Partnership to boost the importance of storytelling for social enterprises
We are excited to announce we are working in partnership with social enterprise news network Pioneers Post to recognise and celebrate the fantastic stories of change that characterise the social enterprise sector.
Pioneers Post has come on board as the official media partner of our Making a Mark competition, which will showcase the incredible impact social enterprises have been creating during the Covid-19 pandemic, by sharing stories of how they have responded to the challenges of the last 12 months and weathered the storm to play a vital role in the response to the Covid outbreak. Pioneers Post Founding Editor Tim West will be joining an external judging panel, which will review the competition entries to select a shortlist and final winner, which will be announced in June.
Speaking about his role as a judge, Tim West said:
“What is a good story and how do you tell it in the most effective way? We all like to celebrate success – and goodness knows, we need some celebrating after the past year – but at Pioneers Post, we think the best ‘success stories’ are not simply about triumph in the face of adversity, but are those that we can all learn from. They need to be clear, engaging and honest – telling the whole story, warts and all, without glossing over the difficult stuff.
So in this Making a Mark competition, the ‘winning’ stories for me will be those that move and inspire but which also confront the challenges, explain the solutions – and provide more opportunities for positive impact as we ‘build back better’ in the coming months and years.”
Pioneers Post is an independent media platform committed to ‘solutions-led’ journalism. Operating as a social enterprise, it aims to explore, explain, connect, challenge and inspire this new wave of changemakers around the globe, whose pioneering approaches seek to build a better future for people and planet.
As part of the partnership, we will be supporting the NatWest SE100 Index and Social Business Awards, which has been delivered by Pioneers Post, in partnership with NatWest Social & Community Capital, for the last ten years.
The SE100 Index recognises and rewards the leading 100 social enterprises across the UK each year, and also builds greater intelligence about the growing social enterprise movement through the collection of both data and stories. We are encouraging our social enterprise network to enter the awards and our MD Lucy Findlay is also joining the SE100 judging panel, which will select the nominees/entrants which demonstrate best business practice in six categories: Growth, Impact, Resilience, Leadership, Social Investment and Climate, as well as selecting an award-winner in each of these categories.
Speaking about the partnership, Lucy Findlay said:
“We are really delighted to be working in partnership with our old friends at Pioneers Post. Working together we can really highlight some of the great work and stories from social enterprises that have been on the cutting edge of both responding to the pandemic as well as helping communities to recover as we move forwards into hopefully a more positive outlook for us all.
Social enterprises are so important at this time. We need to use every opportunity available to illustrate our leadership in creating a more sustainable economy that helps address the huge disparities that have been further exacerbated over this devastating year.”
Social enterprises can find out more information about the SE100 Index and Social Business Awards and submit nominations/applications here: https://www.pioneerspost.com/news-views/20210312/uk-social-enterprise-top-100-champion-climate-action-and-covid-recovery
