Dear ,

Following on from last week’s piece on SENScot’s unsuccessful bid to act as the Single Intermediary for our SE community in Scotland, we said that we would try and keep people informed on developments. One week on, there is not too much to say, other than that, as can be imagined, there have been a series of in-house meetings between Board and Staff to plan our next steps. Additional meetings have also taken place with some of our members including the constituted SENs and an initial meeting between Board Reps of both SENScot and SES. A follow up meeting is scheduled for next week, so we may be able share further information then. That apart, we would again like to thank all those who have sent messages of support, encouragement and thanks. We have been a bit taken aback at the volume of support we have received and just want to say, for the record, how much it is appreciated.

In July 2020, Social Firms Scotland merged with Senscot to form Social Enterprise Network Scotland. Prior to this, the board of Senscot had agreed to donate its ‘records’ – from its establishment in 1999 up until the merger in 2020 - to the SE Collection Archive at Glasgow Caley. As an accompaniment and introduction to the ‘Senscot Archive’, SENScot Story provides a timeline, charting significant milestones and developments across the Scottish SE community during this period.

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Wednesday saw an insightful SEN session – attended by around 40 people - titled ‘Social Enterprise: Sustainably tackling poverty through employability’. Contributions from The Poverty Alliance; the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) and FARE Scotland covered the reality of poverty currently in Scotland, the policy focus, employer-based initiatives that help address the challenges faced and how employability and fair work can be part of the solution.  The respective presentations can be accessed via these links: Gail Irvine, Living Wage Scotland Manager; JRF’s Jack Evans on Developing credible solutions to the scale of the challenge; and Jimmy Wilson, FARE Scotland – Working with Communities.  Jimmy’s presentation was a great example of the contribution that social enterprise plays in creating employability pathways and quality jobs to tackle poverty.  Jack also highlighted how crucial that wrap around support is to the success of someone’s employability journey – another area social enterprises excel. 

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This month is Scottish Tourism Month and, as part of this, SENScot, from Monday  will be hosting a Community-Led Tourism Week to coincide. The five day programme will include a series of online conversations on community-led tourism and the opportunities and barriers faced, in the company of other communities as well as industry reps and policy makers. Things get underway on Monday with two sessions - What can urban Scotland learn from rural Scotland?; and Accessible tourism: communities leading the way. This initiative is part of SENScot’s wider engagement in a Community-led Tourism Pilot over the last 18 months. As many readers will know, the Pilot, managed by Creetown Initiatives Ltd,  provides support to the communities of Brechin and Girvan in developing their respective tourism offers - putting community at the heart of the decision making process.

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This year’s Community Wellbeing Exchange gets underway this month – and runs through until May. The programme will see 20 community organisations, each with an allocation of £1000, have access to 100’s of wide-ranging activities and services being offered by social enterprise suppliers. Even if you’re not participating in the project as a community organisation with the £1000 allocation, you can still browse the range of activities and services offered by over 40 social enterprise suppliers this year. Here’s the Summary Report on the 2021 Programme

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We have been following Pioneers Post’s serialisation of Freer Spreckley’s new book - 'Essential Social Enterprise’. Last week, saw publication of the third instalment in the series, focusing on Financial Viability – with a core message being that financial viability does more than just ensure an organisation survives, it also means the people running it can do so independently. If you’re interested, here are links to previous instalments: Common Ownership and Why true social enterprises reject hierarchy and embrace democracy.

While Community Enterprise’s Accelerate Programme may be familiar to many, less well-known, perhaps, is the Glasgow-based Nature Accelerator. The Nature Accelerator is a 6 month fully-funded programme for early-stage nature-based ideas and enterprises that could create positive environmental, social, or economic change in Glasgow. They are now inviting applications – with a closing date of Friday, 15^th April. See links for details. The programme is run by Good Ideas, an initiative set up by The Melting Pot:

This week marked the 20^th anniversary of the Gigha community’s purchase of their island. This Press and Journal article gives an update on its progress over the years. In spite of some naysayers who were expecting failure, the Gigha story has proved a great success and an inspiration to many other rural or island communities. In the 20 years since the buyout, the island population has risen from 92 to around 170 – with the community now owning assets worth over £7m. The article also gives an update on other community buy-outs. NB – Eigg celebrates its 25^th anniversary in June:

Glasgow SEN is conducting this Survey amongst members on volunteering. It has been designed to both assess the role, value, scale and contribution of volunteers across the social enterprise sector in Glasgow, and to provide intelligence to inform and contribute to the development of a new Volunteering Strategy for Glasgow.

This year’s Social Enterprise World Forum (SEWF22) is taking place in Brisbane, Australia. The main event is on 28^th/29^th September and, like last year, there are a couple of other associated events taking place in advance and shortly after. This week, SEWF22 was officially launched with details on the various events.

Borders-based social enterprise, You Can Cook, is looking to recruit a number of Community Cooks – on a casual basis. The Community Cooks will support You Can Cook’s cookery projects across Scottish Borders, Edinburgh & Lothians and Glasgow - delivering a variety of training programmes: See link for details:

Voluntary Action Angus (VAA), as part of its national contract with Scottish Govt, has as one of its sore functions the development and support for social enterprise int eh area. It is currently seeking to recruit a Social Enterprise Officer to join its team – and help create a buoyant culture for social enterprise across Angus. See link above for details:

With various SEN meetings scheduled over the coming weeks, we’ll be listing core details – dates, times, guest speakers etc – to keep people up to date with what’s on and when

Thursday, 31^st March 2022 (10.30am) – A SEN Session for SE Counselling Service Providers. With SEN members reporting a continuing increase in demand for counselling services, this session will provide another opportunity for social enterprises to come together to share their thoughts on what opportunities and challenges this is currently posing and how they are responding. For more info’, email mary@senscot.net:

Thursday, 31^st March 2022 (3.30pm) - The Plunkett Foundation recently received funding from Scottish Govt to create a network of community pub groups in Scotland - to enable peer to peer learning and provide groups with free bespoke business advice and training. Working with their partners, Co-operative Development Scotland and Community Shares Scotland, they are running a series of online networking sessions and training events for groups at all stages of their journey from across Scotland.  and Thursday, 31^st March:

Tuesday 5^th April 2022 (10.30am) - Employability SEN Meeting –- An informal session, connect with other social enterprises who have an employability focus, discuss common issues, and relevant policy areas/developments and share your successes.  We’re also keen to hear how you are (or are not) engaging with No One Left Behind and your Local Authority.  Email Jayne to register:

Thursday, 7^th April 2022 (2pm) - Health SEN Meeting - an informal session to connect with other social enterprises who have a health & wellbeing focus, discuss common issues, and relevant policy areas/developments and share your successes. See link to register: