SSE Makes Its TV Debut!

Interesting short video that was shown on the Community Channel back in April. Really makes you feel you are a part of something much bigger.

Enterprising Solutions 21st April 2011

What: Enterprising Soultions Trade Fair
Where: Lochside House Hotel - Cumnock, East Ayrshire
When: 21st April 2011 - 11.00am til 2.30pm

Motivate to Innovate would like to extend an invitation to social enterprises across the country to come along to our 'Enterprising Solutions' Trade Fair.

There will be opportunities for free exhibiting space on a fist come, first served basis.

There will be workshops taking place throughout the event - details of which will be released in due course.

For more information please get in touch cgow@brag.co.uk or 01592 780 568.

Tesco Charity Trust Community Awards Scheme

The Trust was set up on 1 June 1987 to support both national and local community charities, and to add a 20% top up to staff fundraising. It is run by a board of trustees recommended by the main board of Tesco PLC.
In the year ended February 2009, the Tesco Charity Trust made cash grants of £1,899,137 to local, national and international charities. This figure includes:

• Community Award donations to local community charities totalling £624,855;
• Donations to other charities totalling £640,988;
• £633,293 in 20% top up on staff fundraising for Tesco Charities of the Year, Cancer Research UK and other charities.

The Tesco Charity Trust aims to help Tesco support the local communities in which we operate.

• On a local level, to support the needs of employees, customers and communities around our stores;
• On a national level, to support initiatives that address identified need through existing charities’ activities;
• On an international level, to help our business and supply chain to make a difference in their locations.

Funding from Tesco Charity Trust
The Tesco Charity Trust runs two funding schemes - the Community Awards and the larger Grants. Please see below for details on each scheme.

Community Awards
The Tesco Charity Trust Community Awards Scheme provides one-off donations of between £500 and £4,000 to local projects that support children and their education and welfare, elderly people and adults and children with disabilities.

There are four rounds of funding each year. Please click here to view a copy of our criteria and application deadlines. Applications should be made via our online application form. You may also want to view a copy of the application questions before filling out the application form.
If you require any support whilst completing your application please contact our helpline on 0845 612 3575.

Larger Grant Applications
The Tesco Charity Trust Trustees also consider grant applications at their tri-annual meetings. These grants range between £4,000 and £25,000 and are to support local, national or international projects in areas where we operate.

Please click here to view a copy of our guidelines. If you would like to apply for a grant please send details of your project to: Tesco Charity Trust, New Tesco House, Delamare Road, Cheshunt, Herts, EN8 9SL, or alternatively email charity.enquiries@uk.tesco.com. Please ensure you clearly mark these details for the Trust Meeting Grants.

20% Top-Up
All Tesco staff may apply to the Tesco Charity Trust for 20% top-up on their fundraising. We automatically top-up staff fundraising for our Charity of the Year and Cancer Research UK's Race for Life.
Staff wishing to apply for 20% top-up should email charity.enquiries@uk.tesco.com.

Every Little Helps! Check out the page here

Mad March with Live UnLtd

Mad March with Live UnLtd

Live UnLtd is on the hunt this March to find as many young people as possible who want to make a difference to their communities and beyond! This is an amazing opportunity so we have created 'Mad March!' to make sure young people from across the UK are getting the chance to put their ideas into action.

As part of 'Mad March' we'll be particularly interested in ideas that unlock unused or under-utilised spaces for young people to practice their cultural, creative or sporting passions.

What is Live UnLtd?
Live UnLtd provides young people with the opportunity to create positive change in their communities. We do this by offering awards of up to £5,000 to develop your idea, and provide you with support from a dedicated Live UnLtd team member.

Our average award size is £1,500 - applications above the average award size are rare and very competitive so please consider this carefully upon making your application. We encourage you to apply for what you need, and in most cases that won't be the full amount.

Individuals who are aged 11-21 and living in the UK.

If they are aged 11 - 15 we offer awards of up to £500, in addition to support from a Live UnLtd team member.

If they are under 18 years of age they will need parental consent to undertake their project and a designated advisor to support them with the development and running of their project should they be successful. For further information about advisors and parental consent please visit the FAQ section of our website here:

What can they apply for?
Live UnLtd awards can help them with the costs of running their project. For example venue hire, equipment costs, marketing materials, travel and volunteering expenses. Unfortunately we cannot fund them to undertake academic qualifications or pay for their time or living expenses. Our awards are for projects costs only.

Please visit the FAQ section on our website for more information about our criteria and a full list of what we can and cannot fund. http://www.LiveUnLtd.com/about/faq/

Do you have some examples of young people you have supported?
We've helped support loads of young people to take their skills and passions and turn them into ideas that create lasting positive change.

Check out some of our past Award Winners at:

* http://www.kendalcalling.co.uk/
* http://www.sed8magazine.com/

If you want to find out more about Live UnLtd check us out here:http://www.LiveUnLtd.com/about/

Or, if you have all the information you need please click on the link to 'Make an Enquiry' and start your journey today!

GET STARTED:http://www.liveunltd.com/enquiry/Who can apply?http://www.LiveUnLtd.com/about/faq/

Good Luck Stuart

Stuart Thomson, our hard working admin support has moved on to a new job after working with us for 12 months and being supported by Coalfields Regeneration Trust and the Future Jobs Fund.

He appeared in the Daily Record at the weekend and here are a few excerpts from that feature.

A YOUNG go-getter who landed his dream job as a racing car mechanic has blasted SNP plans to slash employment funding.

Stuart Thomson is set to start work as an apprentice with IF Motorsports, who specialise in designing parts for Formula 1 cars.

The 20-year-old has been working as an administrator in a job funded by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, who support former mining communities.

He explained: "The CRT helped me get on the job ladder, which gave me the confidence to go for the racing car mechanic job.

"I have to keep pinching myself to make sure I am not dreaming.

"The first thing they told me was to get a passport because I am off to Spain with the team as soon as I start and after that I go to France, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Germany and possibly to Japan.

"I'm really thankful for the funding I received and it's unfair that other young people won't be able to chase the dream like I did."

Stuart was working with the Fife business start-up and training organisation BRAG before landing the job with Dunfermline's IF Motorsports.

I am sure you will all join us in wishing Stuart the best in the future!

Senscot Legal Services

As social enterprises we sometimes struggle to access the legal advice we require. Either the solicitor we speak to doesn't fully understand what a social enterprise is or their services are so highly priced that we opt to just Googling our question and sifting through millions of results trying to find our answer - but fear not there is another way!

Senscot, since its launch in 1999, has played a lead role in the development of Scotland’s social enterprise community.  Our electronic bulletin, circulated to four thousand contacts, is the sector’s main connector – and we are directly engaged with regional and thematic Networks of front line social businesses.  Another Senscot activity is to conceive and incubate new mechanisms to continually develop our sector: new initiatives are identified in dialogue with social enterprise practitioners.

In September 2009, Senscot conducted a survey specifically to gauge member’s perceptions of mainstream professional legal services available to Scotland’s third sector.  Around 100 social enterprises responded.  From this survey, and other research, we found considerable dissatisfaction – in relation to two main themes: excessive fees and the lack of general understanding about the culture and practice of our sector.

Further investigation showed these problems to be linked – in that those firms large enough to support a dedicated third sector practice, also carry partners whose large salaries absorb around one third of all fee income.  Senscot believes that there is a market gap for a legal practice, itself a social enterprise, offering specialist knowledge of our sector at affordable rates.  The option of creating such a business is made possible by a proposed change in the law, expected later this year, whereby directorship of legal practices will become available to non lawyers.  In anticipation of this legislation, Senscot will create a subsidiary – Senscot Legal Services (SLS) – a new social enterprise.

SLS has four key objectives:
• To offer a wide range of quality legal services tailored for third sector organisations in Scotland.
• To create a specialist centre of legal expertise to support the development of the social enterprise movement in Scotland.
• To make quality legal services available across our sector, having regard to the ability to pay.
• To contribute to the long term sustainability of Senscot.

SLS is located in Bath St Glasgow with an initial staffing compliment of lead solicitor and paralegal secretary.  Our research indicates that our constituency purchases a wide range of legal services including: contracting, governance, company structure, employment, property, litigation etc.  Offering this range during the initial stage will involve a pool of ‘friendly’ solicitors with different specialisms.

It is intended that the service will evolve into a fully fledged legal practice should the
the alternative business structures (ABSs) in Scotland be introduced as proposed in the Legal Services (Scotland) Bill.

http://www.se-legal.net/index.php

£10m Jobs Fund For Scotland

Scottish social enterprises will get £10m to train young unemployed people in their organisations thanks to a new version of the axed £1bn Future Jobs Fund.

Community Jobs Scotland, which will run throughout 2011-2012, will provide opportunities for up to 2,000 young people with the programme administered by the Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition (SSEC) and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO).

The coalition government scrapped the original Future Jobs Fund, which funded thousands of work placements for young people in England, Scotland and Wales, when it came into power last year.

SSEC chair Laurie Russell, also CEO of Scottish social enterprise The Wise Group, said: ‘We will work to make a difference both to young people, so they can experience working in social enterprises, and to regenerating communities across Scotland.

‘Although this funding is only for a year, if the programme is successful then we believe this approach should be part of the longer term government strategy for revitalising the Scottish economy.’

The Community Jobs Scotland model will follow the same pattern set by the original Future Jobs Fund, which was used by hundreds of social enterprises.
The funding will primarily support 16-24 year olds unemployed for six months or more into a job within a civil society sector organisation in their community. There will also be opportunities for older unemployed people in those areas where unemployment is highest.

Young people will get six-month contracts of 25 hours or more per week, for at least the minimum wage.

Participants will receive job related training and additional training tailored to help them enhance their general employability.

Social Enterprise is aware that in some Future Jobs Fund schemes the rate of moving people on into full-time employment was 65 per cent and higher.
Scottish Finance Secretary John Swinney, who announced the measure on Friday, said: ‘This underlines our commitment of working with Scotland’s third sector to strengthen our communities.

‘By working with the third sector to deliver this initiative, and increasing core funding for the sector by 16 per cent to £24m in 2011-12, we are demonstrating that the Scottish government recognises the sector’s transformational potential and its important contribution to increasing sustainable economic growth.’

http://www.socialenterpriselive.com/section/news/public-services/20110223/%C2%A310m-jobs-fund-scottish-social-enterprises-launched

Curriculum for Excellence - A Breifing

We recently received an email from Learning Link Scotland containing a briefing about the curriculum of excellence. Below is some experts from the briefing to give you an idea. If you would like a copy of the full briefing then get in touch with me via cgow@brag.co.uk.

What is it?

Curriculum for Excellence is the Scottish Government’s strategic plan to ensure that educational services for 3 to 18 year olds are focused on the needs of children and young people and will enable them to reach their full potential in all areas of their lives. It has been in development for the past few years and is currently being implemented in educational facilities.

The reach of Curriculum for Excellence aims to be wider than schools. It calls for stronger partnership working between all agencies that impact on young people’s lives. Pre-school centres and schools are developing learning partnerships with key partners such as voluntary sector, colleges, community learning and development, universities, employers, partner agencies, youth work. This is to ensure that support and learning packages are built around young people’s needs, particular circumstances and aspirations.  There is increasing reference that Curriculum for Excellence can be a lifelong learning curriculum.

This briefing aims to highlight the key terms and phrases to become familiar with Curriculum for Excellence and to begin to consider how you might engage with it.

Click to see larger

What does this mean for the voluntary sector?

Learning Link Scotland aims to support the sector to identify the relevance to Curriculum for Excellence. Additionally we want to support partners such as Learning Teaching Scotland (LTS) to raise awareness and understanding of Curriculum for Excellence with our members. We are aware that overall there is a need for clarity around the links between Curriculum for Excellence and adult learning.

Within Curriculum for Excellence itself there are no clearly expressed links made between the curriculum and adult learning, and as it stands, the guidance only relates to young people up to the age of 18.   However voluntary sector adult learning providers can expect to hear increasing references to the curriculum in many different partnerships and it has strong resonances with Adult Literacy and Numeracy and Community Learning and Development practice.

Curriculum for Excellence calls on schools to develop strong links with the voluntary sector to ensure that 3 to 18 year olds are given a holistic educational experience. It highlights the sector as a key provider which can support this aim. 

Are there opportunities for the voluntary sector to engage with Curriculum for Excellence?

Learning Link Scotland has begun talking to representatives from Scottish Government, Learning Teaching Scotland and HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIe) amongst others to begin to identify whether members can engage and contribute to emerging developments.

Here are some early reflections

The emphasis on family learning within ALIS 2020 and the Literacy Action Plan will provide a natural pathway for the voluntary sector to link with Curriculum for Excellence.

A central principle of Curriculum for Excellence is the learner’s place at the centre of learning provision and building support round them according to their needs. Many practitioners are already very familiar with this social practice approach through their work in adult literacies provision and could therefore bring a wealth of experience to the 3 to 18 curriculum.

There is a strong focus on literacy and numeracy, and health and wellbeing within Curriculum for Excellence.  All teachers of all subjects will be required to support literacy and numeracy learning in all subjects. The recognition of the voluntary sector’s commitment to adult literacy and numeracy, and to developing health and wellbeing will place it in an excellent position to connect with these elements of Curriculum for Excellence.  Is there potential for the voluntary sector to provide continuing professional development opportunities, sharing effective practice to support the embedding of Curriculum for Excellence?

Voluntary sector providers who are involved in adult literacies provision in Scotland will be familiar with the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Curriculum Framework and its Wheel (http://wheel.aloscotland.com/splash.php). By comparing it with the Curriculum for Excellence it is possible to see how well they link together as they have similar principles and values to teaching and learning, the long term goals of learning, development of critical understanding and self-determination.

It is also clear that voluntary sector practitioners could have a role to promote the curriculum in terms of the new literacy and numeracy qualifications, which are likely to run alongside core skills qualifications for some time at least, and which will be available to learners at all ages.

An increasing number of voluntary organisations are now called on to be involved in the HMIe How Good is Our Community Learning and Development inspection and review. It is likely that involvement by adult learning providers will continue to grow, particularly within the Senior Phase.

Opportunities to Grow

A great opportunity for all the people we work with is coming up on 10th March 2011.

Brag Enterprises, one of Fifes longest established social enterprises is proud to be hosting a social enterprise trade fair in the Keavil House Hotel in Dunfermline.

You will have the opportunity to network with like minded individuals, collaborate and forge new partnerships with the public, private and voluntary sector and liaise with new and established businesses from across the country.

It's totally free to come along, and more importantly its also free to exhibit your enterprise at the event.

You may also leave with more money in your pocket than when you arrived if you take part in the Opportunities to Grow Dragons Den.

To register or find out more then visit http://otg.motivatetoinnovate.org.uk/.