it’s now almost impossible to avoid the impacts of climate change. Everything from extreme weather to rising sea levels, changes in biodiversity and health risks will have an impact on business in one way or another so many have taken to calculating their carbon footprint with the aim of doing something positive about reducing their emissions.
But what about the bigger picture ? What do we do about the city as a whole ? What can we use as a baseline for action and how can that inform the targets we set ourselves ?
Thankfully, there are annually released stats that help.
You’ve got to start somewhere
Back in 2007/08 a series of new environmental indicators required local authorities (and businesses) to report on their local carbon footprint for the first time. There was, however, one slight problem. The emissions information needed for this complex calculation was almost non-existent and, according to the energy companies, was subject to commercial confidentiality. So the Government stepped in with some new rules on reporting and, with a baseline of 2005, the national local authority and regional carbon dioxide emission statistics have been available every year since.
Since then they have proved very useful in setting local targets for emission reduction, in tracking progress towards reductions and highlighting the average per capita carbon footprint in each area as well as the regional and national comparisons.
We used to have some very simple reduction targets in Plymouth’s Climate Change Strategy…….20% by 2013, 60% by 2020 and 80% by 2050; all carefully calculated to address local action. Unfortunately things aren’t so clear in the current Climate Emergency Action Plan so it is a little more difficult to work out what we need to do to meet the PCEAP target of carbon neutrality by 2030 but at least we have the national stats to compare.
However (brace yourselves…here come the percentages)……the national emissions stats can tell us a lot. It would appear that progress towards an overall reduction in the city’s footprint is slowing as, since 2005, our overall footprint has gone down by 40.94%. It has only reduced by 2.2% since 2018.
The commercial sector fares a little better with an overall reduction of 62.2%; backed by a reduction of 47.1% for the industrial sector. Until recently, these sectors had recorded excellent progress towards reduced emissions so it may be that there is a threshold for the city whereby new reductions become difficult to achieve without considerable change and/or investment.
The domestic sectors and public sectors score 43.5% and 49% respectively. Our Transport sector fared worst with an overall reduction of only 14.45 since 2005.
Our personal carbon footprints have gone down from 5.9 tonnes per capita to 3.3 tpc in 2019. This compares with figures of 4.7 tpc for Devon, 4.6 tpc for the South West as a region and 5.2 tpc for the UK as a whole.
I was asked the other day what an ‘ideal’ personal footprint would be ? I’ve had a look but there doesn’t seem to be an easy answer to this but, compared with the average footprint of 16 tpc in the US, the UK is clearly doing reasonably well. Globally the average per capita carbon footprint is 4.0 tpc….so, at 3.3 tpc, Plymouth’s residents are also making a positive contribution.
Although the latest edition of the stats includes some new information on the values for croplands, grasslands, wetlands and settlements, the figures here are not complete so a comparison against the baseline for 2005 is a little difficult. Nevertheless the spreadsheets still contain a wealth of information…ideal for anyone who loves data and stats !
The figures are always issued with a two year delay so what June 2022 will say about the footprints for 2020 is anyone’s guess. One thing is for sure, there will be a huge dip in some sectors in response to the lockdowns we’ve experienced. We’ll have to wait to see how the levels will rise as we recover, where the new baselines will be set and whether any reduction thresholds might limit what more we can do. If we’re heading for carbon neutrality by 2030 we definitely need to know more about the target figures expected of us but the good news is that Plymouth’s commercial and industrial sectors are already clearly doing their bit.
If you’d like more information on how to reduce your organisations carbon footprint then check out the resources in our Climate Action Toolkit.
Powerful Communities and Economic Democracy By Gareth Hart, Director Iridescent Ideas CIC and Plymouth Social Enterprise Network with Ed Whitelaw, Real Ideas and Plymouth Social Enterprise Network
Throughout history, people have striven, fought and sacrificed for self-determination and for enough freedom, power and choice to meet their needs and create meaningful futures. Citizens with agency, hope and ambition can create wider, comprehensive benefits for society.
We need to revitalise our high streets, the public realm, and green spaces. We want better health and wellbeing. We want decent and meaningful work. We need to meet our basic needs and, at the same time, not overshoot and destroy the environment we rely on to create our and our planet’s wellbeing. To do all this we need active citizens, robust communities and more purposeful businesses.
There are cities and towns around the world like Plymouth (UK), Barcelona (Spain), Cleveland (US) and Jackson (Mississippi, US) that are developing vibrant, greener and fairer economies. Using concepts like municipalism, community wealth building and social value; and economic models such as social enterprise, community business and co-operatives; determined activists are creating alternative forms of power to advance and expand a more democratic, regenerative economy. People are building powerful communities with greener, economic democracy at the core.
What about locally?
In Plymouth alone – the UK’s first ‘Social Enterprise City‘ – we have seen the social enterprise, co-op and community business movement expand dramatically over the past few years alongside witnessing growth in local spending and a clear aspiration to create a more inclusive economy. Plymouth is now home to around 200 social enterprises, co-ops and community businesses. These organizations employ over 9,000 people and spend £600 million a year – all for social purpose. If you include the voluntary, community and education sector, the wider social economy is nearly twenty percent of Plymouth’s economic output and jobs. This new economy has been driven by an inspired partnership of a leading local social enterprise network, a pioneering council, the world’s first certified social enterprise university and an engaged private sector.
We need to create new alliances and build a wider platform for progressive change. Too often the social enterprise, co-op, union, environmental, food and other movements operate in isolation and sometimes even with friction. Yet we are all ultimately joined by a similar, high level purpose and vision.
The impact of COVID is ongoing and there is a real risk that pre-existing inequalities will intensify. The reality of Brexit is hurting business. Hard-won employment rights are under threat. The effects of climate change increasingly being felt. Digital opportunities abound but how are artificial intelligence, machine learning, driverless cars, 5G, data platforms, cryptocurrencies and the rest going to deliver a more equal world?
It is timely, then, that a ground-breaking group of social enterprises, co-ops, think tanks, networks and funders ask you to join them for four focussed online sessions exploring these themes. These events will look at The State of Us and ask: what role do community-focused, economic actors have in building powerful communities? What is best practice? Who are our allies and who shares our values? And how can we organise better? What does democracy look like in everyday areas of our economy such as work, public spaces and the production of the goods we consume? How do communities actively create power, within and beyond authority?
The event
The State of Us will explore work, resilience, places and spaces and more. It is for anyone working on social, environmental, racial and economic justice and democracy and power across the UK. Whether through local enterprise, community organising, activism, third sector, or local government, these events are for you.
Fundamentally, what is The State of Us? And how do we make it better? Join the debate now!
When you’re writing for your audiences it can be hard to get the right tone. Louise Manico from Manico PR has written a blog to give you some top writing tips to help make sure your communications are getting noticed.
Using the right words to speak to your audiences
During the Social Enterprise City Festival, there were three interlinking workshops covering reporting your social impact, identifying the marketable impact of this and who to tell, and finally how to tell them. I was lucky enough to lead the final workshop of this set, but if you missed it, here are some of the main things you might want to consider.
Why are the right words important?
Think about who you speak to and how you speak to them – you probably use different language during that Zoom quiz with your friends than you do with your boss or your GP, for example. We naturally adjust our language in normal conversation to build a better connection with the person we’re talking to, but this sometimes changes when it comes to putting it in writing.
However, using language your audience is familiar with helps you to build that rapport regardless of where and how they come across it.
Identifying your audience
This is the first step to deciding how you’re going to communicate your message. While there are lots of ways to do this, one easy way is to think about your ideal customer and flesh out their identity. What are their hobbies and interests? Why do they care about your product? What are their levels of academic interest or knowledge? Where do they tend to look for information (social media, websites, newspapers, etc)?
Then think about what you want to tell them. Does the reason they care align with what you think they should know? Are you trying to entertain, inform or campaign? This should help you decide how you’d like to frame your message – however important your information is, if it doesn’t hit the right note with your audience, they’re unlikely to read or listen to the whole thing.
Choose your words carefully
Once you’ve identified what you want to tell your audience and why, you’re ready to start writing. Before you put pen to paper, you should know whether it’s:
Formal or informal
Good or bad news
Light-hearted or serious
Short social media update or long funding paper
Whatever you’re writing, it should still be in line with your other pieces of communication. Although you’re aiming for a particular audience, people should recognise your brand wherever they come across it, from a Facebook status to a Board report.
This may sound contradictory when you’ve just spent time thinking about how to address a particular group, but whoever you’re talking to and whatever you’re saying, you’re always talking to people. Keep this in mind and your writing should sound authentic and be accessible to everyone.
General writing tips
While people are generally understanding of the fact that not all organisations have Marketing and PR teams creating everything you send out, taking care of how you present yourself pays dividends. If your writing is littered with spelling and grammar mistakes, your audience will assume you haven’t taken much care – and if you don’t care about how your own organisation is perceived, it’s unlikely you’re going to care about their needs.
Here are some tips to polish up your writing:
Be clear and concise
People are time-short – make it as easy as possible for them to get the information they need
Put the most important information at the top
Again, people sometimes don’t have the time, or don’t want to spend the time, reading a full article. Similarly, newsrooms don’t always have the column inches to give to your story. In both circumstances, making your writing top-heavy makes sure that the most important details are likely to be read and absorbed
Use the active voice
This makes your writing livelier and more engaging. Try to use phrasing where something is being done by someone, rather than having it done to them. It’s easier to explain with an example: ‘The boy caught the ball’ is an active sentence, whereas ‘The ball was caught by the boy’ isn’t.
Use Plain English
Avoid using convoluted communication when unornamented alternatives will suffice. Keep it simple.
Check your spelling and grammar
As mentioned above, taking the time to check shows you care, and this is a reflection on your whole organisation
Check your spelling and grammar again
Even better, get someone else to check it. There are also a lot of online tools you can use for advice; I particularly like Quick and Dirty Tips.
Giving yourself time to think about what you need to write in advance will help with this – it’s easier to avoid mistakes when you’re not in a rush, and a communications plan will allow you to think ahead.
I hope these top writing tips have been useful, there is obviously so much more that can be discussed, but this overview should give you a good starting point.
Don’t forget, if you are a PSEN member and would like some help or advice, you can book a free 1-2-1 session which is fully funded by PSEN
Plymouth is a top 10 place for business when you’re starting out according to recent research by StartupsGeek.com. Their research shows that businesses starting up in in Plymouth have an advantage over those anywhere else in the South West. The nationwide study placed Plymouth in 9th place, ahead of cities many times the size. Locations that ranked lower than Plymouth included London, Bristol and Portsmouth.
Why are we better?
Business experts from online magazine Startups Geek found that Plymouth was the best location to start a business in the entire South West of the UK. Plymouth scored well in the analysis due to criteria including fast internet speed and low start-up business costs. We know that Plymouth is also great place to start social purpose businesses as it boosts the highest level of specialised support and place based funding in the UK. Not to mention that it was the flagship SEUK Social Enterprise City and has the oldest and most active social enterprise network in the South West. Over the past 5 years the number of social enterprises has grown by over 33%.
Support
Free start up support in the city comes in a range of guises including workshops, long term learning programmes, mentoring, start up grants, community funding pots, 1-1 guidance sessions and more. When starting a business it can be very daunting and we know that. The start up support offered covers all of those challenges, supporting entrepreneurs over the hurdles and into making a real difference to their communities. It’s negotiated for and delivered by ourselves, POP+ and other fantastic organisations such as School for Social Entrepreneurs, Cosmic cic and Real Ideas Organisation and funded by large scale partners like PCC, The Rank Foundation, Esmee Fairburne, Power to Change and others.
London, which unsurprisingly has the highest ratio of SMEs per population, was ranked 27th on the list. Despite low internet costs and a large pool of talent from its 24 universities; high salaries, office space costs and survival rate of 39% pushed it down. We think that Plymouth is a top 10 for business start ups in part because Plymouth has a good graduate retention rate. All three of it’s Higher Education institutions are social enterprises who understand the challenges. That, alongside the start up support and some great social purpose incubator and business landlords and co-working spaces in the city. Organisations like Millfields Trust, ThinqTanq and Real ideas organisation helps create a space space for these SMEs to test ideas and make it safely through the difficult first days of their business. You can find out more about these businesses in our online directory here.
The Pandemic
It seems that the global pandemic dramatically affected Brits thoughts on wanting to become their own boss. Another study found 20 per cent of people were considering starting their own business or taking on a side job during the lockdown. The number of new businesses registered in Wales alone from April to July was just 10.7% lower than the same period in 2019 – with the equivalent figures for the past two months actually higher. In addition, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Wales reported an increase in inquiries from people looking to become self-employed. But many may be put off by their location and Start Up Geeks’ study aims to help potential entrepreneurs make an informed decision on which city to start a business. WE are very pleased to have then recognise Plymouth as a top 10 for business start ups.
Councillor Tudor Evans, Leader of Plymouth City Council, said:
“It goes without saying that we think Plymouth is a brilliant place to start a business and we really embrace entrepreneurial spirit. Physically we’re located in an enviable position, sandwiched between the incredible south coast and Dartmoor National Park, which means living here offers a really unique work-life balance with all the benefits of a major city and plenty of blue-green space to enjoy right on our doorstep.
“From a logistical perspective, Plymouth has fairly low start-up costs which naturally makes it appealing. There’s also great internet coverage and speeds and we’ve recently begun the roll out of a £2.2 million ultrafast fibre broadband network, extending access to full fibre networks and making it much easier for businesses to connect in future. On top of this, our city has a network of large organisations such as the Council, two universities and the local NHS trust which are all keen to collaborate and innovate and really see the value in working with local businesses to do so.”
As the UK business community attempts to navigate the impact of the first global pandemic in recent history, we are pleased to be a part of such a positive business community and we are proud of the way Plymouth is pulling together through these difficult times. Many thanks to Start Up Geeks for their work producing the report and helping put together this article, you can read the full report here.
The Social Entrepreneur Index 2020 campaign has wrapped up with the publication of the Index report, celebrating the social impact, creativity and innovation of 55 of the UK’s most inspiring social entrepreneurs.
A further 19 individuals are highlighted as “ones to watch” – the judges felt in the coming year these are entrepreneurs that will be making a significant impact.
The Social Entrepreneur Index is powered by UMi, in partnership with Social Enterprise Mark, Inspiring Women Changemakers and the School for Social Entrepreneurs. The campaign focuses on the entrepreneurs behind the businesses, telling their story and providing inspiration to thousands of others to do more and go further in their businesses.
Nicki Clark, Chief Executive of UMi, said: “At UMi we believe that business has the power to make a difference to the world we live in and with that in mind the Index is an inspiring read – what a powerful group of people and enterprises doing amazing things.”
The report includes highlight Q&As from four of the social entrepreneurs – Tim Howarth, CEO of United World Schools; Waltraud Pospischil, founder of Arkbound Foundation CIO; Dave Anderson, founder of Heartwood Skills; and Andy Douglas, founder of Scotland All-Strong. Full versions and many more nominee profiles are available online on the Social Entrepreneur Index website that make for thought-provoking and inspiring reading.
In addition to celebrating and promoting their work, the campaign offers social entrepreneurs a platform to network and discuss the challenges that they face. With its vibrant mix of entrepreneurs from so many different backgrounds and specialisms, the network is a rich source of knowledge, experience and support.
As part of the celebration event, the online ‘roundtable’ discussions showcased this perfectly. The entrepreneurs shared how they had successfully adapted to challenges, offered support to each other and contributed ideas on what further support would be beneficial from fellow social entrepreneurs, the community, industry partners and government.
This year’s Index was judged by Rachel Fell – Social Enterprise Mark; Kate Welch – Social Enterprise Acumen; Kat Luckock – Social Entrepreneur Coach; Josie Armitage – Josie Armitage Associates; Louise Graham – Impact Mentor and Coach; and Arabela Silva – Inspiring Women Changemakers.
The UK Social Entrepreneur Index has received the support of eight ambassadors who were selected for being shining examples of how social entrepreneurs can make an impact on a local and international level. They have invested their time to help inspire current and future social entrepreneurs. They are: Lucy Findlay MBE – Social Enterprise Mark; Andrew Bastawrous – Peek Vision; Cameron Saul – BOTTLETOP; Kate Welch – Social Enterprise Acumen CIC; Lucy Buck – The Good Company People CIC; Paul Skidmore – Rising Academies; Rachel Wang – Chocolate Films; and Rosie Ginday – Miss Macaroon.
There is a war of ideas coming. Already skirmishes are being seen and battle lines are being drawn. On one side we have ‘business as usual’ and corporate interests asking for tax cuts to boost economic recovery – ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, has urged slashing VAT and national insurance to encourage spending – and the government has advocated for radical reforms to planning to aid recovery. Requests for more ‘deregulation’ are sure to follow.
On the other we have a movement suggesting we should ‘Build Back Better’ and take this opportunity to re-think our economy post Covid-19 with a green new deal, investment in public services and enhanced protections for people’s jobs. This fight will be seen in sharp focus on our high streets. As I write, shops are starting to re-open. Proprietors are anxiously waiting to see if they are viable in this post-lockdown world of socially distanced shopping, floor stickers and plastic till barriers.
Even before lockdown the high street was struggling with many big-name retailers closing or desperately re-negotiating rent and rates to try to stay afloat. What will emerge in our city centres over the next few months is guesswork – will people dash to the shops to frenziedly spend? Or will there be a painfully slow return to some kind of new-normal? Or will the high street recover at all, as people realise they can do even more online than they thought possible? Over the last few weeks we’ve seen mega-shopping centre chain Intu, owner of the likes of Lakeside, Essex, The Trafford Centre in Manchester and The Mall at Cribbs Causeway in Bristol, warn of financial troubles. A staggering 80% of retailers are predicted to have missed rental payments this last quarter. Boarded up shops seem more likely in the near future along with significant job losses.
So, what’s to be done: massive tax cuts and de-regulation or investments and policy innovation to invigorate our high street economies? Well one solution could be to stimulate and encourage ‘community businesses’ to take over our shopping districts and lead a kinder, more human-centred, economic recovery. A community business is defined as a firm that is accountable to its local community and one that reinvests its profits to create positive social impact. Examples include community pubs, farms and shops but there are also community owned ferry boats, call centres, theatres, sweet shops, breweries, energy suppliers, libraries and more. There are over 9,000 across the UK and around 1,800 in the South West. Here in Plymouth a well-known example is Nudge Community Builders who took over an old pub and turned it into a thriving community space. Community businesses have proved to be resilient and resourceful during the Covid-19 crisis with many becoming the nerve centres of local community responses and thus they are much less likely to have closed or be empty. Community businesses are also more likely to pay more fairly and deliver returns for local people. How could we stimulate more community business? First, the government could legislate to help put high-street properties directly into community ownership. Second, councils should develop long-term strategies for their high streets. Third, to build more vibrant high streets, the government should support a new wave of local, community and social entrepreneurship. Finally, we should all recognise that it is the businesses on a high street or in a city centre that give these places liveliness and value.
Ed Whitelaw, Head of Regeneration and Enterprise at Real Ideas Organisation, based in Plymouth, is leading a community business start-up programme, funded by Power to Change, in the city. To help develop more community businesses he said: “We have about twenty potential community businesses in the pipeline. They need investment and more support, but ownership of assets is key. We need to see more assets in the community’s hands rather than owned by distant landlords. Money then generated in these assets will stay in the local community and recirculate to do more good. Communities then have power, control and more influence.”
The things we value the most are often hardest to measure – love, community, health, nature. If nothing else the Covid-19 crisis has shown us these are more important than the economy. Covid-19 has also shown us that, far from there being no such thing as society, community spirit lives on in abundance. We need jobs of course and that’s where community business can help. Amy Cooper, Programme Co-ordinator at Real Ideas Organisation, who works with Ed supporting community businesses said: “People want purpose and meaning in their work and home lives. We want to earn a good living and also to feel we belong. This is the great offer of community business.”
We need an economy that is better for people and better for the planet. Going back to business as usual will only compound inequalities and make any economic recovery more fragile. Community businesses can be at the heart of this revival – they are right where we need them to be on the high street and in city centres. If government listens more to communities and not just to corporate interests, we can: build back better.
By Gareth Hart, Director, Iridescent Ideas CIC and Chair, Plymouth Social Enterprise Network. This content was sponsored by Power to Change via the Empowering Places programme managed by Real Ideas Organisation.
In February this year I visited the Reconomy Centre in Totnes for the first time. Welcomed warmly into a beautiful space with inspiring quotes on the walls and delicious coffee; I was there representing Plymouth Social Enterprise Network to meet with an inspiring group of economic catalysts: Jay Tompt and Chris Gunson from Local Spark Torbay (Torbay Social Enterprise Network) along with Daphne van Run from ESSENCE of Exeter (Exeter Social Enterprise Network). Our goal: to design the sketch of a Devon-wide event that would provide inspiration, connection and action toward the next economy. With 2019 ‘the year the world woke up to climate change’ looming in our minds, we worked on the design of a day that would bring people together across sectors to work on the economic transition that we know needs to take place. Towards a more socially and ecologically resilient economy.
We outlined the following objectives:
Showcase the innovation happening within the social economy to adequately respond to the vulnerability of our society being highlighted in the face of climate emergency
Helping individuals and businesses to see the practical pathways that they can take
Weave together different threads of work across the county/region
Build our capacity as networks of the social economy to provide expertise to other sectors around preparing for the climate emergency
The foundations felt solid and we began to prepare the details. We were ready to meet again in March to start filling out all the blanks. Of course, what we didn’t know was that a public health pandemic, an economic crisis and social uprising was looming around the corner.
Adapting to Covid-19
Among the deep sadness and grief of now over 40,000 deaths in the UK alone related to COVID-19 since that time, the COVID-19 pandemic has – in so many ways – shifted so much of the way that we perceive our societies, our homelives and our work. As we get face to face with the deep inequalities at the core of our social fabric and face the possibility of the largest recession in 300 years, it is also forcing a shift in how we envisage the role of business in our economy.
COVID-19 has highlighted the huge role played by care workers in our societies. That people can find strength from the deepest places. The power of a work-life balance. The importance of being able to rely on our local circles. The importance of connection. That we can rise together in the face of challenge – that we are willing to help each other. That we can live with less. That the environment thrives when we give it the space. That the global economy is fragile. That there is a huge difference between businesses that aim to create value and those that aim to extract it. And so much more.
Among the tragedy there is much hope, including a hope that we can #BuildBackBetter, regenerating our economy in a way that puts the limits of the planet and the needs of people across society at the heart of its design. A socially and ecologically resilient economy.
By the end of April, Daphne, myself, Chris and Jay met back up, this time over a Zoom call that we’d all become familiar with. What of our planned event? We reflected on the original objectives and they felt even more pressing, even more possible and even more necessary. So we agreed: keep the date planned for July, make it even bigger, and throw our energy into making this Devon-wide summit as bold and practical and real as we could.
And Now…
After weekly meetings and many hours, we are delighted to bring to you the REGENERATE DEVON Virtual Summit, 7-9 July. Three days of visionaries, panels, networking and co-creation sessions to build a socially and ecologically resilient economy. 15 session, 25 speakers and 10+ hours of discussion, co-creation and Open Space.
Day 1 is about becoming acquainted and Dreaming Big, where participants open their minds, share visions and ideas and set the scene for what’s possible. Day 2 is all about ‘the practice’. We’ll be hearing from enterprises and entrepreneurs about inspiring and cutting-edge practice that they have been developing and learning from each other about what we have done and what is possible. Day 3 brings the process around to joint action and co-creation and involves everyone in the question ‘So, how do we Regenerate Devon together?’.
We’re very excited to be bringing inspirational people from across Devon and beyond into this conversation. From our opening panel with the visionaries of our region Manda Brookman, Tony Greenham and Amanda Kilroy, to a speech and Q&A by Rob Shorter and Kate Raworth from the Doughnut Economics Action Lab, to case studies from across Devon showcasing inspirational practice, including the Reconomy Centre, Riverford Organic, Plymouth CityBus, Co-Lab, South West Mutual, Plymouth Energy Community, Nudge Community Builders and many many more.
We invite you to help to join us and help to shape the conversation – network with ‘Regenerators’ across Devon, share your practice, share your ideas, co-create with peers, host or join a session during the Open Space, and take part in our ‘After Hours’ events to socialise and connect.
Because if not now –when it is so obviously necessary – then when will we collectively start to make the bold shifts that are needed to build our economy in Devon in service to the planet and society? We cannot influence everybody’s actions, but we can at least influence our own.
What happened to George Floyd in America has shocked and appalled us. And this keeps happening. We stand beside the Black Lives Matter movement and for racial equality. However, we know that words are not enough.
Racism, persecution and prejudice is a systemic issue across the world, including here in Plymouth. The way we do business in our city and in the country is deeply tied to racism and inequality. Modern capitalism and much of our wealth as a nation was built on colonial exploitation and slavery. Plymouth has its own profoundly disturbing relationship with the slave trade.
If we are to tackle racism we need to change how we do business. We need to tackle the inequities and racist underpinnings of mainstream economy. We need to embrace new practices and business models that offer solutions to the injustice of racism. Social enterprises are businesses set up to reduce inequalities, this must include racial inequalities.
If we want to achieve this, we must challenge the prejudices and inequalities within the social enterprise world. We need more diversity in the social enterprise movement in Plymouth. Our work is dominated by white culture and white privilege.PSEN is proud to support the social enterprise community in our city. We need to learn and understand. We believe that socially responsible businesses, including social enterprises, co-operatives and community businesses have a responsibility to act and significantly step up our commitment to addressing racism. We will encourage and support PSEN member organisations to reflect and act and we will engage with local government, businesses and the voluntary and community sector and to help to create a more equal society.
On 28th March 2020 Jay Tompt led us through a great zoom workshop on Facilitating Great Online Meetings, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Trying to work out how to face our face-to-face meetings online filled me with anxiety. How do you make sure there isn’t a room of people stuck listening to one person speak? How to enable interaction between participants? Sense the energy in the room? Get a feeling for needs etc when you can’t as easily read faces?
I got loads of questions answered. Here were some of my key takeaways:
PREPARATION
You can design the flow of an online meeting basically the same as a face to face meeting. Introductions, break-out groups, presentations, feedback, ideas sharing, everything is possible and online does not limit this!
Set up: great to have more than 1 person involved. E.g. One to facilitate the conversation and one to do the technical side – set up break-outs rooms, execute polls, configure shared docs etc, timekeeping, keep an eye on energy. Much like you would at a normal event.
Do your prep before a zoom meeting to ensure that you have the right settings, e.g.:
Enable break-out groups
Set participants as mute on entry
If you enable waiting rooms you can put a whiteboard or a jamboard there to help people to get involved before starting, much like the pre-event start networking
Before hosting a meeting, get your audio/video set up. Lighting in front and not behind you. Set up the laptop so it’s at a good angle for your face (e.g. not pointed up at your chin). Ensure the microphone works well and the lighting is clear.
Set up your documents, polls, links to share in chat, and settings in advance so that it’s all ready to go (see tools below!)
COOL TOOLS
In the chat people can post to the whole group or to individual people which enables conversation without interrupting the main flow. Super helpful to enable interaction.
In the ‘participants’ view there are buttons to raise your hand, thumbs up and thumbs down, clap, click yes and no, show that you are taking a break, and other functions during the meeting that are great ways to facilitate interaction
Setting up a shared GDoc and enabling editing to people with the link, and then posting the link in the chat so that everyone can work on this document together (for whatever purpose – e.g. a shared agenda/ meeting minutes / recording notes from breakout sessions)
The whiteboard option in zoom is a great way to collaborate on a blank screen as if it were a flipchart or a whiteboard in a meeting. Click on annotate to add notes etc.
Google’s Jamboard is also a way to do this, and people can add images, post-its etc to the shared screen, which is great (see an image of our shared jamboard that we used to experiment during the session below!). Just share the link in the chat and off you go.
Polls – you can set up polls for the meeting in advance and then launch them at any point (and share the results to the participants) without interrupting the flow of the session, which is great! Really good for capturing feedback at the end of a session without much disruption.
Break-Out Rooms. These are awesome. Separates the group into small groups that have breakout conversations and then return to the group together. You can select the number of rooms and length of time for the room. Participants can then be allocated automatically (let’s zoom split up the group evenly across rooms) or manually. The Host can join any room, broadcast messages to the room and can move people around rooms.
DURING THE MEETING
Make it as natural and as human as possible. Plan the structure much as you would a normal meeting/event. Which may include:
Orientate people on key features before getting going. Basically housekeeping without the fire escapes, e.g. show how to:
Mute yourself when not talking
Click on participants to see the buttons to raise your hand, thumbs up and thumbs down, clap, click yes and no, show that you are taking a break, and other functions during the meeting
Click on chat function – here you can send messages to the group and individuals throughout
Gallery vs speaker view allows you to see the group in different ways
Set any ground-rules like: please enable your camera if you can, so that this feels human. Please don’t multitask during the meeting so that we all have our shared attention.
Let people know when breaks will be (and make them frequent)! This apparently is quite important to minimise agitation during the meeting. Add in some yoga or stretches if it’s that kind of vibe.
Check-Ins. You can, e.g. ask people one by one to unmute, introduce themselves and then nominate the next person and mute themselves again.
Warm-ups and energisers. Loads of ideas for these online. E.g. This blog seems to have some good links and ideas.
Giving host control to others. Throughout the meeting you can hand over the ability to host or co-host the meeting to other participants by going to the participants window, hover over their name, click more and then ‘Make Host’ or ‘Make Co-Host’. They can then share their screen to do a presentation or use the other key functions.
Share info at the end of the meeting. If you have recorded the meeting (enable via the zoom settings) then this can be shared. You can also save the chat at the end and circulate, and you can download jamboards and other shared working documents.
Polls are great to gather some feedback at the end. For qualitative feedback you could – for example – ask a question like ‘what was the best thing you learned from this?’ Ask everyone to put their feedback in the chat box but not press chat until everyone is ready and then do it the same time. Creates a buzz in the chat and adds a bit of fun.
Sensational, dramatic, beautiful. Three words to describe England’s fantastic cricket World Cup win yesterday. Congratulations to England and fair play/commiserations to New Zealand. Sport can bring people together and what a performance under incredible pressure from such a diverse group of players.
Also, these three words could define Plymouth’s social enterprise scene: Sensational in its scale; dramatic in its impact and beautiful in its ability to inspire.
I spoke at a conference in Santander, Spain last week on these themes: about how social enterprise has developed in Plymouth, how we became the UKs first Social Enterprise City and what this has meant for the city.
I showcased the work of many of PSEN’s members and talked about our contribution to the local economic, social and environmental priorities. I explained how the city is developing a cooperative strategy and our work around building a fairer, more inclusive economy through business in the city.
There was time for a trip to a fantastic local social enterprise called the Amica Association which runs a recycling and a laundry social enterprise. Why can’t these things be done in Plymouth? Amica works with people with learning disabilities and the work they do to value everyone’s differences and skills really shone through.
Some of the themes emerging from the conference I think we should look at in Plymouth were:
The need to continually engage consumers around the fundamental idea of what social enterprise – in all its forms – is and why it is important
The need to ‘change mindsets through story telling’ – a quote from Chris Blues of the Skoll Foundation
To embed the UN Sustainable Development Goals more strategically and solidly in all our work
Gathering good data on the social enterprise and cooperative economy to inform and influence policy making at local, regional, national and international levels.
I came away from the conference with a strong feeling of camaraderie and hope: work to promote social enterprise, coops and community business goes on all over the world and sometimes knowing that makes it feel less like we are working in a tiny bubble in south west of the UK but that we are part of wider, global movement.
The recent PSEN AGM highlighted how many brilliant projects are going on in the city, and how much good news there is to share.
One way to get people to pay attention to the things you’re doing is through Public Relations. Despite having worked in PR for the best part of a decade, it’s still tricky to define exactly what I and my colleagues do.
Public Relations is about reputation – the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.
Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.
From this description, it’s easy to see why PR is so key to social enterprises – there are so many people (or publics) you need to keep happy: customers, employees, beneficiaries, charities, funders, Councillors, media…. The list goes on.
Relationships Matter
There is a common thread though – building a relationship. While advertising can be seen as essentially shouting at people to buy your product, use your service or otherwise act in the way you want them to, PR is about building a relationship with the people you want to engage with.
Why is this more effective? Think back to a time when you’ve asked people for their opinion. It could be posting on social media, looking at online reviews, or when you were picking out that lovely new pair of shoes in the shop. What did you pay the most attention to? The advert you saw about the product? Or was it a more personal experience – the opinions of people in your peer group, the trusted review or the expert staff in the shop? I suspect it was the latter.
Who do you trust?
PR helps your organisation build that kind of relationship with the people you engage with. Whether it’s through face to face conversations, blog posts, or a piece in the paper, you become trusted as the expert in your field who can be relied on for accurate information and advice, not just a product. This leads to longer-term relationships with people, who then become your organisation’s advocates – so when their friends and family ask for their opinion, you’re at the front of their mind.
If you’re looking for a PR practitioner on a permanent or freelance basis, look for someone on the CIPR’s Public Relations Register (where you’ll find me!). The CIPR have also put together a series of guides to help you recruit or invite pitches from your perfect PR match.
We will be hosting our AGM on the 21st May from 2-4pm. With interesting guest speakers, updates on our plans for the coming year and the opportunity to help us elect our new board it’s set to be a great event. You can book your place via this link.
We’ll be uploading all nominations on this page for public scrutiny in the week previous to the event. Please do check back in. If you’re interested in joining PSEN as a board member you can download the form here – Nomination form for PSEN Executive Committee 2019
Nomination List
Gareth Hart – Iridescent Ideas CIC
Ed Whitelaw – Real Ideas Organisation
Michelle Virgo – School for Social Entrepreneurs Dartington
This event saw the launch of a government consultation on Social Value in procurement. Oliver Dowden, Minister for Implementation, described how government spending could create diverse and safer supply chains, improve inclusion and wellbeing, reduce environmental impact and encourage development of employees. There was a timely BBC news story about it too.
These are warm words but the devil is in the detail and this is just a consultation. We urge you to put in your own response and PSEN will lead a collective reply to this as it seems crucially important and, potentially, a great opportunity for members that have business with government. It also sets the tone for a wider range of public sector organizations to follow. Here in Plymouth our local council has done some ground-breaking work on social value and we hope this can be extended across the public sector in the city. Other themes from the event were:
Universities increasingly seeing themselves as ‘in service of society’ and well-placed as large anchor organizations to champion social value and procure with purpose
How the local industrial strategies need to support re-structuring the economy to make it fairer. This is another consultation we urge you to get behind. There is an event on the local industrial strategy on 25th March you should attend if you can. Book here.
On Friday we represented Plymouth – as the UK’s first Social Enterprise City – at the national Social Enterprise Places conference. This brought together some of the 30 counties, cities, villages, towns and zones that are demonstrating social enterprise at its best. The event was sponsored by NatWest and facilitated by SEUK. Key learning from the event:
Need for the places to come together more strategically with SEUK in response to local economic policy making and sharing intelligence
Need to raise public awareness of the social enterprise places movement
Increasing market opportunities for social enterprise in the places through Corporate Buy Social and other campaigns
Opportunities through NatWest on investment and local business support which we will share separately
SEUK are launching some new videos with celebrity patrons in partnership with the Co-op. Watch out for these soon.
To stay up to date with where we are on your behalf please do sign up to the newsletter and follow us on Twitter.
PSEN Director Annette Dhami attended the POP+ Conference earlier in the year and talked about how PSEN founders came together to launch the network, and what this action has gone on to create.
It went back 8 years.
Michelle Virgo from Dartington School for Social Entrepreneurs, Dave Kilroy from Social Enterprise Outcomes, Ed Whitelaw from Real Ideas Organisation and Gareth Hart from Iridescent Ideas CIC sat around a kitchen table on a windy autumn afternoon over coffee. One year before, a research study had been done to see whether Plymouth’s growing social enterprise sector would benefit from a network that could support it. The study found that it could. In 2010 an event was run to discuss getting one started, but representation from the social enterprise community itself was low, and the ball didn’t start rolling. Without Plymouth social enterprises taking the lead, another organization from Exeter was awarded a pot of funding to try to get it going, but – not being based in Plymouth – traction didn’t take, and when their contract ended so did the activities.
Over coffee, Michelle, Gareth, Dave and Ed had a question to discuss: did they, representing their various social enterprises, feel that they could get a Social Enterprise Network for Plymouth going? And where on earth would they start?
They knew that there were things on their side: they were all passionate about social enterprise and the type of inclusive and sustainable economy that it could help to build in Plymouth. They were all committed and willing to chip in. They represented social enterprises in Plymouth, so who better to do it? They decided to try.
Plymouth Social Enterprise Network was formally constituted in May 2011 and began its work by arranging regular meetings of 10-20 people. Learning quickly, a Board of Directors was soon set up to change the focus of these meeting from ‘how do we run a network’ (now done by the smaller voluntary board) to ‘these are the great things are happening in Plymouth and let’s celebrate them’ (with growing participants to do so). Before long, they secured funding to run a large conference – now run as the annual Social Enterprise Festival – and launched the first directory of social enterprises in Plymouth. They conducted research into the state of social enterprise in Plymouth, and started to reveal information about how important the sector was becoming. As this was being published, Plymouth University announced itself as a social enterprise, adding even more weight to the sector. £500 million income and 6,000 jobs were identified from the sector in Plymouth, securing coverage from national press.
They ran an event asking: ‘Social Enterprise City: What, Why and How?’, wondering what it would mean to be a city that champions social enterprise approaches. National speakers became to attend events, recognising the buzz in Plymouth. They began to organise bigger conferences, including the next social enterprise festival, this time a week long.
In 2013 Social Enterprise UK launched their Social Enterprise Places badge, looking for hotspots of activity in the country where social enterprise was thriving. With all the work done in previous years, PSEN was able to quickly evidence the case for Plymouth and over a few days worked to pull together a bid. It was successful, and in September 2013 Plymouth was announced – along with Bristol – as the first Social Enterprise City in the UK. Plymouth was put on the national map as a go-to place for social enterprise, and international universities, major funders and large organisations started to travel to Plymouth to find out more.
In the last five years PSEN has leveraged this opportunity to develop the support for Plymouth’s social enterprises further. It launched a paid membership model, to ensure that trading income was at the heart of its work and that the network would be financially accountable to social enterprises in the city. PSEN Board members began to be invited to influence governmental policy, sitting on the Plymouth Growth Board and the Plymouth Inclusive Growth Flagship; at the Local Enterprise Partnership level; and working with Social Enterprise UK, national government and other powerful players to champion social enterprise as a way to create a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
Between 2013-2015 PSEN ran even bigger social enterprise festivals, with – for example – over 2,000 people attending over the course of two weeks.
By lobbying for support and raising awareness increasing funding was secured to support social enterprises in Plymouth. Power to Change, the Seedbed Incubator Programme, Esmee Fairbairn, The Rank Foundation and Plymouth City Council are among the supporters that have funnelled over £6 million of finance and support into social enterprise support as a result.
With support for social enterprise growing, social enterprise is increasing its contribution and influence in the Plymouth economy. Progress has been notable, but there is more work to do. We want to see an economy with social businesses not at its periphery but at its core. Whilst we continue to be run by passionate and committed people representing a range of social enterprises in Plymouth, we will continue to try.
Come join us for the 2018 Social Enterprise Festival to learn more about the exciting things happening in social enterprise in Plymouth and ways to be involve.
Plymouth is the national flagship city for compassion but what does this mean for our social enterprises. Tam Fowles, Director of Hope in the Heart CIC explains about how compassion can help your business thrive and more…
We need to talk about compassion. This is a conversation that needs to take place in many contexts. We also need to talk about why people in business don’t talk more about compassion. Too often I have heard “there’s no place for compassion in business”, and this belief is reflected in the practices and policies of many corporations. But social enterprises are often born of compassion and there is much to be learned from this source of inspiration that could positively affect all businesses, and significantly increase their productivity.
What is compassion? Neuroscientist Dr James Doty, of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE), describes it as “the recognition of the suffering of another with a motivational desire to alleviate that suffering”. Global character education programme, the Virtues Project, says “Compassion is deep empathy for another who is suffering or living with misfortune…and a strong desire to ease their distress.” Many social enterprises are founded with the express purpose of alleviating suffering and easing distress. An article from the Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Marketing states that “a commitment to helping others … encourages individual entrepreneurs to devote more time and energy to creative and flexible thinking than if they were making decisions to benefit only themselves” and that “compassion…acts as a prosocial motivator of cognitive and emotional processes that are preconditions for undertaking social entrepreneurship”
There is a link between the business world and the research world, suggests Emma Sappala, Associate Director at CCARE, as “research on compassion is setting a new tone for the workplace and management culture.”
Having worked with numerous groups on the subject of compassion, I have seen first-hand the change that can take place when individuals are encouraged to focus on compassion. Noticing incidents of compassionate action taking place in their various environments, and looking for opportunities to make the compassionate choice in every situation can change a person’s perspective on the world, replacing the cynicism born of negative media bombardment and general daily stress with a sense of hope, potential and achievement. When this happens throughout an organisation, the positive change is magnified and the culture can be transformed.
When compassion is a conscious aim, with appropriate boundaries and policies in place, leaders, employees and service-users find a shared focus which can provide a sense of unity, purpose and belonging. Respect and mutual consideration are high, and a general feeling of wellbeing is likely to permeate the business. Modelling compassion within the local community can create a ripple-effect, as others are attracted by the positive feelings and outcomes generated by the compassionate business. Employee health is increased and staff are likely to stay in their role longer. Customer service is improved with a corresponding positive effect on production.
Since its inception in 2008, Charter for Compassion International has engaged hundreds of businesses on many continents, in its business sector and across 11 other sectors.
There are opportunities for businesses in Plymouth to join the global compassion movement, increasing their focus on compassionate action and reaping the considerable benefits while helping to build a critical mass of compassionate businesses intent on changing the culture of business in their communities. Plymouth was registered as a Compassionate City with Charter for Compassion International in January 2017, and has become the flagship city for compassion in the UK, with several projects being piloted that will contribute towards a “Plymouth Compassionate City Model” for other UK communities to follow. Hope in the Heart CIC is currently leading the Compassionate Plymouth City Initiative, whose steering group includes representatives from The Zebra Collective, Lifeplay Learning and St Luke’s Hospice (the latter has also introduced a separate end-of-life focused Compassionate City Charter to Plymouth).
Any business, organisation, school, group or institution can become a partner of CCI and Compassionate Plymouth, at no cost and with many benefits. These include visibility on the CCI website and the opportunity to network and share resources with other compassionate businesses in many locations, as well as a chance to play an active role in the development of Compassionate Plymouth as a model community for the UK. Several local social enterprises and others have already registered. Hope in the Heart has funding from the Esme Fairbairn Foundation, via POP+, to deliver a number of half-day workshops introducing CCI and CP to representatives of organisations interested in knowing more or becoming partners, with free or subsidised consultation also available if required. Please contact tam@hopeintheheart.org if you would like to know more, or attend or host a workshop
We need to talk about how compassion in Plymouth businesses can contribute to radical social change and model a more proactive way of working for the benefit of all. If you would like to be part of that conversation, please get in touch!
Tam Martin Fowles
Founding Director Hope in the Heart CIC
www.hopeintheheart.org
UK Ambassador Charter for Compassion International
Last week we were please to be invited to join The ‘Social and Creative City Economy of the Future Roundtable’ discussion facilitated by Social Enterprise UK and the British Council.
As the first Social Enterprise City in the UK we understandably have a lot of thoughts and expectations around the future of a city and what it should look like. Developing ideas around those concepts is core to our decision making and the development of the network. We know that Plymouth is making huge leaps and doing incredible work, we spend a lot of time travelling around events and discussions just like this talking about Plymouth’s example. We go armed with statistics, data, and plenty of passion, ready to explain what we do to anyone who will listen. So when we introduce ourselves and find that we are instantly greeted by national representatives and vision makers from industry with not only recognition, but praise and excitement… we know that we are in the right room.
The event was hosted and facilitated by The British Counciland Social Enterprise UK. The primary task being to explore a collective vision for the UK’s urban social and creative economies in 20 years time. Passionate advocates of social change and participants from numerous socially enterprising organisations from across the country filled the tables and workshop spaces. It was an inspiring place to be.
This was all set in the context of the fact that cities generate 80% of Global GDP, but are facing huge challenges around meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). If you’re not familiar with the SDG’s, They are the blueprint laid out by the United Nations to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate, environmental degradation, prosperity, and peace and justice. They are a powerful and creative vision of how society should function by 2030. You can read more about them here. The outputs of this round table event will help to inform the Global Parliament of Mayors Annual Summit which is taking part in Bristol in October.
One of the points that came from discussions and stuck with us was The issue of the creative industries being easier to conceptualise and communicate than social enterprise and the social economy. There was a recognition of the challenges this can present when trying to persuade Local Authorities to procure more goods and services from social enterprises. This lack of comprehension of social enterprise is something that we’ll be addressing at events in the Social Enterprise City Festival in November, if you have thoughts or want to hold an event to look at that in your sector then get in touch.
We note with interest the demise of payday lender, Wonga which has gone into administration. It would seem that the fines imposed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for unfair debt collection practices, orders to repay over £35M to customers as a result of “unfair practices”, introduction of caps on administration charges and criticism over sky-high interest rates in excess of 4,000 per cent have finally taken their toll. They even suffered a data breach in 2017 and warned that personal data of up to 245,000 customers could have been compromised, incurring the wrath of the information Commissioners Office (ICO).
So what are the alternatives? Certainly people looking for loans should look carefully at the terms of the loan to make sure that the administration charges and interest rates are not exorbitant as is the case with many payday lenders. They should also consider whether these short-term loans are the answer to their financial problems. Taking out a loan for, say, £500 for a sudden unexpected expense like a car repair to be repaid when the next salary or benefit payment at the end of the month comes in means that there is £500 less to spend next month. And the temptation is to take out another loan for £500 plus the administration charges and interest that were incurred with the previous loan. This leads to an ever increasing debt spiral which is very difficult to get out of.
So what is our advice? Take out a longer term loan. Spread the repayments over several months, that way you don’t have to pay back all the money borrowed with your next salary or benefit payment. Look at ethical borrowers like Credit Unions – they are restricted by law to an absolute maximum interest rate on loans of 3% per month, just over 42% APR – the chances are that the interest rate charges will be even lower. There are no administration charges and loans can be paid back earlier with no penalty. For the full picture, why not visit our web site at www.cpcu.co.uk.
Steve Lademann
City of Plymouth Credit Union
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