news
What does equitable support look like in practice?
What does equitable support look like in practice?
Written by
Louise Cannon
User Journey Lead
Supporting social entrepreneurs in a time of crisis
Looking back, the pandemic seemed unimaginable. To have endured loss and lockdown, we now find ourselves in a cost-of-living crisis. One which is impacting millions across the UK and threatening to push more people into deep and intense poverty. Forecasts paint a picture of a sustained living costs crisis in which “a combination of earnings stagnation and the energy shock means the country is on track for two lost decades of income growth”. (Resolution Foundation, 2022)
We know that those who will be most affected are those who are already marginalised, but we also know this is where the most potential exists for supporting communities through this crisis. It is essential to society that social business’, those putting impact at the core of their purpose, are enabled to thrive and grow, to meet the needs of their community, and support to those who are most negatively impacted.
As we embark on this uncertain future, we have reflected on lessons learned during the pandemic which equip us to meet our strategic ambitions of providing market-leading support to social entrepreneurs. We have listened to social entrepreneurs and as a result;
- Increased the accessibility of our support through a digital-first approach, with the flexibility of face-to-face for those who need or want it Redesigned our application process to reduce the stages and complexity of our award making
- We are working alongside social entrepreneurs, who have an even bigger role in shaping and influencing our work. For example, our social entrepreneur support committee who shape our support strategy, and our award-making panels where social entrepreneurs sit alongside us to determine who receives our support and funding
- We are embedding a data-driven approach to enable continuous improvement using live data to understand our effectiveness, and to grow our potential for impact and equity in our awards, investment, and support
- We have increased our financial offer for our early-stage awards recognising the rising inflation and barriers for marginalised social entrepreneurs in securing funding to start a social venture
- We will be making more money available to continue to back existing awardees so that once supported we are able to continue to remove barriers to growing impact
It doesn’t stop there…
We’ve adapted our systems, processes, and ways of working. To continue to have a real impact for the social entrepreneurs we work with, we are now shaping our guiding behaviours and a framework for support, including looking at how we can better support social entrepreneurs to navigate the rising cost of living.
We recognise that individuals working to address social injustice and affect change can mean personal experiences of trauma, toxic stress, and adversity because of the work itself.
We are proud to be working with Platfform as a partner to become a trauma-informed organisation. This will be an important step for us in supporting social entrepreneurs to be their authentic selves and safeguard their wellbeing, whilst amplifying their voices as agents of change and accelerating the pace of change towards a fairer and healthier world.
We are staring this work now, but we know it will be a longer journey to truly adopt a trauma-informed approach as a whole organisation. We hope that you see positive changes in the way we support social entrepreneurs to navigate the complexity of social change and we’ll share news on how our framework for support develops in the coming months.
Image description: Two young people stand looking thoughtful in a classroom.