Two weeks ago, we attended a ceremony at the Ernst & Young buildings, overlooking Tower Bridge. We were there to accept our Future 100 Award, making Open Society one of the top 100 social enterprises in the Uk, in the eyes of the organisers – Striding Out.
The organisations present spanned education and healthcare, sports outreach and environmentally friendly media. Regions across the Uk were well represented – what each social enterprise present had in common was a positive social impact combined with a sustainable and viable business model – this was the judging criteria. The fact that Ernst & Young considers our business model viable is very encouraging, and testament to several recycling bins full of previous versions.
The first version over 2 years ago was titled ‘Broedplattz’ and was carried from place to place in a battered suitcase on the back of an old motorbike. The second, entitled ‘The Union’, was written from the depths of a community warehouse in Brooklyn, situated above the head quarters of a New York motorcycle gang. You get the picture. Several versions, later the fact that one of Ernst & Young’s directors gave it the thumbs up is either a glowing testimony to our perseverance and development, or a terrifying example of how and why our economy now sits in the doldrums. We’re going with the former.
The work of Ernst & Young in the area of social enterprise is exemplary, and hopefully will spread across the financial sector. The danger with CSR budgets and reporting is that too often companies tend to want short-term, easily tangible case studies – sponsoring disadvantaged young people to make a skateboarding video or record a rap album, for example. Working with Striding Out, Ernst & Young are investing in the people who are setting up organisations dedicated to helping hundreds of young people, hundreds of the elderly, people who can make genuine contributions to the future of their local communities. Without this help and financial support, the social enterprise sector will go the same way as ‘The big society’.
As nice as awards are, what I feel the social enterprise sector needs more than anything, is money. Since starting Open Society, we have not been able to secure any funding, from a variety of sources. The social need for an organisation that helps young people develop skills and find work is greater than ever, and we have been fortunate to work with great organisations like 3Space and Striding Out who offer free help and training to social enterprises. But, with funding our growth and social impact could have been far greater. To expect young people to be able to forge their own sector that helps people and makes it’s own money is an impossible idea – 95% of socent startups are going to require funding, but where are they going to get it?
There is plenty of advice out there, plenty of talent and plenty of skills training. What the sector needs is investment. Sadly the ‘Big Society Bank’ – promising hundreds of millions to the socent sector siphoned from dormant back accounts – was bled dry by the second phase of the recession, and the government hasn’t yet come up with a alternative. Startup Britan, which just pulls together lots of things that were already widely available online, does not count.
So it falls to companies like Ernst & Young, organisations like Striding Out and the individuals that filled the hall overlooking the river two weeks ago to lead for now. The recognition those people received will provide a huge confidence boost, but it must be followed with funding and support – loans, tax incentives, even benefits – for those who are taking the time, effort and financial risk to start something in the social enterprise sector. Without that, all the great work people have done in this area over the last 10 years will exist without the legacy it deserves.
2. EVENT – Transmedia meetup – Monday 8th August aka: tonight! 
With so much bad news recently, I am pleased to write today about an area in which progress is being made. It’s not political, nor financial, but behavioral – people finding solutions to the problems they face. The progress I am writing about today is the increasing availability of access to free office space for start-up companies.
Young people today think about ‘work’ differently to previous generations. Now we are said to want jobs that define us, that represent who we are and allow us to express ourselves. In France, young people see things differently: the French work from 9-5 and see it as a trade – they are trading their time for some money – and after work, they live their lives and express themselves. They see themselves as people for what they do outside of work, not at work. Could it be our reverse attitude that explains both high graduate unemployment and a dissatisfaction voiced by many industries that the young people emerging from education aren’t well suited to the work place? Sacre bleu.
Perhaps the most famous legislation of the Coalition to date has been to raise tuition fees for students. There are several arguments that state students only payback once they are earning a certain amount and that it’s only fair that young people should pay for degrees that are going to benefit them throughout life. Not unreasonable on paper, but the truth is that the politicians making this policy decision did not have to pay for their university educations – nor did any other members of their generation. At the same time, other areas of government spending targeted at different demographic groups (eg Winter Fuel Allowance for the elderly) remain untouched – it is strange that the young have to carry the burden of public spending cuts before they’ve had a chance to benefit from the boom times their parents enjoyed. Furthermore, these young people will be affected by these cuts throughout their adult lives in various forms – they will have to ‘pay now’ and ‘pay later’. Fair?
This event was particularly interesting because within the audience there was a wide age-range – perhaps unusual for a ‘Jilted Gen’ event. Several older audience members fairly noted that this generation has it easy, and that their own generation was badly afflicted by recessions, strikes and even wars. Throughout the debate it continuously emerged that it is the responsibility of government to ensure the needs of each generation are met, and to refrain from targeting the young simply because they are not seen as a key voting demographic or major source of public income. Speaking out, becoming politically active and holding the government to account was the lasting message of the evening, regardless of how young or old you are.
Anyone who’s been to the Open Society office will know 3space, the charity start-up that provides free commercial space for the third sector – used as everything from permanent offices to pop-up shops, galleries and workshop spaces all over the UK. We are huge fans of their vision and commitment to making things happen for social enterprises like ourselves, so we thought we’d share the good news – they’re hiring an intern, with a solid job opportunity at the end of it.
