The next stitches of the golden thread: Two Social Enterprise Day Celebrations – inviting all supporters
On 25th April 2022 we held our first face to face networking and conference meeting for two years at Westminster University. It focused on embedding social enterprise in universities.
It was a really exciting and energetic event and had great feedback. Part of the reason was due to the format – more networking and less preaching! (We’ve all had enough of being ‘talked at’ over the last few years in those dreaded Teams and Zoom calls which are now part of our daily work life.
It proved such a successful format that, with our partners Cambio, we agreed to repeat it for Social Enterprise Day (17th November), this time in Coventry with two events aimed at supporters.
The main networking conference will delve further into the student experience of social enterprise which was a major topic of discussion coming from the April event. This is open anyone interested in this topic.
We have also decided to extend the socialising element to a free early evening celebratory reception for Social Enterprise Day which enables all supporters of social enterprise to come together for some nibbles and drinks, meet each other and chat and hear some inspiring stories of the great work of social enterprises including our keynote speaker TedX phenomenon Stacey-Jade Mason as survivor of trauma, who has set up social enterprise Creative Optimistic Visions (COV) . All supporters are invited.
I wrote a blog following the April event which highlighted the importance that many students place on values and evidencing these. Social enterprise is the business manifestation of a sustainable model that works towards Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and civic responsibilities – hence The Golden Thread!
Findings also showed there is a need to make better connections between the different threads from the student’s point of view, both inside and outside the teaching environment. For instance, extra-curricular activity needs better academic credit as well as making the better links to local social enterprises by bringing the ‘outside in’ through knowledge exchange (KE) activities. I recently attended an interesting session on a proposed framework for change and how social enterprise can be better integrated cross discipline through the curriculum.
Finance is another area that needs greater connection and thought. Many universities are still not embedding social value with equal emphasis to financial value into finance modules themselves. This leaves a disjointed approach whereby social value often sits separately in a different module.
When a university shows leadership in this area, we see jigsaw pieces come together for students too and we hope that our celebrations will show this in action. I hope to see some of you there!
Follow the links below to book your tickets:
Conference
SEEchange THE GOLDEN THREAD: Embedding Student Social Enterprise Across HE
Evening Celebratory Reception
An Evening Celebratory Reception for Social Enterprise Day 2022
