentors in her upcoming programme signing up from Propercorn, Innocent and Rapha. In total UnLtd & UBS are supporting 44 social entrepreneurs, who are positively impact their community while building their own skills and confidence. Each place is different- UnLtd has worked in market towns, rural villages, metropolitan districts, London boroughs, social housing estates, coastal towns and former mill and mining towns. By designing solutions with local social entrepreneurs, UnLtd helps corporate partners to play to the strengths of an area, making the most of the any unique opportunities that emerge and being realistic about any barriers to be overcome. If you’re interested in how your organisation could help social entrepreneurs to improve communities, get in touch by filling in the form below.Loading...